Jules Rogers
Humans have been launching rockets to space for nearly 80 years, yet it feels as though we’ve only hit the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s possible. These upcoming rockets provide a promising glimpse of what we can expect during the next era of spaceflight.
After completing a static fire test of Starship earlier this month, SpaceX has nowhere else to go but up. A company official says it’s now in a position to perform the first orbital flight test of its much-anticipated megarocket, pending a launch license.
It didn’t last for very long, but the first full-scale static fire test of SpaceX’s Starship rocket appears to have been a success, despite the fact that two of the booster’s 33 Raptor engines did not participate in the demonstration.
SpaceX performed the first full-fledged static fire test of its upcoming Starship megarocket on Thursday, but not every Raptor engine took part in the important exercise.
The maiden voyage of India’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle didn’t go as planned in 2022, but the country’s space agency is ready for a re-attempt, with the rocket slated to blast off on Thursday. Meanwhile, SpaceX is hoping to launch a communications satellite on Monday.
SpaceX continues to launch its Falcon 9 rocket at a frenetic pace, as the calendar flips over to February this week. Excitingly, the company could perform its first full static fire test of the enormous Starship, in which all 33 Raptor engines will simultaneously roar to life.
On Monday, SpaceX completed its first attempt to load a fully stacked Starship rocket with propellants, and it did so with surprisingly little fanfare.