Enlarge / SN8 very nearly made a safe landing in South Texas in December. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann)
It’s finally time to find out whether Starship prototype Serial No. 9 will become SN Fine or SN Nein.
After a series of static fire tests on its latest Starship prototype, SpaceX appears set to launch the full-scale vehicle as early as Monday afternoon from its rocket facility in South Texas. The nominal plan is for the prototype to ascend to an altitude as high as 12.5km, perform a “belly flop” maneuver to simulate bleeding off energy during a return through Earth’s atmosphere, reorient itself, and land near the launch pad.
Only a little more than six weeks have passed since SpaceX conducted a similar test of the SN8 vehicle in South Texas. That flight test went splendidly up until near the end of its flight. However, due to a pressure failure in a fuel tank at the top of the vehicle, the vehicle’s Raptor engines were deprived of the fuel needed to make a soft landing.
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