SpaceX continues to prepare the Starship spacecraft for the first orbital flight in its history.
What is known
This week SpaceX held regularstatic fire test by firing one of six Raptor engines. The prototype spacecraft is called Ship 24. In 2023, it will make its first orbital flight.
Ship 24 completes a single-engine static fire test at Starbase in Texas pic.twitter.com/gF9beLcarX
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 15, 2022
Starship is a 50 meters high ship thatin a few years will land humans on Mars for the first time. But for now, he is preparing for the Artemis III lunar mission, which is scheduled for 2025. As part of the third flight under the Artemis program, Elon Musk's company will take astronauts to the surface of the moon. This will be the first landing since 1972.
Super rocket will be used to launchheavy. It has 33 Raptor engines. SpaceX is conducting static fire tests on a prototype called Booster 7. In mid-November, for example, 14 engines were fired simultaneously. So far, this is a record.