SpaceX continues to prep its most current Starship model for a landmark orbital test flight.The Starship SN20 vehicle sparked all 6 of its Raptor engines in a quick “fixed fire” test today (Nov. 12) at Starbase, SpaceXs facility near the South Texas village of Boca Chica.” Good fixed fire with all six engines!” SpaceX creator and CEO Elon Musk tweeted shortly after the test, which took location at 1:13 p.m. EST (1813 GMT; 12:13 p.m. local Texas time) and was webcast by NASASpaceflight.comand SPadre.com.Photos: SpaceX lifts big Super Heavy rocket onto launch standSpaceXs Starship SN20 model carries out a six-engine static fire test in South Texas on Nov. 12, 2021, in this screenshot from a video captured by SPadre.com. (Image credit: Spadre.com) SpaceX is establishing Starship to take individuals and freight the moon, Mars and other far-off destinations. The system includes 2 totally reusable components: a huge first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) spacecraft referred to as Starship.SpaceX has launched Starship prototypes previously, sending out a handful of three-engine lorries to an optimum altitude of about 6 miles (10 kilometers). However SN20 will make a much larger leap: Its being groomed to introduce atop a Super Heavy on the first-ever Starship orbital test flight, which SpaceX intends to release in the coming weeks or months.The timing of that liftoff is uncertain, partially since the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is still carrying out an ecological evaluation of the Starbase orbital launch website. The FAA has actually submitted a draft evaluation and collected public talk about the file, but the final report has not yet been released.Todays test wasnt the first fixed fire– a trial in which rocket engines are quickly engaged while the vehicle remains anchored to the ground– for SN20. SpaceX carried out back-to-back fixed fires with the car on Oct. 21, but SN20 had simply 2 Raptors installed at that point. Todays test involved the flight setup of 6 engines– three basic “sea level” Raptors and 3 enhanced to carry out in the vacuum of space.Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; highlighted by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook..
