SpaceX expects to conduct Starship prototype rocket test flight this week

Rocket and spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX has revealed that the next Starship prototype rocket test flight will not be conducted earlier than 2 December.

The company founder Elon Musk tweeted: “Just a static fire tomorrow. Flight no earlier than Wednesday.”

With Starship prototype Serial Number 8 (SN8), the company is attempting to reach a 50,000ft altitude during the test flight.

In August and September, the company successfully completed flights exceeding 500ft with the prototype’s predecessors SN6 and SN5.

Made of stainless steel, the Starship SN8 represents the first versions of the rocket that were revealed last year.

Last week, Musk revealed that SN8′s flight plans ‘to test three-engine ascent, body flaps, transition from main to header tanks and landing flip’.

Starship is designed to carry in excess of 100mt to Earth orbit at a time on missions to the Moon and Mars.

In June, SpaceX’s Starship prototype exploded during test-firing at its private launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, US.

Last month, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revealed that it is in the early stages of starting an environmental review for the proposed SpaceX operations at a launch site in Texas.

SpaceX also launched the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich mission from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California later last month.