Starship SN6 is now into the business end of its initial test campaign, with a Static Fire test with her Raptor (SN29) engine conducted on Sunday, ahead of a hop test at the end of the week.<\/p>\n
While SN6 is out at the launch site, numerous Starships are being worked on at the Production Facility, with SN5 undergoing post-hop processing, SN7.1 \u2013 a test tank \u2013 being prepared for an over-pressure test, along with SN8 stacking in the Mid Bay and SN9\u2019s first sections also appearing out in the open.<\/p>\n
SN5: <\/p>\n
It was only a couple of weeks ago that Starship SN5 conducted a successful 150-meter hop. Under the power of Raptor SN27, this was the third time a Raptor had flown, following the 20 and 150 meters hops of Starhopper almost one year ago.<\/p>\n
Despite the teething issues with the earlier Starship prototypes \u2013 resulting in a few \u201cpops\u201d rather than hops \u2013 the value of the subsequent data points gained from those failures paved the way for the ultimate success enjoyed by SN5, in turn shining a torch for future Starships to evolve the test campaign.<\/p>\n
Starship SN5 is expected to hop again, as SpaceX utilizes both SN5 and near-twin SN6 to refine their test hop and processing techniques. For the interim, SN5 is housed inside the Mid Bay, after swapping places with SN6.<\/p>\n
SN6: <\/p>\n
Just a week after taking a road trip to the launch site, SN6 has successfully passed all the relevant milestones towards firing up Raptor SN29.<\/p>\n
Those milestones included integration on to the launch mount, a fueling test with Liquid Nitrogen \u2013 both at room and cryogenic temperatures \u2013 before Raptor SN29, fresh from its testing at SpaceX\u2019s McGregor test site, was installed into the aft bay of the vehicle.<\/p>\n
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