SpaceX To Complete The First Tethered Jump For Its Starship Prototype

In the evening of April 03, Elon Musk posted a tweet saying that his space transportation services company, SpaceX, just successfully conducted its first tethered jump for the prototype of Starship called Starhopper or Starship Hopper.

Via the Starhopper, SpaceX wanted to test whether the ship could land as expected or not. In addition, it indicates what happens when its rocket engine is fired for the first time. The first firing took place at the launch site of Boca Chica.

The hops remind us of the previous tests the company has conducted while developing and using the commercial models of the Falcon 9 rocket. Both the F9R Dev and the Grasshopper took important roles in developing SpaceX’s rockets. That’s similar to the importance of the initial launches towards the Starship in the outer space.

The Starhopper is the small version of the final Starship which will soon come out in the upcoming time. As expected by the company, the cargo flights will be made before the year 2022 ends. As per its founder, Elon Musk hopes that the ship can bring the first passengers to the Moon one year later, in 2023. After that, it will be likely for the company to make a crewed flight to Mars in 2024, and construct its own Mars Base in 2028.

The first time Elon Musk introduced the new prototype of the rocket was in January 2019. From the beginning of this year to now, a lot of components of the launch vehicle have been under test. In recent times, SpaceX has checked the new design of heat shield used as a protection layer for the rocket when it comes back to the atmosphere of the Earth.