A gleaming SpaceX Starship prototype launched into the sky above southern Texas Thursday (Sept. 3) in a brief uncrewed test flight of a rocket designed for eventual trips to the moon and Mars.
The cylindrical Starship SN6 vehicle, which looks much like a grain silo with a rocket engine, rose high into the air above SpaceX’s Boca Chica test site, hovered for a few moments, and then set down on stubby landing legs, according to video of the event captured by tourism site SPadre.com and NASASpaceflight.com. The flight appeared similar to an Aug. 4 test of SpaceX’s Starship SN5 model, which reached an altitude of about 500 feet (150 meters) on that hop.
SN6’s launch was the second flight of the day for SpaceX. The company launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink internet satellites into orbit for SpaceX’s growing megaconstellation. That mission lifted off from Pad 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:46 a.m. EDT (1246 GMT).
In photos: SpaceX’s SN5 Starship prototype soars on 1st test flight
Source: Space.com