Science
Elon Musk mentions that Starship SN8 prototype will have a nosecone and attempt a 60,000-foot return flight
Elon Musk shared some information about the potential development of Starship, the SpaceX launch vehicle currently being built by the company at its Boca Chica, Texas plant. Recently, SpaceX has conducted short, 150 meters (just under 500 feet) test flights of two earlier Starship designs, SN5 and SN6 – and SN8, which is reportedly expected to be developed "in a fortnight" according to Musk, will have "flaps & nosecone" and will ideally be planned for a far higher altitude test project.
The samples that SpaceX has flown and landed for its so-called 'short-hop' testing over the last few weeks have been full-size, but with a virtual weight mounted on the top instead of the real domed nosecone that will perch on top of the final Starship development and cover any freight on board. SN5 and SN6, which are often likened to grain silos, both lack large control flaps on each side of the nosecone to help control their flight. SN8 is going to get them, according to Musk.
This version of the concept would also perform the same early checks and precursors, including a static fire and other ground checkouts, preceded by another static fire before eventually trying to fly at an altitude of 60,000 feet – and then returning to the field for controlled landing.
SpaceX is out of step when it comes to Starship 's growth compared to Musk 's early, rosy predictions – but the CEO is notorious for unnecessarily ambitious forecasts when it comes to timeframes, which he has repeatedly taken to himself.
Rocket production is also extremely complicated, but this first high-altitude flight attempt might just as easily have gone awry. In specific, SpaceX has a development curriculum that emphasizes on accelerated innovation and learning from previous errors when developing parallel product projects that combine various experiences gained by multiple generations. And while it may not have driven Musk's timelines insane, it's going really fast, especially now that the most recent iterations have survived pressure testing and driven it into the air.
