After Starship test fire Elon Musk expects 150m hop ‘soon’

Elon Musk’s hopes for Starship to reach orbit before this spring didn’t quite pan out, but a recent test firing has the SpaceX CEO expecting to see the company’s new vehicle take flight shortly. On Thursday he tweeted that its new SN5 build completed a full duration static fire, and said a 150m test hop will happen “soon.” Of course, ten days ago he said there would be a flight attempt within a week, but they are making progress.

Starship SN5 just completed full duration static fire. 150m hop soon.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2020

Last August we saw SpaceX’s Starhopper test vehicle complete a 150m Raptor-powered “bounce” and sooner or later the actual Starship will make a similar test flight. The company has continued to iterate on its design and pressure test prototypes — we remember SN4’s end — as it moves closer to actual flight. If there’s any information on a webcast of the event, we’ll let you know. Even with the Crew Dragon scheduled for a return this weekend, SpaceX’s priority is the Starship project.