SpaceX's Starship back to launch pad after recent fiery mishap; Elon Musk shares pic

Just a few weeks after experiencing a fiery incident, SpaceX hauled its massive Starship rocket back to the launch pad for another round of testing at the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Earlier on July 11, the engines of the Starship rocket’s first stage, named Booster 7, were ignited during a static fire test following which they unexpectedly caught fire. 

Following the incident, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed that the issue was related to the engine spin start test as a result of igniting all of Booster 7's 33 engines at once. The first stage booster is equipped with 33 Raptor 2 engines whereas the second stage Starship spacecraft has six engines. When combined, the two components form the Starship rocket which stands 394 feet (120 metres) tall. 

Meanwhile, SpaceX has learnt a lesson from the recent mishap and will now practise precautions to avoid another incident. Musk, on Saturday, shared a picture of the 230 feet-tall (69 m) Booster 7 being rolled out to the launch pad for a static fire test. "Hustling to get Starship Booster 7 back to pad to test outer ring of 20 engines," Musk wrote in his tweet, confirming that the forthcoming test would only involve the firing of 20 engines in the outer ring.

(Raptor 2 engines installed in Starship booster; Image: SpaceX)

As shown in the picture above, the first stage booster consists of three rings of the Raptor engines, with 20, 10 and three engines in the outermost ring to the way inward. These engines would make Starship the most powerful rocket ever as each of them is capable of producing 230 tons of thrust. 

SpaceX falls short of meeting the deadline again

Earlier in mid-June, Musk had predicted that Starship will be "ready to fly" in July and that we would see monthly launches after August. However, the recent incident seems to have pushed SpaceX way behind its schedule. On the other hand, the company also needs a launch permit from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which gave a green light to proceed with Starship's development, but asked to make some adjustments for a launch licence.

Starship is SpaceX's flagship rocket which would be used on deep space missions including those to Mars, however, it has yet to complete its first orbital launch. Notably, NASA has also awarded Musk's firm a multi-billion dollar contract to build a Starship for transporting crew and cargo to the Moon.

Image: AP, Twitter