According to Musk’s tweets, one or both of the company’s two orbital Starship prototypes could be “ready to fly” as soon as August. SpaceX currently has two teams building Starship prototypes, one in Boca Chica and the other in Cocoa, Florida. Musk had earlier noted via tweet on July 19 that both prototypes would be ready to fly in “2 to 3 months,” so the recent announcement of a possible end of August flight date would seemingly put the company well ahead of schedule.
The company is preparing to present an update regarding its Starship program in Boca Chica. In a tweet discussing the presentation, Musk noted that SpaceX “should have Starship Mk1 with 3 Raptors almost ready to fly by then.”
Very convincing! Ok, Boca it is. We should have Starship Mk1 with 3 Raptors almost ready to fly by then.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 4, 2019
SpaceX have been building and testing full-scale Raptor engines throughout 2019 and completed what is technically the engine’s first flight as part of Starhopper’s untethered hop debut on July 25. In another tweet, Musk suggested that a significantly more ambitious 200-meter (660 ft) flight is expected to occur as early as Monday, August 12.
Congrats Elon! What is next?
— World of Engineering (@engineers_feed) July 26, 2019
