SpaceX starship has completed its first wet exercise and is about to fly in orbit.
CTOnews.com, January 25, SpaceX's Starship starship is one step closer to launch. The company recently completed its first wet drill of the rocket, during which workers successfully injected about 4540 metric tons of liquid oxygen and methane fuel into the rocket and carried out a series of countdown procedures to be completed on the launch day.
"this test will help verify the complete launch countdown process, as well as the starship and orbital pad performance required for light flight operations," SpaceX said. "
According to SpaceX, the success of the test means that the orbiting flight of the starship is expected to be completed in the next few months.
It is estimated that SpaceX will need to conduct some field tests, the most critical of which should be the static ignition test of starting all 33 Raptor engines at the same time. SpaceX officials say they are preparing for this ignition test.
If SpaceX successfully completes the static ignition test, it means that SpaceX is about to complete all its pre-launch preparations before the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issues a launch license to the company. Musk has previously said that starships will eventually fly into space at the end of February or early March this year.
The ▲ starship made its first wet drill, and the most recent flight of the SpaceX starship was in 2021, when the prototype SN15 rose to an altitude of 10 kilometers without a super heavy booster and then successfully returned to the ground and landed. In the upcoming first orbital flight test of the starship system, the super-heavy booster will carry the prototype of the spacecraft into orbit, separate and land on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico. After a short trip into space in Earth orbit, the starship plans to splash down on the coast of Hawaii.
▲ starship's first wet drill, Tu Yuan SpaceX, if the starship's first orbital flight goes well, there will be more testing activities in 2023. Currently, SpaceX is participating in NASA's Artemis moon landing program, which plans to use starships to send cargo and astronauts to the moon.
