SpaceX: Starship SN10 successfully lands in Texas
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The SN11 is the latest Starship prototype rockets being readied for testing. The SN11 follows on from the SN8, SN9 and SN10 which have all completed flights as SpaceX looks to create the perfect rocket to ferry humans to Mars. SpaceX had been due to fly the SN11 over the weekend, but the company has been plagued by delays over the course of its entire Starship testing.
Will the SN11 launch today?
On March 22, SpaceX carried out a brief static fire test of its rockets.
A static fire test sees all the engines lit up as the rocket remains stationary on the ground.
This is usually a good indicator that a rocket is due to fly imminently as it shows engineers that the machine is fully working.
However, there has yet to be an official announcement from SpaceX.
Nonetheless, Cameron County – where SpaceX’s Boca Chica base is situated – has ordered scheduled road closures around the area for today, March 24.
The road closures are scheduled between 7am and 3pm local time (12om and 8pm GMT).
However, road closures have also been issued for March 25 and 26.
SpaceX has yet to give an indication as to what day the SN11 will launch.
When the SN11 does finally get to take off, it will likely follow the same trajectory as its predecessors.
The previous SN Starships all cruised at an altitude of 10 kilometres before descending to land in the same spot.
Both the SN8 and SN9 crashed as they attempted to land.
The SN10 landed safely, but it blew up several minutes later due to a hard landing which ruptured a methane tank and caused an explosion.
This time around, however, SpaceX will be hoping to nail the landing and not have another exploded rocket on its hands.
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Eccentric billionaire Elon Musk has also revealed he wants to change the name of Boca Chica to Starbase.
SpaceX already uses Boca Chica to launch its Starship prototypes, and when the rockets are ready to be sent across the solar system, Mr Musk hopes Boca Chica becomes Starbase. It will likely act as the central hub, connecting Earth to Mars.
Mr Musk wrote on Twitter: “Creating the city of Starbase, Texas. From thence to Mars, And hence the Stars.”
Boca Chica is an unincorporated community, meaning it is not governed by a local municipal corporation.
However, if Mr Musk wants to change the name, it will have to go through the official processes.
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