SpaceX delays Starship test flight
Spaceflight Now by Stephen Clark March 26, 2021
https://spaceflightnow.com/2021/03/26/starship-sn11-test-flight/SpaceX scrubbed the launch of its next Starship test rocket Friday afternoon, with the next opportunity for the atmospheric test flight expected Monday. SpaceX plans to launch and land the rocket at company’s South Texas development complex after losing three previous prototypes in explosions.
The privately-developed Starship test vehicle — designated SN11 — will be the fourth full-size Starship vehicle to take off from SpaceX’s test site in Cameron County, Texas. Like three previous Starship test flights in December, February, and earlier this month, the prototype will attempt to fly to an altitude of about 33,000 feet, or 10,000 meters, before returning to the ground for rocket-assisted vertical landing.
SN11 is the latest in a series of prototypes for SpaceX’s next-generation launch vehicle that will eventually stand nearly 400 feet, or about 120 meters, tall and carry more 220,000 pounds, or 100 metric tons, of cargo to low Earth orbit. That’s more lift capacity than than any rocket in the world.
With life support systems and in-space refueling, the Starship could carry heavy cargo and people beyond Earth orbit. SpaceX is of of three industrial teams with a NASA contract to design and refine concepts for a human-rated lunar lander for the space agency’s Artemis moon program.
