Although it might be a little while till the phrase “love you to the moon and back” will become redundant. Following on from our post called Is It A Bird? Is It A Plane? No Its Starlink in which we took a look at the growing number of successful satellites launched by SpaceX. We take a look at the next phase of their plan to go to the stars.

Throughout the last 12 months SpaceX have launched missions to the international space station to deliver new supplies. They have also had two successful flights to take astronauts into space and bring them safely home.

Many would celebrate these achievements as a successful 2020.

But like a speeding locomotive, SpaceX continues to push forward with new innovations for space travel. Following successful testing of the new Raptor engines test firing and subsequent “hop”. Elon Musk’s team of space geniuses are planning a test flight to 15,000 feet by using Starship SN8.

What Is Starship?

The SpaceX definition is “SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket (collectively referred to as Starship) represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry in excess of 100 metric tonnes to Earth orbit.”

But to all people who have grown up watching the Saturn’s, Space Shuttle and the most recent missions completed by SpaceX. It is the reinvigoration of the journey to the stars (it helps that it looks like a rocket from 1950s Sci Fi).

The eventual plan for Starship is to fly to Mars sustainably. With reusable rockets and boosters similar to the Falcon9 programme.

SpaceX Improve As They Test

Many of the challenges faced by SpaceX have been met head on and being fully documented. Elon has referred to them as “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly’s” and Starship has had its fair share. This has included SN4 having its moment to disperse.

During each phase of construction of Starship, a newer and more improved version waits patiently to be tested, either to destruction or the completion of successful testing. Currently SN8 is the latest iteration to be at the front of the testing schedule.

Starship Launch

As mentioned above SpaceX will be attempting to launch Starship very shortly, it has been suggested that it could be on Monday (December 7th) or very soon after. At Life Insurance Cover we will be putting a link on our facebook to watch it. Or alternatively a stream of the launch will be available on SpaceX's youtube. The suggested manoeuvres for Starship will be a 3 Raptor rocket launch, swiftly followed by a manoeuvre commonly referred to as the “bellyflop”. Once it has moved into the bellyflop position, it will plummet to the earth in the same way a sky diver would descend. To finish, it will use its directional fins to stick a perfect landing – well that the plan.

At some point, we may see SN8 decide to rapidly disassemble. But it is safe to say that its younger sibling, SN9 is waiting for its moment in the spotlight. Let us know if you are also looking forward to another exciting instalment of science fact from SpaceX. We wish the team at SpaceX a successful flight and that the pointy end is up.