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Comment by ackbar03 | Hacker News Reader

What was the context behind this launch? Did they just luanch a grain silk just for kicks or something? That can't possibly be the new design for a rocket

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This is a prototype for the upper (second) stage of spacex's next-gen rocket [1] they are developing that uses their new full-flow staged combustion raptor engine [2]. This is the ship they plan to use for upcoming mars, moon, etc. missions that will basically replace all other spacex rockets as soon as they can figure out how to get it operating. This prototype is missing the nosecone, control surfaces, and other details, but has the most important parts - engines (one instead of 6 like it will eventually have) and fuel+oxidizer tanks.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staged_combustion_cycle#Full-f...

This is a prototype of the bottom part for the upper (second) stage of SpaceX's next-gen rocket — Starship.

While it does not look that way without the pointy nose cone, this is the prototype of the second stage.

The first stage will be a bit longer than this & its build enclosure is already being uilt.

That’s what he said.

It's a prototype to test the materials, engine, process etc. Since it's only ever going to do little hops like this one, it doesn't need to be aerodynamic.

It's not clear to me why you need to spend so much fuel hopping around on Mars or the moon.

They are testing on a path to be able to land from orbit. Starting with short hops by prototypes that get iteratively improved is the same methodology that allowed them to be able to land their currently operating Falcon 9.

They are the only one to ever achieve this. It's a big deal because everyone else builds a $100M rocket and then throws it away because it can't land. Reusable rockets have the potential to make açcess to space much cheaper.

So the idea isn't to literally hop? They ultimately want to land it the same way the F9 rockets land now, and this is just a test?

Yep, basically. The biggest difference is that this is the second stage. With this new rocket, both the first stage and second stage will be fully reusable. The Falcon 9 second stage is thrown away each launch.

Bingo. They did similar tests with a Falcon 9 test article called "Grasshopper" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZDkItO-0a4

It's basically the bare minimum to test that the components they're building work.

It absolutely is :)

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