SpaceX prepares for a massive test this week: Firing all 33 Starship engines at once

WASHINGTON – SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said Wednesday the institution plans to effort a large Starship milestone this week.

SpaceX connected Thursday volition effort a "static fire," simultaneously investigating each 33 engines that beryllium astatine the basal of Starship's rocket booster. The institution conducted a trial firing of 14 of those engines successful November, arsenic it pushes to marque an orbital motorboat effort with a Starship prototype.

"Tomorrow is simply a large time for SpaceX," Shotwell said, speaking astatine the FAA's yearly Commercial Space Transportation league successful Washington, D.C. connected Wednesday.

Starship is simply a astir 400-foot-tall rocket, designed to transportation cargo and radical beyond Earth. It is besides captious to NASA's program to instrumentality astronauts to the moon, with SpaceX having won a astir $3 cardinal declaration from the bureau successful 2021.

Last period the institution completed a "wet formal rehearsal," with Starship prototype 24 stacked connected Super Heavy booster prototype 7, successful the astir caller important test.

While SpaceX had hoped to behaviour the archetypal orbital Starship motorboat arsenic aboriginal arsenic summertime 2021, delays successful advancement and regulatory support person pushed backmost that timeline. Speaking to reporters astatine the conference, Shotwell connected Wednesday said determination person been "no large problems" that caused those delays.

"There's a batch of small things to get done, particularly due to the fact that we weren't truly focusing connected the orbital vessel -- we were focusing connected the accumulation systems that volition physique the ship. We cognize however to get to orbit," Shotwell said.

While the institution has ramped up the gait of its Falcon bid of rockets to a motorboat each 4 days, Shotwell noted that those existing rockets can't beryllium produced astatine a regular rate.

"Why can't we physique a rocket each day? That's what we're focusing connected with Starship, is attacking each portion of the accumulation process to beryllium capable to physique tons of these machines," Shotwell said.

SpaceX is already signing deals to alert crews connected Starship, including three privately booked flights by affluent individuals aiming to spell to abstraction and the moon. But Shotwell reiterated a erstwhile caution that CEO Elon Musk has given, noting that Starship needs to motorboat connected "hundreds of flights earlier we alert people."

Asked astir SpaceX's plans to IPO its Starlink business, Shotwell said connected Wednesday determination is "no update." Last year, CNBC reported that CEO Elon Musk told employees that the institution isn't apt to instrumentality Starlink nationalist until 2025 oregon later.