SpaceX's Starship completes first vacuum raptor static fire test; Watch here

X's Starship SN20 was brought to life in a vacuum engine static fire test that was conducted at X's Starbase facility, in Boca Chica near South Texas on October 22. Touted as future martian vehicle,  165-foot-tall Starship is undergoing tests with a raptor vacuum engine ahead of its upcoming test flight later this year. According to .com, SN20 is currently outfitted with two engines where one is vacuum version, while or is a standard "sea-level" raptor, however, only former was fired in this test. 

company confirmed development in a tweet sent out following test in what was X's first trial of a vacuum raptor integrated on future Martian vehicle.

Check out tweet here:

Starship's fate

Starship is X's most ambitious project to date as Elon Musk-owned entity wants to use it to send humans and cargo to Mars using this vehicle. In fact, Starship has already been selected by NASA for latter's Artemis mission as first crewed lunar landing system. 

massive vehicle is scheduled for a large-scale orbital flight later this year that will lift off with Super Heavy booster powered by 29 raptors, news website reported. SN20 is made of two components, Starship craft and Super Heavy booster that will push craft to orbit. This will reportedly be Starship's longest flight till w. X has only conducted test launches to a maximum altitude of 10 kilometres. 

X is reportedly planning launch soon once  US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) clears X after conducting an environmental assessment of launch site. Meanwhile, X has ar launch, which is Crew-3 mission, that will carry NASA astronauts to and fro  International Station (ISS). 

Crew-3 mission

Raja Chari, an Indian-born NASA astronaut, will be leading X-NASA collaborative Crew-3 mission that has been anunced to take off on October 31. Chari will be accompanied by Tom Marshburn, pilot, and Kayla Barron, mission specialist as well as ESA (European ncy) astronaut Matthias Maurer. Currently, astronauts are under quarantine as part of final preparations for rotation mission, which will carry Crew-3 astronauts to ISS and bring back Crew-2 astronauts from outer . 

(Im: @X/Twitter)