SpaceX has rolled out its Starship spacecraft to the launch pad at Starbase for testing ahead of its next flight test, implying an imminent launch.
What Happened: “Starship ready for testing ahead of Flight 7,” SpaceX said in a post on social media platform X. The post was adjoined by photographs of the spacecraft on the pad.
The company, however, did not specify when the next flight would be.
Last week, SpaceX rolled out the booster of the two-stage vehicle to the launch pad for testing.
Starship is currently in the testing and development phase.
The company has conducted six test flights of the vehicle thus far starting in April 2023 but without a payload. The last flight test took place in November.
Why It Matters: The Starship vehicle is part of big dreams. While NASA is looking forward to taking humans back to the surface of the Moon after a gap of over 50 years with the help of a custom version of Starship, Musk is dreaming of taking humans to the planet Mars aboard Starship.
“…I would not be surprised if we fly 400 Starship launches in the next four years," SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said at the Baron Investment Conference in New York last month.
SpaceX is a privately held company. Unlike Musk's publicly held EV company Tesla, SpaceX does not divulge its financials periodically.
"We are going to make some money on Starlink this year. But ultimately I think Starship will be the thing that takes us over the top as one of the most valuable companies," Shotwell previously said.
For the upcoming flight test, SpaceX will attempt to land the Starship spacecraft in the ocean yet again.
“We will do one more ocean landing of the ship. If that goes well, then SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower,” Musk previously said.
Despite SpaceX being private, investors can leverage Destiny Tech100 Inc. DXYZ and Cathie Wood‘s Ark Venture Fund ARKVX to participate in the Musk-led space company's growth.
Check out more of Benzinga's Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.
Read Next:
Photo courtesy: SpaceX
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Comments
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
