The SpaceX Starhopper has taken flight at Boca Chica for the first time rising to an altitude of around 20 meters before touching down safely. The test follows a scrubbed test on Wednesday that saw the launch aborted seconds after ignition.
Starhopper took flight at approximately 06:00 UTC this morning from the company’s Boca Chica launch facility in Texas. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk confirmed the successful flight on Twitter stating, “Starhopper flight successful. Water towers *can* fly haha!!”
This morning’s successful launch is just the first in a series designed to test the Starhopper vehicle to his limits. Responding to a question on Twitter asking what’s next, Musk revealed that the Starhopper team hopes to perform a “200m hop in a week or two.”
The last 24 hours has been a busy one for SpaceX with the company successfully launching its 18th International Space Station resupply mission just hours before the Starhopper flight. The launch was the first time SpaceX had utilised the same Dragon spacecraft on a third mission.
