While many businesses in Texas are closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, SpaceX is busy working on its Boca Chica development site to assemble another spacecraft prototype soon after previous version collapsed when pressed test earlier this month.
A webcam installed by a nearby resident captured the above time-lapse video of the prototype SN4 spacecraft stacked inside the company’s on-site vehicle assembly building. NASASpaceflight.com reports that partitions for another unit, SN5, are also being built in the facility.
This was the way the business worked during Starship’s development – quickly assembling two prototypes at a time so that it could quickly pivot to a new unit in the event of a failure. So far, SN1 and SN3 have failed in pressure testing while SN2 has succeeded.
SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk said this series of prototypes would be able to fly at an altitude of about 20 kilometers and return to Earth. It is likely that we will see one of the SN series prototypes make a shorter “jump” before that.
It’s not known when we might see one of the Starship prototypes leaving the ground, but Musk should soon have a quiver of three of the rockets to work with, which will surely help.
