Elon Musk Says SpaceX Is "Proceeding Very Carefully" With Starship Tests

SpaceX isn't rushing to get its Starship rocket into orbit. This historic orbital test flight will likely involve Booster 7 and Ship 24, prototype vehicles that were stacked last week atop the orbital launch pad at Starbase, SpaceX's South Texas facility.

Elon Musk's space company has already performed several tests on Booster 7 and Ship 24, but more is expected from the Starship duo before they can fly.

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“We are proceeding very carefully. If there is a RUD* on the block, Starship progress will be delayed by about six months,” tweeted Elon Musk on Sunday (16).

SpaceX has already performed brief "static fire" tests on Ship 24 and Booster 7, firing their Raptor engines while keeping the vehicles anchored to the ground. The company lit all six of Ship 24's Raptors simultaneously.

But Booster 7's static fires only engaged a handful of the vehicle's 33 Raptors at one time. And none of its ignitions occurred while ship 24 was on top of it.

The coming weeks will likely see a variety of tests that feature the full stack of Starships. Fuel tests will pave the way for increasingly ambitious static fires, which will likely culminate in full firing of 33 Booster 7 engines.

We are proceeding very carefully. If there is a RUD on the pad, Starship progress will be set back by ~6 months.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 16, 2022

The next orbital test flight will send Spacecraft 24 around Earth once, ending up crashing on the Hawaiian island of Kauai (Booster 7 will crash shortly after liftoff, making its own waves in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast).

Elon Musk expressed confidence that the mission could launch as early as next month. But SpaceX is not subject to such an “aggressive” schedule, as the Sunday tweet makes clear.