The vehicle soared 150m over Texas, before successfully landing nearby. Impressive footage shows SpaceX’s Starhopper launching from above the coastline of the US state in a one-minute test. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, tweeted a photo of Starhopper’s launch and captioned: “Congrats SpaceX team!!”
He also tweeted: “One day Starship will land on the rusty sands of Mars”.
He also confirmed on Twitter that the latest test would be the “last flight” for Starhopper, adding: “If all goes well, it will become a vertical test stand for Raptor.”
The Starhopper test posed particular risks, with residents in the nearby Boca Chica Village being warned of the test beforehand.
People were advised to exit their houses with pets incase “a malfunction of the SpaceX vehicle during flight will create a overpressure event that can break windows.”
The warning was received on Monday ahead of an aborted hop test.
READ MORE: SpaceX bombshell: Elon Musk’s landmark Mars rocket Starhopper launches
Eddie Treviño, the local county judge, told CNN Business there was a “huge, huge sense of excitement” about the SpaceX Starhopper project.
Armed with a single SpaceX Raptor engine, the test flight was the longest and highest in a series of hop-like launches.
A second stainless steel rocket is being assembled at SpaceX facilities in Florida.
Last night’s Starhopper test flight was initially pencilled in for Monday but a technical fault with the engine delayed the launch a second before liftoff.
Following the aborted test flight, Mr Musk told his 28 million Twitter followers the Starhopper engine’s igniters had to be inspected.
The Starship, on the other hand, will ferry people from Earth to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
Since the rocket was first unveiled to the world in 2016, the Starship has undergone at least three redesigns and a rebranding.
Initially known as the Mars Colonial Transporter, the rocket featured a white design with three fins running along the length of the rocket’s body.
The rocket was renamed the Starship and was given a sleeker, more streamlined black and white design with actuated fins.
The latest iteration of the Starship is a three-finned stainless steel construction straight out of the fictional universe of Flash Gordon.
However, Mr Musk hinted at a new design update when he tweeted on August 4 about revising the “pros and cons” of each design decision.
