‘Water towers can fly’: Elon Musk tweets video of his Mars spaceship hopping during major test flight

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starhopper spacex boca chica texas launch site sunset dearmoonSpaceX via dearMoon

  • SpaceX completed a successful test flight of its Starhopper prototype vehicle on Thursday night.
  • Elon Musk tweeted a video of the 20-second flight from a camera mounted just above the vehicle’s engine.
  • Musk tweeted Starhopper would attempt another "hop" in about a week or two — when he said it would travel 200 meters.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

SpaceX on Thursday managed to successfully test fly the prototype for its Starship rocket, which CEO Elon Musk says will one day take passengers to Mars.

The vehicle, called Starhopper, is more than 60 feet tall and about 30 feet wide. It attempted a flight on Wednesday night, but had to abruptly end the test after ignition.

Thursday’s test was more successful, with Starhopper taking off and hovering for roughly 20 seconds, traveling about 20 meters (65 feet).

Read more: SpaceX just launched and landed a Mars spaceship prototype in a major test flight in Texas

The flight represents an important milestone, and Musk celebrated by sharing a video of the launch on Twitter.

While videos taken by locals showed the flight at a distance, Musk’s video was from a camera mounted on the vehicle itself, just above the engines. It shows the vehicle taking off, moving, and landing.

Replying to someone on Twitter, Musk said Starhopper would attempt a 200 meter (219 yards) hop in "a week or two."

Starhopper is an early test prototype for Starship, a much larger vehicle designed to land on the moon and Mars. Starship’s current design puts it at 400-feet-tall, and Musk has said it will be able to ferry 100 people plus 100 tonnes of cargo to Mars.

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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Isobel Asher Hamilton)

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