In photos: SpaceX's SN5 Starship prototype soars on 1st test flight

News
By Mike Wall
published

SN5 reached an altitude of about 500 feet on the landmark August 2020 hop.

On Aug. 4, 2020, SpaceX's SN5 Starship prototype took a short, uncrewed hop that could end up leading to humanity's next giant leap.

SN5 flew about 500 feet (150 meters) above SpaceX's South Texas facilities, near the village of Boca Chica. It was the first-ever test flight for a full-size prototype of the company's Mars-colonizing Starship spacecraft. (The first flights overall for the Starship development line were made in 2019 by a small, stubby craft dubbed Starhopper.) 

See some of the best photos of the landmark flight below.

Liftoff!

SpaceX's SN5 Starship prototype launches on its first-ever test flight on Aug. 4, 2020, from the company's facilities near the South Texas village of Boca Chica.

SpaceX's 165-foot-tall (50 m) SN5 Starship prototype launches on its first-ever test flight on Aug. 4, 2020, from the company's facilities near the South Texas village of Boca Chica.  (Image credit: SpaceX)

Not just up and down

SpaceX's SN5 Starship prototype performs a 500-foot-high test flight on Aug. 4, 2020.

SN5 demonstrated controlled flight, moving from its launch pad to a nearby landing zone during the roughly 45-second-long hop. (Image credit: SpaceX)

500 feet high

The target altitude for the Aug. 4 flight was about 500 feet (150 meters), SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said.

The target altitude for the Aug. 4 flight was about 500 feet (150 meters), SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said. (Image credit: SpaceX)

Beauty shot

Musk tweeted this gorgeous shot of the stainless steel SN5 framed against the South Texas wetlands, sky and sea.

Musk tweeted this gorgeous shot of the stainless steel SN5 framed against the South Texas wetlands, sky and sea. (Image credit: Elon Musk via Twitter)

Coming down

SpaceX's Starship SN5 prototype takes to the South Skies in its first-ever test flight on Aug. 4, 2020. This screenshot was taken from a livestream by SPadre.com.

SN5 comes down toward Earth in this view, taken from a livestream provided by SPadre.com. (Image credit: SPadre.com)

Landing legs deployed

This screenshot from a SpaceX video shows the SN5's single Raptor engine burning and the vehicle’s landing legs deployed, ready for touchdown.

This screenshot from a SpaceX video shows the SN5's single Raptor engine burning and the vehicle’s landing legs deployed, ready for touchdown. (Image credit: SpaceX)

Touchdown

The SN5 prototype touches down, bringing its debut flight to an end.

The SN5 prototype touches down, bringing its debut flight to an end. But SN5 will likely fly again, Musk has said, and many of its successors will take to the skies as well. SpaceX is iterating to the final Starship design via a series of prototypes. The next one, SN6, is ready to make a 500-foot hop of its own. And in the near future, a three-engine prototype will get about 12 miles (20 kilomteters) up, if all goes according to plan. The operational Starship will have six Raptors and will be able to fly up to 100 people to distant destinations such as the moon and Mars, Musk has said. The reusable vehicle will be powerful enough to launch itself off the surfaces of those two relatively small worlds, but it will need help to escape Earth's gravity well. Starship will therefore launch from our planet atop a gigantic, reusable rocket called Super Heavy, which will sport about 30 Raptors of its own. (Image credit: SpaceX)

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Mike Wall
Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.