Elon Musk’s latest adventure

IF ALL GOESSNSNSNSNSNSN well, Elon Musk’s plan to conquer the universe will soon take another step forward, with the flight of Starship 8, a rocket built by his company, SpaceX. 8 is expected to rise from its launch pad at Boca Chica, in Texas, sometime between December 4th and 6th. (SpaceX have not confirmed this, but a local flight restriction has been imposed on the area for that period.) The idea is that it will fly to an altitude of 15km, cut its engines, tip slowly forward until it is parallel with Earth’s surface, and let gravity take its course. Then, shortly before it hits the ground, it will fire its thrusters again to realign itself vertically and will thus come gently to rest on a landing pad a few hundred metres away from where it took off.8 is, as its name suggests, the eighth in the current series of prototypes for SpaceX’s proposed Starship ( stands for “serial number”). It is, though, the first to have a nose cone, and thus to assume the distinctive atmosphere-penetrating shape normally sported by space rockets. It also has more oomph than its predecessors. Previous s have used just one of SpaceX’s Raptor engines, and have, if launched (some were used for ground tests), reached a height of no more than 150 metres. 8 includes three Raptors—half the number expected for the finished design.