SpaceX swapping out two engines on Starship SN9 prototype ahead of test flight - Space.com

SpaceX's latest Starship prototype needs some maintenance work before it can take to the skies.

On Wednesday (Jan. 13), the Starship SN9 prototype performed three "static fire" tests in rapid succession at SpaceX's South Texas site, firing up its three Raptor engines while the vehicle remained anchored to the ground.

"Two of the engines need slight repairs, so will be switched out," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via Twitter early this morning (Jan. 15). .

The architecture consists of a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) spacecraft called Starship and a giant rocket known as Super Heavy.

Both of these vehicles will be fully and rapidly reusable, Musk has said.

That flight, the first high-altitude test for any Starship prototype, went extremely well, Musk has said, even though SN8 didn't stick its landing!

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