Starhopper

SpaceX Starhopper Starship Hopper

Mission Profile

The Starhopper (SpaceX Starhopper, Starship Hopper) was a single-stage American reusable launch vehicle technology demonstrator in the Starship family, a short, stubby prototype used to test the Raptor engine and low-altitude hover/hop manoeuvres. Standing 9 m tall with a 9 m diameter and a mass of approximately 200 tonnes, it generated 2,050 kN of thrust from a single Raptor engine. First flying in May 2019 under the Starship programme, the Starhopper successfully completed a series of tethered and untethered hop tests at SpaceX's Boca Chica facility, validating the Raptor engine for the full-scale Starship development that followed.