'All systems green': SpaceX fired up its Mars spaceship prototype for the first time, rattling homes for miles around

Maria Pointer (bocachicaMaria)

SpaceX workers crawl Starhopper out to a launch pad near Boca Chica Beach, Texas, on March 8, 2019.

• SpaceX fired up what company founder Elon Musk called its "Starhopper" prototype for the first time on Wednesday night.
• Starhopper - a roughly 60-foot-tall prototype of a Mars-capable vehicle, called Starship - fired its single engine for about one second, shortly before 8 p.m. CDT.
• A truck-size Raptor rocket engine shot out flames and a deafening roar, surprising and exciting residents who live near SpaceX's launch site in South Texas.
• Musk confirmed the test's success on Twitter, saying the vehicle was tethered but did a short "hop" during the static firing test.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - With a deafening roar that rattled windows, SpaceX - the rocket company founded by Elon Musk - fired up its new Mars rocket ship prototype for the first time on Wednesday.

The roughly 60-foot-tall stainless-steel rocket ship, called the "Starhopper" (previously the "Test Hopper"), is a basic prototype of a much larger vehicle called Starship. When completed, perhaps in the early 2020s, the two-stage launcher may stand perhaps 400 feet tall and be capable of landing a nearly 200-foot-tall spaceship on Mars.

The Starhopper prototype gave a full-throated yet brief one-second roar of its sole Raptor engine at 7:57 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, based on Business Insider's eyewitness account.

"Starhopper completed tethered hop. All systems green," Musk tweeted shortly after the brief firing here on Brazos Island. SpaceX had planned to test the rocket ship earlier this month, but had issues with ice crystal formation in the engine.

A camera on South Padre Island, which is located about 5 1/2 miles from SpaceX's launch site, recorded the first fiery "hop" test through the haze:

The sound here on Brazos Island was deafening - so loud that part of a resident's window blinds was knocked off its frame.

"I was cooking collard greens and my house started rattling. It was like a couple of jet airplanes taking off in your living room," said Maria Pointer, a retired deck officer who lives with her husband, Ray, about 1.8 miles from SpaceX's new launchpad.

Mrs. Pointer said previous tests by SpaceX were loud - about the size of a jet engine - but "this was magnified to about 10 jet engine roars," she said.

"It reminds you of when the Blue Angels fly over real low. That's the sound. It rattled everything," she said. "This was the full Raptor with all the juice going to it. This was the real thing."

The lone road to SpaceX

SpaceX has been coordinating with Cameron County law enforcement to close access to Highway 4 - the only road into and out of the remote beach community, which about two dozen people share with SpaceX.

During SpaceX's tests and road closures, residents and renters are permitted to pass through a soft checkpoint about 15 miles east of Boca Chica Village. For safety reasons - the Starhopper is an experimental vehicle that might explode - they are not allowed to pass through a hard checkpoint about 1.5 miles west of the launchpad.

Google Maps; Business Insider

The locations of checkpoints on Brazos Island in southern Texas, where SpaceX has built a launch site to develop its Starship rocket ship for Mars.

On Wednesday, multiple residents said the road closures have proven increasingly vexing, given their frequency, extended hours, and tightened security meant to ward off gawkers.

When Cameron County, the state, and other authorities gave SpaceX permission to use the site in 2014, the company agreed to close the road approximately once per month. Mr. Pointer said the road has more or less had closures every day for the past week.

Despite the tightened security and compounding inconvenience, Mrs. Pointer says it was fun to hear and see a bit of history taking place.

"This is the good part about it all," she said. "It's exciting,"