SpaceX's latest Starship prototype fired its engines for the fourth time on Tuesday evening (Nov. 24), keeping the vehicle on track for a landmark test flight next week.

Musk-led Space X This is a rare view of the first stage of the "In-Vitro Whole Engine Boiling Liquid Hydrogen" (WELF), at Blue Origin rocket development facility near Kent, Wash. Credit: Blue Origin

"SpaceX will shoot for an in-space test this Saturday by attempting a Dragon space capsule landing on the drone ship ACIS on Friday, Nov. 28," SpaceFlight Insider reported. [Photos of the SpaceX-Blue Origin Docking Probes]

SpaceX CEO and chief designer Elon Musk holds the first stage of the rocket, with a bit of swagger, angled at drinkers shortly after its salvaging and defect fix opportunity (CASE). Credit: Hal Yeager/AASA SCIENCE SCIENCE

Musk has been largely silent about the upcoming test flight, but Blue Origin president Rob Meyerson has said that opening a second space port in Jacksonville, Florida (another vehicle testing port for the same rocket) is one of the company's goals.

Blue Origin is the only U.S.-based space venture with at least two rocket test facilities, including the eventual goal of a tourist orbital suborbital service.

The Falcon 9-9.1 rocket crashed at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Test Facility during a simulated fueling test. Credit: SpaceX

Houston-based SpaceX is the fastest U.S. commercial mission launcher since the U.S. space shuttle retired in 2011. It is the only one of the three that uses liquid-fueled rockets.

SpaceX has a solar-powered spaceship, the Dragon, that has already successfully orbited 11 satellites. That mission, known as CRS-11, went to the International Space Station earlier this year.

In June, the company launched commercial communications satellites to help build the next-generation constellation of Earth-observing spacecraft. SpaceX is hoping regular deliveries of up to 12 of these high-quality, highly reliable spacecraft will give them a good platform for testing and proving out their new launch vehicle, the orbital Falcon Heavy.

SpaceX and other competitors have said they want to use its rocket to practice for the day when real people venture into space on their own.

"We want to be able to practice for when we build the Space Taxi or Space Tug," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said. "That would be like fucking around with manned flight without actually spending time in space to initialize it." Just 48 people have
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