SpaceX has shared some dramatic slow-motion footage (below) of the Starship rocket blasting off from the launchpad at the start of Tuesday’s successful flight.
“Liftoff of Super Heavy, the most powerful launch vehicle in history, on Starship’s tenth flight test,” SpaceX said in an online post that included the 30-second video.
The Starship’s first stage — the Super Heavy booster — uses 33 Raptor engines to create a record-breaking 17 million pounds of thrust at launch. That’s nearly twice that of NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and considerably more than the 7.6 million pounds of thrust generated by the Saturn V rocket, which powered NASA astronauts toward the moon more than five decades ago.
When fully tested and certified, the Starship’s colossal power will enable it to carry huge payloads and large crews to the moon and even Mars — vital if humans are ever to build bases there.
Tuesday’s mission marked the 10th test flight for the reusable Starship vehicle, which comprises the Super Heavy booster and upper-stage Starship spacecraft.
After several failed tests earlier this year, this latest one was a massive success, with both parts of the rocket achieving controlled, soft landings in the ocean.
SpaceX described the effort as “a significant step forward in developing the world’s first fully reusable launch vehicle,” adding, “Every major objective was met, providing critical data to inform designs of the next-generation Starship and Super Heavy.”
Incredibly, the rocket is about to grow in size, from its current height of 123.1 meters to 124.4 meters (version 3), with a future version 4 standing at an enormous 142 meters.
SpaceX hasn’t announced any specific timeline for the next Starship flight, though it’s believed it may try for its final version 2 launch in September. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has also said that he’s hoping to see the first version 3 rocket launch before the end of this year. Version 4 could leave the launchpad for the first time in 2027.
NASA wants to use a modified version of the Starship to land a two-person crew on the lunar surface in the Artemis III mission that’s currently slated for 2027. There’s still much work to be done before then, but the success of Tuesday’s test means that SpaceX has a fighting chance of meeting the target date for the much-anticipated mission.
