SpaceX’s Starship nails its latest test flight

SpaceX completed a test flight of its Starship rocket for the first time yesterday. Apparently, Starship was actually meant to fly.

The successful test, which followed three unsuccessful ones, was the first time SpaceX returned the rocket’s booster to the ground in one piece. This is key; a controlled return is essential for the company to launch and land Starship regularly, something that has now become routine with its Falcon 9 rockets.

Starship = the Shaq of rockets

Starship is both the tallest and most powerful rocket ever launched. Fully stacked on the Super Heavy booster, Starship stands 397 feet tall and ~30 feet in diameter.

• The Super Heavy booster is what allows the rocket to take off. It’s comprised of 33 Raptor engines that collectively produce 16.7 million pounds of thrust – or ~2x more than the world’s second most powerful rocket, NASA’s Space Launch System.
• And, given we’re talking eye-popping numbers, here’s another one: Starship’s full system requires 10+ million pounds of liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellant for launch.

👀 Looking ahead… SpaceX, as part of a multibillion dollar contract from NASA, is set to use Starship in the next few years to land the first astronauts on the Moon since 1972.