SpaceX test-fires engines of most powerful rocket ever built

SpaceX's Super Heavy booster had a successful test-firing on Thursday when the engines of the most powerful rocket ever built came to life for a brief period. The booster is one half of the company's Starship rocket system and is designed to eventually send astronauts to the Moon and beyond in the coming months.

In what is called "static fire", 31 of the Super Heavy's 33 Raptor rocket engines fired for roughly 10 seconds at SpaceX's facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, chief executive Elon Musk tweeted shortly after the test, which was shown during a livestream.

"Team turned off 1 engine just before start & 1 stopped itself, so 31 engines fired overall," Musk tweeted. "But still enough engines to reach orbit!"

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When it makes its maiden flight, Starship will become the most powerful operational rocket system in history.

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The rocket, which is almost as tall as a 23-story building, remained clamped down vertically in place atop a platform adjacent to a launch tower as giant sheets of orange flames erupted from the base of the rocket and clouds of smoke billowed into the air. When put together with its upper-stage Starship spacecraft, the entire vehicle will stand taller than the Statue of Liberty at 394 feet (120 meters) high.

Musk's ambitious plans for the spaceship include colonising Mars.

The company will soon attempt to launch the powerful, next-generation rocket for the first time in an uncrewed flight to space. It isn't clear if it will conduct another static-fire test of the Super Heavy, with all 33 engines.

The test mission will lift off from Texas and land off the coast of Hawaii, and could happen "in the next month or so," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said Wednesday.

"Keep in mind, this first one is really a test flight," Shotwell said. "The real goal is to not blow up the launch pad, that is success."

NASA has picked the Starship capsule to ferry its astronauts to the Moon as part of the Artemis 3 mission, set for 2025 at the earliest.

(With inputs from agencies)

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