SpaceX is currently testing the most powerful rocket system ever made.
Powered by a total of 33 engines, the new SpaceX Starship is basically the Bugatti Chiron of space.
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SpaceX engineers conducted a test that’s known in the industry as ‘static fire’.
In other words, they fired the engines inside the nozzle while the rocket was anchored to the ground.
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According to Elon Musk, only 31 engines were fired because two of them stopped working right before the test.
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX took to Twitter to explain what happened.
“Team turned off 1 engine just before start & 1 stopped itself, so 31 engines overall. But still enough engines to reach orbit,” he said.
The Starship is one of the most impressive space rockets ever built.
It can produce 70 percent more power than the SpaceX N1 and it’s also more powerful than NASA‘s Saturn V, the rocket that reached the Moon.
Starship also has a payload capacity of 150 t (330,000 lb) and it is absolutely massive.
Standing 120 m (390 ft) tall, it is designed to be the tallest launch vehicle ever built.
And the first one designed to be used more than once.
Everything from the Super Heavy booster to the ship on top is capable of flying back to Earth and into orbit – like an airliner for space.
Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with two ideas in mind.
First and foremost, the tech mogul wanted to create a vehicle that could reach Mars and help humanity colonize the Red Planet.
Secondly, Musk believed that the cost of space transportation could be drastically reduced by creating reusable rockets.
In 2020, the SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission became the first commercial crewed launch to the International Space Station (ISS).
