SpaceX engineers in Texas cranked up the world's most powerful rocket Thursday, firing 31 methane-burning Raptor engines in the company's gargantuan Super Heavy booster for a seven-second test run to help clear the way for an unpiloted maiden flight.
For actual flights, the rocket will be made up of the Super Heavy first stage and a 160-foot-tall second stage — known as the Starship — that will use a half-dozen methane-oxygen Raptor engines. Both stages are fully reusable.
"It's really the final ground test that we can do before we light 'em up and go," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, quoted by NASA's Artemis program also relies on the Starship. SpaceX holds a $2.9 billion contract to build a variant of the Starship that will serve as NASA's lunar lander, carrying astronauts to the surface of the moon and back to orbit.
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