
Bidding farewell to the year 2023, SpaceX, under the leadership of Elon Musk, conducted an impressive static fire test at its Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
The test involved firing all 33 Raptor engines on its Super Heavy rocket, recognised as the world's most powerful rocket.
The footage, shared on X (formerly Twitter) by the company, captures the powerful display of millions of pounds of thrust from the Super Heavy booster, inspecting the Raptor engines ahead of the rocket's upcoming test flight.
The same site will reportedly observe the launch of the Starship — comprising the first-stage Super Heavy booster and second-stage Starship spacecraft —during SpaceX’s third test flight after it is granted permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), as reported by Digital Trends.
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The initial two trial flights of the Starship, conducted in April and November 2023, concluded abruptly with midair explosions. While the second test demonstrated successful stage separation unlike the inaugural flight, SpaceX is still striving to achieve an orbital flight in its third attempt. The FAA is presently investigating the second test flight, and upon its anticipated completion in the coming weeks, SpaceX aims to relaunch a Starship into space.
The Musk-led firm plans to dispatch the first group of humans to Mars after the rocket has proven to be reliable for the outer space voyage.