EspaçoX
Elon Musk he may still be having trouble with his social media venture, but on the space front he’s killing it… because his company just successfully launched the biggest rocket ever.
SpaceX launched its Super Heavy-Starship rocket into orbit Thursday morning – with liftoff taking place from its facility in Boca Chica, TX… and with this latest attempt marking its third time trying to take this massive beast into the great beyond .
Considering they pulled it off, it’s truly an impressive feat – especially when you get a sense of the magnitude of this rocket… which is literally the largest in human history.
The rocket, in its entirety, is an impressive 394 feet and almost 30 feet wide – it also includes two different components, the Starship upper stage and the Super Heavy booster. Word is that this thing can generate over 16 million pounds of thrust with its Raptor engines.
In other words, it’s a monstrous machine… and on Thursday, Elon and co. We finally managed to get it airborne and pass through our atmosphere, where it began a suborbital flight designed to cross the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic and much of the Indian Ocean.
Starship flight path for today’s test pic.twitter.com/1YJbO1tRxz
-SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2024
@SpaceX
The rocket should separate, with the booster falling into the GOM – and the upper stage landing in the Indian Ocean… yes, both can be done with controlled landings.
Eventually, SpaceX (and NASA) hope to use the Super Heavy-Starship to make trips to the Moon… something that hasn’t been done in a long time, but that they want to start again. Now that this test flight has gone off without a hitch (so far), it’s within reach.
People might not like the guy, but that’s a big W for Elon. Congratulations!