SpaceX's Starship prototype roars to life in another successful test fire; Watch video

The Starship rocket’s prototype roared to lift during a static fire test that SpaceX conducted at its Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The test was conducted on September 9 and all six of the Raptor engines on the Ship 24 vehicle (upper stage of Starship) were ignited ahead of the mega rocket’s much-awaited orbital flight.

For the unversed, Starship consists of two components, the upper stage Ship and the lower stage Super Heavy Booster. While the Ship consists of six Raptor engines, the Super Heavy Booster is equipped with 33 engines each capable of generating 230 tons of maximum thrust (roughly 8,970 tons in total). 

Visuals of the fiery test were shared by NASA Spaceflight’s Chris Bergen as well as SpaceX. The Black-coloured upper stage rocket was seen standing tall amid flames followed by a thick plume of smoke that filled the launch pad in a few seconds. 

About Starship

Measuring 120 metres (394 feet) in height, Starship is the world’s biggest rocket under construction which would be used for deep space transportation in future planetary missions. As SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has endorsed in the past, Starship will be used to carry crew and cargo to the Moon and eventually Mars as it is the only heavy-lift vehicle currently capable of doing so. It is to mention that the rocket is yet to undergo its first orbital flight, which would prove its readiness for deep space missions. 

Of the two stages of the rocket, the Booster stands 69 metres (230 ft) as opposed to the Ship which measures 50 metres (164 feet) tall. Interestingly, it will grow by five to ten metres over time, Musk said. Since Starship is still under development, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) is, however, the most powerful complete rocket in existence. Standing 322 feet tall, the SLS rocket is capable of producing 8.8 million pounds (4,400 tons) of maximum thrust. 

Meanwhile, the rocket has some long-term goals such as launching astronauts to Mars in order to establish sustainable bases. According to Musk's current plan, SpaceX would launch thousands of Starships to transport about a million people to the red planet by 2050. In addition to this, Starship was also awarded a $2.9 billion contract by NASA to develop a human landing system for the transportation of crew and cargo to the Moon.