SpaceX launched its biggest, most powerful Starship on a test flight Friday, an upgraded version that Nasa hopes will land astronauts on the moon.
The massively redesigned rocket launched two days after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced he was taking the company public. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites for release halfway around the world.
It is the 12th test flight of the rocket that Musk is building to get people to Mars one day. But first comes the moon and NASA’s Artemis program.
The last of the old spaceships was decommissioned in October. SpaceX’s third-generation Starship – a souped-up version dubbed the V3 – took off from a new launch pad at Starbase, near the Mexican border. Last-minute pad issues prevented Thursday evening’s launch attempt.
SpaceX had hoped to avoid the fireworks it experienced during a back-launch last year when space explosions rained debris into the Atlantic Ocean. Previous flights also ended in fire.
At 124 meters (407 feet), the latest design eclipses the old Starship lines by more than a meter (1 meter is 3.2 feet) and packs more engine thrust.
