First successful test ignition of the SpaceX giant rocket Starship Russia arms itself: with “thousands of tanks” and (maybe) a drone factory

The private American aerospace company SpaceX has taken an important step towards the first orbital flight of the world’s largest rocket: according to the company, during a test on Thursday, almost all engines of the first stage of its Starship rocket were successfully ignited. The first orbital flight could now follow in March.

Although the SpaceX team had to turn off one motor and another automatically shortly before the test, 31 motors were activated, SpaceX founder Elon Musk explained. “That’s enough to get into orbit.”

As the engines burned for seconds, the Starship rocket’s first stage was engulfed in huge plumes of orange flame and smoke. The 69-meter-tall Booster Super Heavy stood firmly on the ground to prevent it from taking off. According to SpaceX, the test at the Texas site took exactly as long as planned.

Apart from the first stage, the most powerful rocket in space history to date consists of the reusable spacecraft, which has already completed several test flights – some of which ended with impressive explosions. Musk announced in February that if all further tests were successful, the first Starship rocket could take off for the first time in March.

The US space agency NASA currently plans to use Starship as a landing module as part of its Artemis program no earlier than 2025. Starship is significantly larger and more powerful than the NASA rocket SLS, with which the space agency wants to put astronauts in orbit around the moon from 2024.

(yam/sda/afp)