Starship, the largest rocket in history, even spotted from space. SpaceX and Elon Musk are preparing a test flight

Created by SpaceX Starship soon it will officially gain the title of the largest rocket in the history of mankind. Elon Musk and its employees systematically warm up the atmosphere before its orbital test flight scheduled for late February or early March. The spacecraft is currently stationed on the launch pad at the SpaceX base near Brownsville, South Texas. It is so gigantic that together with the tower supporting it, eloquently referred to as “Mechazilla”, it has been noticed even from space.

Yesterday, Airbus’s Twitter account posted a photo taken by the company’s Pléiades Neo satellites, which captured a powerful rocket seen from Earth’s orbit. The greetings posted under the photo: “Hey, Starship! We’re watching you from space!”, SpaceX decided to use as a form of promotion – a moment later, another fantastic photos of Starship surrounded by clouds and the Gulf of Mexico were posted online. See for yourself:

Starship – photos

Starship – construction and plans of the SpaceX rocket

The current version of Starship consists of two stages called Ship 24 and Booster 7. Together they are about 120 meters high, which already makes the rocket taller than the legendary one used in the Apollo Saturn V program (110.6 m) or used during Artemis 1 SLS mission (98 m and 111 m in the Block 2 version). Interestingly, even before the test flight, Starship will be dismantled and reassembled later. As Musk revealed, SpaceX wants to test the ignition power of all 33 Booster 7 engines (so far, a maximum of 14 have been tested simultaneously); in September last year, a similar test was carried out by Ship 24, which fired all 6 engines of the new generation Raptor at the same time.

Starship will become the largest rocket in history not only in terms of height/length. Ultimately, it is to carry 150 tons into low Earth orbit – the current record holder in this field is still Saturn V (140 tons; China plans to test the Long March 9 rocket with an orbital lift of 160 tons in 2030). Musk’s long-term plans assume that Starship will be used not only during lunar missions, but also during the colonization of Mars. Let us remind you that the stainless steel rocket is to be a reusable space vehicle and take off from both the SpaceX base and the John F. Kennedy Space Center or special platforms in the ocean created from rebuilt, decommissioned drilling rigs.

Falcon Heavy returns

In anticipation of Starship’s test flight, tomorrow we will have another spectacle with the participation of a super-heavy carrier rocket. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy will also soar into the sky again, carrying out a mission for the United States Space Force. The start is scheduled for 23:00 Polish time. At this address you can check how monumental the flights of this giant of the space industry can look.