SpaceX successfully launched its second Starship rocket flight from its Starbase facility near Boca Chica, Texas on Saturday. The company’s ultimate goal is to push the development of this massive vehicle past new milestones.
The launch was webcasted in real-time solely on X, formerly known as Twitter. This came after the Federal Aviation Administration cleared SpaceX for a second launch earlier this week.
The Starship rocket system is both the tallest and most powerful rocket ever launched. It stands 397 feet tall when fully stacked on the Super Heavy booster and boasts a diameter of about 30 feet. The Super Heavy booster, which stands 232 feet tall, boasts 33 Raptor engines that produce 16.7 million pounds of thrust. Starship itself uses six Raptor engines, three for operating in Earth’s atmosphere and three for operating in the vacuum of space.
The rocket is powered liquid oxygen and liquid methane and requires more than 10 million pounds of propellant for launch. It is designed to be fully reusable and is crucial to SpaceX’s vision for flying cargo and people beyond Earth. Additionally, SpaceX won a multi-billion dollar NASA contract to use the rocket as part of the Artemis moon program.
The second launch was expected to reach space and demonstrate improvements on ground infrastructure to mitigate damage. SpaceX made upgrades to the launch pad infrastructure and the design of the rocket after the mid-air destruction of the first rocket in April. There were no people on board this attempt, with SpaceX aiming to fly hundreds of Starship missions before launching with any crew.