Elon Musk’s SpaceX is about to take its most daring leap yet with a round-the-world test flight of its mammoth Starship.
It’s the biggest and mightiest rocket ever built.
Starship could blast off as early as Monday, with no one aboard. For this demo, SpaceX won’t attempt any landings of the rocket or the spacecraft. Everything will fall into the sea. The stainless steel Starship has 33 main engines and 16.7 million pounds of thrust. Given its muscle, Starship could lift as much as 250 tons and accommodate 100 people on a trip to Mars. The six-engine spacecraft accounts for 164 feet (50 metres) of its height. Starship easily eclipses NASA’s moon rockets. The test flight will last 1 1/2 hours, and fall short of a full orbit of Earth. If Starship reaches the three-minute mark after launch, the booster will be commanded to separate and fall into the Gulf of Mexico.
The spacecraft would continue eastward, passing over the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans before ditching near Hawaii.