When SpaceX’s Starship rocket left the launchpad at Starbase in southern Texas on Monday, the Super Heavy booster generated a colossal 17 million pounds of thrust — more than any other rocket in the history of spaceflight
To capture this raw power in action, the spaceflight company placed a camera close to the launchpad — very close — as the booster’s 33 Raptor engines ignited to send the 123.3-meter-tall rocket skyward. You can watch the video below:
This extraordinary level of power is required to propel the massive rocket away from Earth, along with the huge amount of cargo that it will one day transport to the moon, and possibly Mars, too.
The upper-stage Starship is also designed to carry as many as 100 crewmembers in future missions.
SpaceX is still testing and refining the Starship, which has flown 11 times since its first flight in 2023.
In the maiden mission, the rocket exploded in midair just minutes after launch, but simply getting the massive vehicle airborne was enough for SpaceX to declare the first flight test a success. Since then, the pressure has been on to achieve much more in the Starship tests.
The launches have so far produced mixed results, but each one gives the SpaceX engineers large amounts of data that help them to improve the design of the most powerful rocket ever built.
The last two flight tests, which took place in August and October, have seen the Super Heavy and upper-stage Ship perform as expected, ending with soft, controlled landings on water.
SpaceX has already proved that it can land the Super Heavy back at the launch site after deploying the Ship to space, a remarkable maneuver that uses large mechanical arms on the launch tower to secure the booster just a few meters above the ground. The SpaceX team is planning to perform the same feat with the Ship in a test that’s expected to take place next year.
Landing the rocket in this way allows SpaceX to use the vehicle multiple times, helping it to drastically reduce launch costs.
SpaceX has been sharing various video clips of Monday’s mission in recent days, including footage of the Ship landing on water, and the Super Heavy performing a hover before splashing down.
