Since its founding in 2002, SpaceX has worked to revolutionize the spaceflight industry, mainly through developing reusable rockets that can land and fly again. This includes the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, which has become the workhorse of global launches, ferrying cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station under contracts with NASA, among many other tasks.
But beyond the Falcon 9, SpaceX has been developing its Starship megarocket, which is designed to carry massive payloads and large crews on deep-space missions to the moon, Mars and beyond.
What is it?
In a recent post on X, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk shared a photo taken from beneath the Starship spacecraft that was being prepped to launch on the vehicle’s 10th test flight. (That flight occurred on Aug. 26, and it went well.)
The photo shows the 33 Raptor engines of Super Heavy, Starship’s first stage, arranged in a dense circular pattern. Musk added in a separate post: “33 engines, each more than twice the power of all 4 engines on a 747.”
Where is it?
This photograph was taken at SpaceX’s Starbase site in South Texas, near Boca Chica, where the Starship system is built and tested.
Why is it amazing?
Packing 33 engines into a single stage presents some intense engineering challenges. Each Raptor engine must fire in perfect synchronization, maintaining stability during launch while withstanding extreme forces and vibrations.
As if this weren’t ambitious enough, Musk added the following in a thread on his original post: “Starship V4 will have 42 engines when 3 more Raptors are added to a significantly longer ship. That will fly in 2027.” With more engines providing additional thrust, systems like Starship can carry heavier payloads, making deep-space travel more achievable.
Want to learn more?
You can read more about SpaceX’s mission and its Starship system.
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