SpaceX test-fires Starship Super Heavy booster ahead of critical Flight 14
SpaceX fired up all 33 engines of its Super Heavy booster to gear up for the next Starship test flight, which will mark the first time the vehicle goes orbital.
SpaceX successfully conducted a full-duration 33-engine static fire test of the Super Heavy booster, a critical step ahead of the upcoming Flight 14 of its Starship megarocket. The test took place on Friday, August 28, at SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas. The post on the company's X account shared two videos of the test, indicating that SpaceX is preparing for the highly anticipated 14th test flight of Starship.
Starship, a megarocket consisting of Super Heavy and a 171-foot-tall upper stage, is set to make its first-ever orbital trip on Flight 14, marking a significant milestone in its development. The flight will also deploy operational payloads, including Version 3 Starlink satellites, for the first time, as opposed to suborbital trajectories on previous flights.
SpaceX aims to revolutionize spaceflight with the reusable Starship, which has caught NASA's interest as a potential crewed lunar lander for its Artemis program. The agency plans to use Starship on the Artemis III mission for an Earth orbit flight in mid-2027 and a lunar landing on Artemis IV in late 2028.
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