Since founding SpaceX in 2002, Elon Musk has turned the space sector on its head, launching hundreds of privately-owned rockets into space.
His company has become the world’s most important space business and has been tasked by NASA with returning humans to the Moon on its Artemis mission in two years time.
The company’ mainstay rocket – the Falcon 9 – is designed to be reusable, featuring a booster that can return it to earth and land safely, saving on costs.
The Starship is built to be similarly reusable. The rocket will take off later today consisting of two stages. The first is its Super Heavy booster, which is 230 ft tall and has 33 engines, powered by a mix of liquid oxygen and methane generating 17 million pounds of thrust, more than twice that of the Saturn V rockets used to send Apollo astronauts to the moon.
About three minutes into the flight, the Super Heavy booster will separate and land in the Gulf of Mexico, while the second stage, Starship, will fire up its six raptor engines.
The rocket parts are ultimately intended to be used again. In today’s mission Starship will glide down before splashing into the Indian Ocean – if everything goes to plan.
