SpaceX shares stunning footage of Starship’s launch rehearsal that loaded more than 10 million pounds of propellant into the craft — as Elon Musk eyes an orbital mission this month

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has released alien photos from the third launch rehearsal of its Starship as the company attempts to send the world’s largest rocket into space this month.

The spaceship and its Super Heavy booster were filled with more than 10 million pounds of propellant, including liquid methane and liquid oxygen.

The massive rocket stands 370 feet tall and has 33 Raptor engines that pump out 17 million pounds of thrust – the force exerted by the rocket that causes it to blast off.

However, the world’s most powerful rocket will remain grounded until the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) completes its accident investigation, which was opened when an earlier spacecraft took off and exploded in mid-air in November.

The test launch took place at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas

The power Starship releases at launch has almost doubled. Saturn V was the most powerful rocket in NASA’s space launch arsenal until Elon Musk arrived on the scene.

Musk has previously estimated the total development costs of the Starship project at between $2 billion and $10 billion.

SpaceX’s pre-launch rehearsal photos show the rocket billowing smoke from all angles as it reaches the T-10 second countdown.

Musk hopes to fully launch the spacecraft at least nine times this year, with the intention of eventually taking humans to Mars.

The company has struggled to get FAA approval after two failed launches, the first of which ended in an explosion over the Gulf of Mexico last April.

It was intended to travel 90 miles above the ground for 90 minutes, but shortly after the Super Heavy booster detached, Starship exploded over the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Texas about four minutes into the mission.

After the explosion, SpaceX posted on

The Starship rocket is 400 feet tall and has 33 Raptor engines putting out 17 million pounds of thrust

SpaceX has nine planned launches this year, despite not yet receiving FAA approval

The FAA announced it was temporarily grounding the entire Starship fleet shortly after the explosion, saying in a statement: “During ascent and prior to stage separation, an anomaly occurred resulting in the loss of the vehicle,” CNN reported.

It continued: “A return to flight of the Starship/Super Heavy vehicle is based on the FAA’s determination that any system, process or procedure associated with the accident would not adversely affect public safety.”

The FAA concluded its investigation in September, saying the company had taken 63 corrective actions, including redesigning the rocket’s hardware to prevent leaks and fires, redesigning the launch pad and testing safety-critical systems, including the Autonomous Flight Safety System.

Two months later, SpaceX made its second launch attempt, but it failed about eight minutes into the test mission when it reached an altitude of 91 miles above the Earth’s surface before exploding.

“More things were successful than the previous test, including some new capabilities that were significant,” Carissa Christensen, CEO of space analytics firm BryceTech, told Reuters at the time.

“There is no money or patience for unlimited testing,” she said, “but for a vehicle so different and so big, two, three, four, five tests are not excessive.”

After the failed launch of the second Starship, the FAA said it would not authorize SpaceX’s Starship for launch without further safety considerations, but a spokesperson told Payload that the FAA is working closely with the company to give it approval.

“They’re looking at a pretty aggressive launch schedule this year,” Kelvin Coleman, the FAA’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation, said at a Commercial Space Transportation Conference in DC last month, ArsTechnica reported.

‘If you make adjustments and do it piece by piece, it’s a lot of work. We’ve been talking to SpaceX all day about how can we do this?’

He added: ‘We are committed to the business and so we will work with them to get them back up and running as quickly as possible.’

Coleman said the FAA expects to issue a launch license to SpaceX for its Starship flight in mid-March, as the company has a goal of at least nine launches in 2024.

The spaceship is currently unable to send humans to Mars, but that could all change with the development of Elon Musk’s spaceship, which is built to deliver the first astronauts to the Red Planet by 2030.

Its creation is part of the billionaire’s larger vision to make us a “multi-planetary species,” first by establishing a human colony on Mars and even getting to the point of building cities.