test launch of Starship, the world’s largest rocket

It is the rocket of all superlatives. For Elon Musk, the boss of Space X, Starship will bring space exploration and humanity into a new era. It’s true that Starship makes you dizzy. At 120 meters high, it is the tallest rocket ever assembled. The equivalent of a 30-storey building, two and a half times larger than Ariane 5. Larger also than the legendary Saturn 5 rocket, which sent men to the Moon 50 years ago. It is also the most powerful ever designed.

To achieve this feat, the engineers designed this new engine called Raptor. The launcher aligns 33 of them, a record, enough to carry at least 100 tons of material into low orbit, five times more than Ariane 5.

Available in lunar version

Question costs, Starship is designed to be fully reusable, and therefore melt the price of launches. The rocket actually consists of two separate parts. Below, a launcher, which propels the upper part into space, and which returns to land on the ground, and above is a spacecraft, which can change according to the missions.

There will thus be several versions of the Starship ship. A cargo model, to carry equipment and satellites into orbit. A crew version, to take a hundred humans around the Moon, and especially beyond, to Mars, on a journey of more than a year and a half. Finally, Starship will be available in a lunar version, capable of landing on the surface of the Moon, depositing two astronauts and equipment there to establish a permanent base.