Author: Stephen Johnson / Source: Big Think
- SpaceX plans to use its new Raptor engines to power Starship and Super Heavy, two craft that would be used on a future Mars journey.
- The company has been testing its Raptor engines in Texas this week, though Thursday’s announcement is the first time the engine has been shown able to produce the force necessary to lift Super Heavy and Starship.
- Raptor is powered by methane, a fuel source that SpaceX chose because the company hopes to someday generate it on Mars.
SpaceX has successfully tested the rocket engine it plans to use on its voyage to Mars.
CEO Elon Musk tweeted Thursday that the company’s Raptor flight engines have “achieved [the] power level needed” to launch Starship and Super Heavy into space. The news comes a few days after Musk published a video of SpaceX testing a “flight ready” Raptor engine at 60 percent power at a company facility in Texas.
Raptor just achieved power level needed for Starship & Super Heavy https://t.co/NcqnAVWc35
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
Raptor is designed to power Starship, a reusable rocket system that SpaceX hopes will carry…
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