SpaceX plans to carry out a launch rehearsal next week of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, and its first test flight possibly the following week, the private space company said Thursday. VIDEOGRAPHIC
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00:00The mega rocket Starship, developed by SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, was chosen by NASA as
00:12part of the U.S. Space Agency's Artemis program to return to the Moon.
00:19Its first stage, the ultra-powerful booster named Super Heavy, is equipped with several
00:23dozen Raptor engines.
00:25This rocket is one of the most powerful ever built.
00:28Designed to be reusable, Starship is capable of lifting off and landing vertically.
00:34SpaceX also developed Starship to transport cargo into space and finally to go to Mars
00:39and even further.
00:41During the future mission, Starship will orbit the Moon while the astronauts descend to the
00:45lunar surface aboard the Orion module, launched by NASA's SLS rocket.
00:52Once in space, Orion will detach from the SLS rocket and dock with the lunar lander,
00:57which will take the astronauts to the surface of the Moon, then, when their mission is completed,
01:02return them to a lunar orbit.
01:04Eventually, Starship will remain in lunar orbit, docked to the Orbital Space Station
01:08Gateway, while the astronauts will return to Earth aboard the module Orion.
01:13The return of Americans to the Moon is expected in early 2025.
01:27NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology