SpaceX Test-Fires All 33 Super Heavy Engines Ahead of Starship's First Orbital Flight

SpaceX conducted a full-duration, 33-engine static fire test of its Starship Super Heavy booster at Starbase in South Texas on Friday, August 28, preparing for the rocket's 14th test flight. SpaceX shared two videos of the test in a post on X.

Starship is SpaceX's megarocket, consisting of the Super Heavy first-stage booster and a 171-foot-tall (52-meter) upper stage called Ship. Both stages are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable. SpaceX had already test-fired all six engines on Flight 14's Ship at Starbase the previous week.

SpaceX is targeting mid-September for Flight 14, which will mark Starship's first-ever orbital flight. Ship is expected to deploy a batch of SpaceX's next-generation Version 3 Starlink satellites into orbit during the mission. On Flight 13 last month, Ship deployed 20 Version 3 Starlink satellites on a suborbital trajectory, and the satellites later fell back to Earth.

NASA has selected Ship as a crewed lunar lander for its Artemis program, which aims to build a base near the moon's south pole. If SpaceX's plans hold, Ship is expected to fly to Earth orbit on NASA's Artemis III mission in mid-2027 and land astronauts on the moon during Artemis IV in late 2028. NASA has also selected Blue Origin's Blue Moon as a second crewed lander that could fly on one or both of those missions.