SpaceX is gearing up for the third test flight of its enormous Starship rocket, and they have the photos to prove it. The company rolled both stages of its latest Starship rocket to the launch pad at Starbase, located on South Texas’ Gulf Coast, over the weekend. Three photos of the move were shared by SpaceX to document the milestone publicly. Following this, the company stacked the two elements, the huge Super Heavy booster and the 165-foot-tall Starship upper stage, atop Starbase’s orbital launch mount on Saturday night, as noted by NASASpaceflight.com. This is all part of the preparation for Starship’s upcoming third test flight, which SpaceX aims to launch in the coming weeks.
In the new photos, Starship’s upper-stage prototype, called Ship 28, is seen being rolled to the launch pad in South Texas for testing. Starship is designed to be fully reusable, with the ability to deliver up to 150 tons of payload to low Earth orbit. SpaceX is developing the vehicle to expand humanity’s footprint into the solar system, with a particular focus on Mars. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has voiced his aspiration to establish a civilization on Mars, stating “We are mapping out a game plan to get a million people to Mars.” The company continues to work towards achieving this ambitious goal, with the third test flight of its giant Starship rocket being the next step in this endeavor.
