SpaceX is moving its Super Heavy booster to the rocket’s launch site as we speak, down in Starbase, Texas.
This prototype rocket houses 29 of the company’s Raptor engines and has four grid fins to assist with landing. CEO Elon Musk shared video and images of the Super Heavy moving to its new launch stand on Tuesday morning:
Super Heavy Booster moving to orbital launch mount pic.twitter.com/axaDnXNm84
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2021
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2021
The Super Heavy will power SpaceX’s Starship and its upcoming orbital test flight. After sending Starship to orbit, the Super Heavy booster will land down in the Gulf of Mexico. As for Starship, its orbital flight will take it from south Texas to Hawaii, where it will splash down off the coast of the island of Kauai, roughly 90 minutes after launch.
For now, SpaceX awaits the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to approve its Starship launch operations, for the company to proceed.
You can check out live video of Super Heavy on the move below from NASASpaceflight:
Here’s a rough animation of how the whole process is expected to happen when approved:
