JAKARTA - SpaceX built the largest rocket ever built in history on Friday, August 6 by attaching the US aerospace company's Starship spacecraft to a Super Heavy booster at its facility in Texas.
The combined height of the structures is 400 feet or 122 meters, nearly 40 feet or 12 meters higher than the Saturn V rocket, the next largest rocket ever built by NASA.
The SpaceX rocket, however, will have about twice the thrust of the Saturn V's 70 meganewtons compared to the Saturn V's 25 meganewtons.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted photos of the feat, saying it was "an honor to work with such a great team."
Starship Fully Stacked pic.twitter.com/Fs88RNsmfH
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2021
The two segments connected at Starbase's R&D facility in Boca Chica, Texas, for about an hour on Friday before workers separated them again. The company used a large crane to join the two parts together.
Still awaiting Federal Aviation Administration approval, SpaceX plans to send the Starship into space with a Super Heavy booster for one orbit around Earth in the coming months.
Both segments will be dumped into the sea, but the company plans to control landings on land or above sea platforms so they can be reused. It is similar to the Falcon 9 rocket and can make savings for later launches.
In May, SpaceX made the first successful launch and landing of the Starship, which will serve as a vehicle for landings on the moon and Mars. All previous tests ended in fiery explosions.
NASA chose Starship to land astronauts on the moon as part of its planned Artemis mission. SpaceX has also sold a private flight around the moon using Starship to Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, slated for early 2023.
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