Privately held SpaceX is preparing to launch the most powerful rocket ever built.
Known as “Starship,” the rocket built by Elon Musk-led SpaceX stands 400 feet tall and is designed to have almost double the thrust of any rocket built before it.
The unmanned rocket is scheduled to blast off from Boca Chica, Texas on April 17 and complete one orbit of the Earth during a test flight.
The rocket is designed to be rapidly reusable and SpaceX plans for it to eventually fly people and satellites into Earth’s orbit multiple times a day in the same way that an airplane criss-crosses the U.S. today.
Musk has said that the Starship rocket could usher in an era of interplanetary travel for human beings.
NASA has given SpaceX about $3 billion U.S. to develop the Starship rocket, which is eventually expected to land astronauts back on the Moon.
Musk has said that his ultimate goal with SpaceX is to one day take humans to Mars.
