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SpaceX Conducts Dress Rehearsal for Starship Rocket System

  • Fueling test is key step ahead of launch of next-gen rocket
  • NASA has contracted for mission to land astronauts on the moon
SpaceX's first orbital Starship SN20 at the company's Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on Feb. 10, 2022.

SpaceX's first orbital Starship SN20 at the company's Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on Feb. 10, 2022.

Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

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SpaceX filled its Starship rocket and massive booster with extremely cold propellant for the first time stacked together, a crucial test of its new deep-space launch system ahead of its first orbital launch attempt.

The procedure, conducted Monday at the company’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, is known as a wet dress rehearsal and is meant to run through all the major steps that engineers will need to perform on launch day — everything but launch itself.