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.
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.