Elon Musk Shares Glimpse of New Super Heavy Rocket

One of the world's most powerful rockets is slowly coming to life: SpaceX's Super Heavy booster. 

Elon Musk posted a teaser image on his Twitter account on Thursday 18 March, showing off the massive size of the Super Heavy booster. This is the booster that's set to launch SpaceX's Starship spacecraft into space. 

The photo was taken from SpaceX's Boca Chica site in Texas, and it's the first time outsiders lay eyes on the rocket, which is also known as the BN1 prototype. 

First Super Heavy Booster pic.twitter.com/0K5QPsEbbt

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2021

It's still early days, as the booster's first orbital test is due to take place in early July, per NASA SpaceFlight. This is an ambitious test date that'll see both the Super Heavy rocket's BN3 prototype and the Starship SN20's spacecraft launch.

Dates switch and change regularly when it comes to test launches, and this is already an ambitious date even if everything goes to plan with upcoming tests of both the Starship and the Super Heavy rocket. Even so, it shows SpaceX's drive to keep pushing forward.

Before any orbital test flights take place for the Super Heavy booster, its BN1 prototype will first carry out a ground test, followed by the BN2 prototype's orbital test flight sometime later this year, and ultimately the BN3 prototype should be the rocket that'll launch the Starship to space. 

In a cool short video on YouTube, a SpaceX fan who goes by the name of ErcX Space created a simulation of what the Super Heavy rocket and the Starship spacecraft's future launch would look like.

SpaceX's Super Heavy rocket and Starship will be a "fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond," says the space company. 

On top of that, "Starship and Super Heavy will be the world's most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry in excess of 100 metric tonnes to Earth orbit." 

Not only will the entire system be reusable for future launches, it'll also be extremely powerful. 

We've had a sneak peek of the Super Heavy BN1 prototype before it starts testing, and Starship's SN11 prototype is due to carry out a high-altitude test any day now, per Digital Trends. So keep your eyes peeled for SpaceX's exciting, and numerous, tests.