SpaceX launches more powerful Super Heavy-Starship rocket

Space SpaceX launches more powerful Super Heavy-Starship rocket on test flight By William Harwood William Harwood CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. Read Full Bio William Harwood May 22, 2026 / 6:40 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google SpaceX launched a revamped Super Heavy-Starship rocket Friday on a flight to test more powerful engines, enhanced control systems and a host of other upgrades needed to streamline operations and improve safety and reliability.Once operational, Elon Musk's company is counting on the mammoth rocket to launch larger Starlink satellites and government and commercial payloads, and eventually propel missions to the moon and even Mars. The upgraded Super Heavy-Starship blasted off at about 6:30 p.m. EDT from a new, beefed up pad at SpaceX's Starbase launch site on the Texas Gulf Coast. Launch followed a last-minute scrub Thursday due to a minor glitch with a launch pad system and two weather delays beforer that.Generating up to 18 million pounds of thrust — twice the liftoff power of NASA's SLS moon rocket — the 33 methane-burning Raptor engines at the base of the Super Heavy first stage pushed the 407-foot-tall rocket skyward atop a brilliant torrent of blue-white fire.It was the first launch of a "version 3" Super Heavy-Starship and the first use of SpaceX's second Texas launch pad, designed to better withstand the rigors of repeated launches by the world's most powerful rocket. The version 3 Super Heavy-Starship will be the first to take off from a new, beefed-up Starbase launch pad that will require less refurbishment between flights, enabling a faster launch cadence. In this view, the version 3 Super Heavy booster carries out a ground-shaking test firing. SpaceX Two minutes and 24 seconds after liftoff, now out of the dense lower a...