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Updated on: May 22, 2026 / 6:47 PM EDT
/ CBS News
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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.
