SpaceX launches super-heavy spaceship rocket into orbit on third attempt

Elon Musk may still be having problems with his social media venture, but in the field of space travel he's crushed… because his company just successfully launched the largest rocket ever.

SpaceX blasted their Super Heavy-Starship rocket into orbit on Thursday morning – with the launch taking place at their facility in Boca Chica, Texas… making this latest attempt the third time they've attempted to take this massive beast to the big to get the afterlife.

Considering they pulled it off, it's truly an impressive feat, especially when you get an idea of ​​the size of this rocket… which is literally the largest in human history.

The entire rocket stands at a whopping 120 meters tall and is almost 9 meters wide – it also contains two different components: the upper stage Starship and the Super Heavy booster. This thing is said to be able to generate over 16 million pounds of thrust with its Raptor engines.

In other words, it's a monster of a machine… and on Thursday Elon and co. finally able to get it into the air and beyond our atmosphere, where it began a sub-orbital flight designed to cross the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean and much of the Indian Ocean.

The idea is for the rocket to release, with the booster falling into the GOM – and the upper stage landing in the Indian Ocean… yes, both can be done with controlled landings.

Ultimately, SpaceX (and NASA) hope to use the Super Heavy-Starship to make trips to the moon… something that hasn't been done in a long time, but that they want to restart. Now that this test flight has gone smoothly (so far), it's within reach.