SpaceX just took a big step toward reusing Starship’s Super Heavy booster

The first flight of Booster 14, seen here, occurred on January 16. SpaceX hasn't said how many, if any, of the 33 Raptor engines it replaced in preparation for Thursday's static fire test. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX is having trouble with Starship's upper stage after back-to-back failures, but engineers are making remarkable progress with the rocket's enormous booster.

The most visible sign of SpaceX making headway with Starship's first stage—called Super Heavy—came at 9:40 am local time (10:40 am EDT; 14:40 UTC) Thursday at the company's Starbase launch site in South Texas. With an unmistakable blast of orange exhaust, SpaceX fired up a Super Heavy booster that has already flown to the edge of space. The burn lasted approximately eight seconds.

This was the first time SpaceX has test-fired a "flight-proven" Super Heavy booster, and it could pave the ...