SpaceX successfully test fires Starship booster in last key step before orbital launch

SpaceX test-fired 31 of the 33 engines in the rocket booster of its Starship prototype on Thursday, as the company prepares to launch the rocket to orbit for the very first time on April 28.

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This milestone test is known as a "static fire" and it is the final major hurdle SpaceX must pass in order to launch the nearly 400-foot-tall rocket into orbit.

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In a tweet sent out shortly after the test, the company said that the engines at the base of the Super Heavy booster fired for "full duration," or as long as the test was expected to last.

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In a subsequent tweet, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that one of SpaceX's engines was turned off before the test was conducted, and another engine “stopped itself.”

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Musk said, "There are still enough engines to get us into orbit!".

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There has been a steady build-up to SpaceX's first flight test of the Starship rocket, as the company's president and chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell, stressed on Wednesday that it would be an experimental launch.

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The SpaceX Starship was designed to carry cargo and people beyond the atmosphere and is critical to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2025. The space agency awarded SpaceX a nearly $3 billion contract from the space agency in the same year.

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It had been expected that SpaceX would be able to launch Starship into orbit as early as summer 2021, but delays in progress, as well as regulatory approvals, have delayed that timeline. SpaceX needs to obtain a license from the Federal Aviation Administration before it can conduct a Starship launch.

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Shotwell stated on Wednesday, “I think we’ll be ready to fly right at the timeframe that we get the license.”

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Following the static fire test that took place on Thursday, the company will examine the results of that test. As a result of a successful static test, Shotwell estimated that SpaceX will be ready to launch its first Starship orbital flight "within the next month or two."