SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space tech venture, is all set to test its Raptor rocket engine, meant to be used for its Mars mission. On Tuesday, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell revealed that the company has shipped the Mars bound Raptor engine to its MacGregor, Texas testing facility. “We should be firing it soon,” she added.
The Raptor is a cryogenic methane-fueled rocket engine, which is said to have several times the thrust of Merlin, the engine used in SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets. Raptor is expected to power SpaceX’s next generation of rockets named BFR (You know what it stands for). Together, the BFR and Raptor will form the foundation of the company’s Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT), a project that aims to transport humans to Mars using space capsules.
Header image courtesy: SpaceX