SpaceX boss Elon Musk has shared a video of the company’s first ground test of the Starship Raptor flight engine, which he hopes will eventually transport passengers to Mars.
Musk posted a series of colourful videos and photos of the engine firing on Sunday.
“First firing of Starship Raptor flight engine! So proud of great work by @SpaceX team!!” he tweeted.
He added: "Green tinge is either camera saturation or a tiny bit of copper from the chamber.”
The test comes after the Tesla CEO announced a radical redesign of the Raptor engine in December.
Weeks later, he gave a glimpse of the Starship’s first test vehicle, which will be used for suborbital take-off tests from the SpaceX Texas facility as soon as February.
The Starship will be used for a moon mission in 2023, with Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and a group of artists as passengers.
Musk’s goal is to pair the Starship with a super heavy rocket that will use up to 31 Raptor engines and eventually transport passengers to Mars.
