Yes, you got it, Everyday Astronaut and SpaceX featuring on a car news site. What about it? We are primarily interested in the Raptor Engine SpaceX is developing for their superheavy rocket ship currently known as Starship. Starship will be by far the biggest ever rocket ever to fly once all the preliminary testing is completed. Before Starship flies commercial payload into space, it must undergo a series of proof of flight readiness tests. There may well be at least 4 orbital test flights over the next 1-2 years.

Starship has been in development for over the past two years and after performing a number of low-altitude test flights its first orbital test flight is not too far away. Elon Musk, the founder and chief engineer of SpaceX, has not yet indicated when the first Starship test flight orbital test will take place, other than saying between now or by the end of the year.

When it does launch, Starship will become the biggest rocket ever sent into space, bigger even than the mighty Saturn V that flew the first-ever mission to the moon in 1969. To get such a big rocket like Starship into space powerful engines are required.

The engines did not exist, so SpaceX made a new generation of rocket engines specifically for Starship. Starship will require 32 rocket engines once it is fully laden with fuel and cargo. SpaceX has created a class of new rocket engines said to be the most advanced, most complex, and most powerful ever created.

If you think rocket engines are simple, think again.

Rocket engines are highly complex and actually do require real rocket science. Get the start sequence wrong, or fuel mix, and the engine will melt due to the extreme heat… or catastrophically explode. YouTuber and popular space enthusiast, Everyday Astronaut is given a guided tour by Elon Musk around SpaceX’s Raptor engine production bay.

Elon Musk gives an insight into what it takes to make and one day launch such a huge rocket into space.