--- title: SpaceX Plans to Beat NASA in Launching Biggest Rocket Ever description: SpaceX tests its Starship rocket in a dramatic engine burn, setting the stage for a launch more powerful than NASA's mega moon rocket. canonical: https://time.com/6238248/spacex-starship-nasa-sls-rocket-launch/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-12-02T18:57:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:29.531Z article:section: Science og:title: SpaceX Plans to Beat NASA in Launching the Biggest Rocket Ever og:description: SpaceX tests its Starship rocket engines, setting the stage for a launch more powerful than NASA's moon rocket og:url: https://time.com/6238248/spacex-starship-nasa-sls-rocket-launch/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37f4269631d3228d/698a387486f68ebc046f1f57/StaticFire.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3840 og:image:height: 2160 og:image:alt: StaticFire og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: SpaceX Plans to Beat NASA in Launching the Biggest Rocket Ever twitter:description: SpaceX tests its Starship rocket engines, setting the stage for a launch more powerful than NASA's moon rocket twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37f4269631d3228d/698a387486f68ebc046f1f57/StaticFire.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # SpaceX Plans to Beat NASA in Launching the Biggest Rocket Ever > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=11d17b13-f0f4-4eda-8b50-d264ca7e5a0b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: NASA's Mega-Moon Rocket Finally Blasts Off, Heralding America's Lunar Return [Watch (HLS stream): NASA's Mega-Moon Rocket Finally Blasts Off, Heralding America's Lunar Return](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tmevP7cB.m3u8) (1:40)  _Published 2022-11-16. The countdown for the launch of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) moon rocket officially began just over 48 hours before the six massive engines on the 32-story rocket at last lit at 1:47 a.m. ET this morning, muscling the 2.6 million kg (5.75 million lb.) machine off of launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and hurling it moon-ward. With the successful liftoff, NASA’s Artemis program—which aims to have Americans back on the moon by as early as late 2025—at last got underway._  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Dec 2, 2022 6:57 PM UTC  SpaceX's Super Heavy rocket test-fires 11 of its 33 engines SpaceX's Super Heavy rocket test-fires 11 of its 33 engines SpaceX via Twitter  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Dec 2, 2022 6:57 PM UTC NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) moon rocket officially became the most powerful rocket ever flown when it lifted off in the early morning hours of Nov. 16, putting out a prodigious 4 million kg (8.8 million lbs) of thrust. That comfortably beat the old record holder—the Apollo era’s Saturn 5, with its 3.4 million kg (7.5 million lbs) of thrust. --- ### More from TIME --- But the SLS won’t hold that title for long. As [Space.com reports](https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-super-heavy-static-fire-november-29), earlier this week, SpaceX successfully test-fired 11 of the 33 engines on its Brobdingnagian Super Heavy rocket, a beast of a machine that, when all of its engines are lit, will produce more than 7.25 million kg (16 million lbs) of thrust, nearly double that of the SLS. The Super Heavy stands 69 m (230 ft.) tall, and serves as the first stage carrying the 50 m (164 ft) Starship spacecraft. The entire stack, also known as Starship, stands nearly 40 stories tall—again easily beating out the SLS’s 32 stories. Unlike the SLS, of course, Starship hasn’t yet flown, but the engine test is preparatory to a first uncrewed launch of the rocket that could happen later this month—though it is likelier to occur in the first quarter of 2023\. Whenever the ship launches, it can’t come too soon. NASA has selected the crewed upper portion of the Starship stack as the landing craft for the Artemis 3 mission, which aims to have American astronauts back on the lunar surface as early as 2026. Meanwhile, NASA’s Artemis 1 uncrewed mission around the moon—which got its boost thanks to the SLS—has been going precisely according to plan. As the space agency announced, the latest step in that plan took place yesterday at 4:53 p.m. ET, when the spacecraft, currently in lunar orbit, fired its engine for one minute and 45 seconds, putting it on a path for a final close lunar flyby before heading home for a planned Dec. 11 splashdown. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6238248/spacex-starship-nasa-sls-rocket-launch/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6238248/spacex-starship-nasa-sls-rocket-launch/"},"headline":"SpaceX Plans to Beat NASA in Launching the Biggest Rocket Ever","datePublished":"2022-12-02T18:57:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:51:29.531Z","description":"SpaceX tests its Starship rocket in a dramatic engine burn, setting the stage for a launch more powerful than NASA's mega moon rocket","url":"https://time.com/6238248/spacex-starship-nasa-sls-rocket-launch/","keywords":["Space","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37f4269631d3228d/698a387486f68ebc046f1f57/StaticFire.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37f4269631d3228d/698a387486f68ebc046f1f57/StaticFire.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"StaticFire","caption":"SpaceX's Super Heavy rocket test-fires 11 of its 33 engines","creditText":"SpaceX via Twitter","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6238248/spacex-starship-nasa-sls-rocket-launch/","name":"SpaceX Plans to Beat NASA in Launching the Biggest Rocket Ever"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"NASA's Mega-Moon Rocket Finally Blasts Off, Heralding America's Lunar Return","description":"The countdown for the launch of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) moon rocket officially began just over 48 hours before the six massive engines on the 32-story rocket at last lit at 1:47 a.m. ET this morning, muscling the 2.6 million kg (5.75 million lb.) machine off of launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and hurling it moon-ward. 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