Musk shows off firing of Starship engine built for quick hops across world

The new Raptor rocket engine will power SpaceX's prototype Starship, the vehicle designed to carry humans on quick hops across the world and eventually to Mars

Elon Musk on Sunday tweeted videos and pictures revealing the first firing of the new Raptor rocket engine that will power SpaceX’s prototype Starship, the vehicle designed to carry humans on quick hops across the world and eventually to Mars.

Musk said that he was proud of the "great work" by SpaceX team, later explaining to his 24.5m Twitter followers that the green tinge in the rocket flame was "either camera saturation or a tiny bit of copper from the chamber". SpaceX last month said it was moving its testing of the Starship prototype to its south Texas site from the Port of Lost Angeles.

SpaceX last month said it was moving its testing of the Starship prototype to its south Texas site from the Port of Lost Angeles.

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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 4, 2019