Science

Launch of Musk's monster rocket could be in May

SpaceX is set to launch the third version of its Starship rocket after completing a Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) - a full fueling test - yesterday.

It was second time lucky for Elon Musk's rocketeers, after a first attempt over the weekend was aborted. The issue cropped up before propellant was loaded.

However, on Monday, the company tried again and confirmed that during the countdown (designed to check out as many activities as possible short of launching the behemoth) 5,000 metric tons (more than 11 million pounds) of propellant were loaded into the vehicles stacked on the company's new Pad 2 at its Starbase facility in Texas.

NASA's Artemis II also suffered from WDR problems, although the US space agency was forced to roll the rocket stack back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs.…