at 3am eastern time on february 7, 2019 elon musk put his spaceX hat on and shared the following tweet:

 

 

this is one raptor engine, firing less than its full potential, according to musk and spaceX. in just three days since its first recorded test-fire (see spaceX instagram post, below) the raptor has reached ‘172 metric tons of force and 257 bar chamber pressure with warm propellant.’ that’s more pressure than the 170 mT needed, but to get the ‘starship’ (previously known as the BFR) to mars, musk’s team will need to replicate 7 more raptors, along with an estimated 31 more to power the ‘super heavy’ rocket booster to take the starship from the ground to stars.