While you were sleeping, NASA finally launched it

How much DEF fluid is onboard that hoss?

Waste of damn $$$. Elon with have a colony up there by the time they land on Mars.

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Have some understanding of the facts before making silly jokes.

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He's right though. the end goal for NASA is Mars. The first step was returning to the moon.

Which was an goal set by GWB when he was in office. 20years later and we only just launched the prototype...

Obama fricked nasa over. He saw it as a waste.
A shame really.

do they normally flood the area with water right before launch?

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Yes, dissipates the heat, IIRC.

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Yep, helps take the heat down and also suppress noise somewhat.

Here are a couple of shots of the 14 engine Starship booster test. 14 of the 33 engines were tested. Which made it the most powerful in production rocket until SLS lifted off 2 days later. Expect next week for Starship to up the engine count. They will probably test the others and then ramp up for a full 33 engine fire.

The most amazing thing to me about the Space-x pad test is that the rocket didn't even shudder or flex when the 14 engines fired.

I'd love to know more about the clamping/restraint system holding it in place.

Stayed up to watch. Wanted to drive over and watch it but I had a full day today and I had low confidence they would actually launch. But watched it from the backyard.