On Monday (Sept. 19), SpaceX fired seven engines on its Starship Super Heavy prototype “Booster 7,” marking the most of the company’s new Raptor engines tested simultaneously.
The company is testing some of Booster 7’s engines ahead of its planned first orbital flight. starship, a 165-foot-tall (50-meter) reusable spacecraft that will be lifted into orbit by 33 next-generation Raptor engines inside a 230-foot-tall (70 m) Super Heavy booster. The Starship will have six engines.
To prepare for Starship’s maiden orbital flight, SpaceX performs “static fire” tests in which one or more engines are ignited while the vehicle is stationary on the ground.
Video: SpaceX is firing multiple engines on Starship Super Heavy for the first time
After today’s static fire test, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted that chamber pressures were affecting all seven engines.it looked good (opens in new tab).”
In his next tweet, Musk reported (opens in new tab) “Booster 7 is now returning to the upper deck for robustness upgrades, and booster 8 is moving to the platform for testing,” he added, adding that the company’s next major Starship system test “will be a full-stack wetsuit exercise, followed by 33 engine launches over several weeks.” “Full stack” The Super Heavy consists of a Starship atop a booster rocket, which together form the world’s tallest rocket at 395 feet (120 m).
Booster 7 is now back on top for durability upgrades and booster 8 is platforming for testing. The next big test is probably full wetsuit practice, followed by 33 engine starts over a few weeks.September 19, 2022
This latest SpaceX static fire doubled the number of engines in the last Super Heavy test in August. 31, during which time the company carried out static fire with three Raptor engines. It marked the company’s first multi-engine static fire on a Super Heavy booster, although SpaceX previously tested two of Starship’s six Raptors simultaneously. an August 9 static fire.
SpaceX has not released a projected date for testing the full Starship stack, but it has said it aims to launch the vehicle for orbital testing in the coming months.
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