Thursday, February 9, 2023

Starship Update: 31 Out of 33 Engines Successfully Come to Life in Today's Static Fire...

An aerial shot of Starship's Super Heavy Booster 7 firing 31 of its 33 Raptor 2 engines during a test at Starbase, Texas...on February 9, 2023.
SpaceX

A few hours ago, SpaceX successfully ignited 31 out of 33 Raptor 2 engines on Super Heavy Booster 7 (B7) at Starbase in Texas.

According to a tweet posted by Elon Musk shortly after the static fire, one Raptor 2 was deactivated shortly before B7 ignited its engines by Starbase mission controllers, and another Raptor 2 went offline during the 5-second test. The 31-engine thrust achieved by B7 was still great enough that it would've sent this vehicle to Earth orbit!

Even though this static fire wasn't flawless, it was still historic. Assuming that all 31 Raptor 2 engines reached full power, B7 achieved a thrust of over 15 million pounds...which is essentially double the amount that Saturn V (7.6 million pounds) and the Space Launch System (8.8 million pounds) achieved at liftoff.

Today's static fire began with the most powerful rocket ignition ever.

It remains to be seen if SpaceX will conduct another test in an attempt to ignite all 33 engines, or if B7 will be re-stacked with Starship 24 for their maiden flight into space...which is still targeted for next month.

Stay tuned!

An overhead shot, taken by a drone, of Super Heavy Booster 7 firing 31 of its 33 Raptor 2 engines during its test at Starbase, Texas...on February 9, 2023.
SpaceX

Posted by Richard Par at 6:57 PM
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