THE HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT BLOG: From the Space Shuttle to Beyond: Starship Super Heavy Update: Booster 9 Fires Up Its Engines at Starbase's Upgraded Launch Pad...

Sunday, August 6, 2023

Starship Super Heavy Update: Booster 9 Fires Up Its Engines at Starbase's Upgraded Launch Pad...

Booster 9 conducts a static fire atop the Orbital Launch Mount at Starbase in Texas...on August 6, 2023.

SpaceX

Earlier today, a static fire was conducted for Booster 9 atop the upgraded Orbital Launch Mount (OLM) at Starbase in Texas. The static fire was shorter than expected...with four of the 33 Raptor 2 engines shutting off prematurely and the test lasting only 2.74 seconds, instead of the planned 5-second duration.

While it appears that SpaceX still has issues to work out with the Raptor 2s, the OLM seemed to do its job in counteracting the force of Booster 9's thrust (which, even though the engine test only lasted less than 3 seconds, was still more powerful than a Falcon Heavy rocket at full throttle) with a newly-installed water deluge system.

Check out these photos of Booster 9 conducting today's static fire as well as a spin prime test of the Raptor 2 engine pumps last Friday. An image and video of the July 28 test of the water deluge system is at the bottom of this entry.

Booster 9 conducts a spin prime test of its Raptor 2 engine pumps atop the Orbital Launch Mount at Starbase in Texas...on August 4, 2023.