SpaceX tested the first stage of its super heavy rocket Starship [VIDEO]
Yesterday SpaceX conducted a fire test of the Super Heavy Booster 7 first stage in preparation for the upcoming first orbital launch of its Starship
The space company founded by Elon Musk tested the simultaneous operation of 31 of the 33 Raptor rocket engines installed on the B7 rocket booster.
Starship is a two-stage fully reusable super-heavy rocket system under development by SpaceX, which includes the Starship and the Super Heavy rocket booster.
The rocket body diameter is 9 meters and the height is 120 meters. Of these, 69 meters fall on the first step.
The company is also developing the Raptor 2 methane-oxygen engines specifically for Starship.
Six of these engines are installed on Starship, and three of them are optimized for vacuum operation.
The first stage has 33 engines, a record number for all rockets ever built. In comparison, the Soviet N-1 super-heavy launch vehicle had 30 engines.
Both rocket components are planned to be reusable.
The company already has extensive experience in recovering and reusing the first stages of the Falcon 9.
It is assumed that in the reusable version, Starship will be able to deliver 150 tons of payload to low Earth orbit.
Also, in a fully expendable version without returning components to the ground, the ship could deliver up to 250 tons.
THE TEST
On February 9, a static fire test of the Super Heavy B7 booster took place at the Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas, as part of ongoing preparations for the first orbital launch.
The purpose of the static fire was to test the simultaneous operation of all 33 Raptor engines installed on it.
According to Musk, the engineering team was forced to turn off one of the engines just before launch and another turned itself off during the test.
So, a total of 31 out of 33 engines participated in the burn.
Musk clarified that this number of engines should be enough to successfully reach Earth orbit.
According to the company's chief operating officer, Gwynn Shotwell, SpaceX hopes to conduct the first launch of the rocket next month.
One day, this rocket would “take us to Mars”, said Musk on Twitter. I really hope so.
Sources:
- YouTube:
- Spacenews.com: https://spacenews.com/shotwell-says-spacex-ready-for-starship-static-fire-test/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1623822130197708802
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