The world was expecting a 33-engine static fire test of the Starship Booster 7 last week. But due to technical reasons, SpaceX turned off 1 engine before the test and 1 other did not fire during the test attempt, that’s why the test was conducted with 31 engines instead of 33.
So, on Thursday 9th February, the attempt with 31 Raptor 2 engines installed on the Super Heavy Booster 7 was the largest static fire test conducted by SpaceX yet.
According to SpaceX, even with 31 engines, the commercial space rocket manufacturer did not utilize the full power of all the engines in this static fire test.
“Super Heavy Booster 7 completed a full duration static fire test of 31 Raptor engines, producing 7.9 million lbf of thrust (~3,600 metric tons) – less than half of the booster’s capability,” SpaceX issued an official statement on Twitter.
A Raptor 2 engine at its peak power delivers a downward thrust of 0.5 million lbf (pound-force). So by multiplying it by 31 engines, the static fire test at full capability would have delivered 15.5 million lbf of thrust.
Aside from this information, SpaceX shared some stunning imagery of the Booster 7’s 31-engine static fire test. The following video clip shows us an aerial view of this event taken via a drone camera above the orbital launch mount (OLM) at Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas.
After the full wet dress rehearsal last month, SpaceX has achieved another major milestone with a successful static fire test towards Starship’s 1st orbital flight test. According to Elon Musk, we can expect the first orbital flight of Starship at the end of February or in March.
Let us know in the comments section below how excited are you about the Starship program and humans inching closer to the Moon and finally to the red planet Mars.
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