SpaceX has cleared a major hurdle that brings it closer to the first orbital flight test of the Starship system. The company has successfully completed a static fire test of the current Super Heavy prototype, the Booster 7, a month after its previous attempt ended in flames. SpaceX used Booster 7 again for this test, but only fired a single Raptor engine at the orbital launch pad, firing it up for a few seconds to give engineers a close look at how it works.
Booster 7 is equipped with 33 Raptor version 2 engines intended to give it the lift it needs to launch both the first stage and its upper stage companion, the Starship spacecraft. During the company’s previous static fire test attempt, the booster caught fire on the launch pad. The company’s boss, Elon Musk, revealed on Twitter at the time that the problem had occurred from the spin-start test of the engine carried out by SpaceX, and that from now on the company “will no longer perform a spin start test with all 33 engines at once”.
In addition to testing Booster 7, SpaceX also conducted a static fire test on two of Starship 24’s six Raptor engines. This is the current prototype of the upper stage of the launch system, and it is the one that will fly on the space for the system’s first orbital flight test. . It’s not yet clear when SpaceX intends to send the starship into orbit for the first time, but it will likely have to do more tests before that happens, including static firing of more of its Raptor engines .
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