HERE WE GO! SpaceX launching Starship Super Heavy to orbit for the first time…
Huge thanks to:
LabPadre:
Kevin Randolph:
What about it!?:
Evan Karen:
TijnM:
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After over a year and a half of waiting, Starship’s first trip to space is getting really close and the next step involves a whole lot of fire.
“If things go well, maybe next week we’ll have a 33-engine static fire”, Bill Gerstenmaier, vice president of build and flight reliability, said last week.
So, the SpaceX team will start February with all 33 engines static fire and end the month with the orbital flight?
Are you ready?
Discuss everything about this in today’s episode of Alpha Tech:
SpaceX could attempt a long-awaited static-fire test of all 33 Raptor engines in its Super Heavy booster as soon as this week, one of the final technical milestones before an orbital launch attempt.
The company was starting to get ready for the static fire after a Jan. 23 test called a wet dress rehearsal where both the Super Heavy booster, called Booster 7, and the Starship upper stage, named Ship 24, were loaded with propellants and taken through a practice countdown – an extremely impressive achievement for any rocket, let alone the largest in history. With that combined test out of the way, the only unprecedented test standing between Starship and its first orbital launch attempt is a 33-engine Super Heavy static fire.
During this “wet-dress rehearsal” test, SpaceX said it loaded more than 10 million pounds (about 4.6 million kg) of propellant onboard the vehicle, which, when fully stacked, stands 120 meters tall. Essentially then, over the course of a little more than an hour, the company filled a skinny, 30-story skyscraper with combustible liquid propellants—and nothing blew up.
Impressively, SpaceX completed this important fueling test on its first attempt with Starship and Super Heavy in a stacked configuration, testing both the rocket as well as the launch tower and myriad ground systems required to pump all of these pressurized cryogenic fluids.
To reduce risk, Ship 24 was removed from Booster 7. Back at the rocket garden, not exactly where I expected S24 to settle in. But OK, this is just as good an out-of-the-way holding area as any.
Unburdened by Ship 24, Booster 7 may finally be on the cusp of the most challenging ground test in Starship and SpaceX history.
A static firing will see the booster secured to a test stand so it can’t go anywhere while its engines are lit up briefly to test them and gather data on how they perform in preparation for launch. SpaceX conducted test firings of Booster 7 last year, but only with a fraction of the engines it’s designed to carry. This will be the first time a fully loaded Super Heavy with all 33 engines is ignited.
HERE WE GO! SpaceX launching Starship Super Heavy to orbit for the first time…
