SpaceX has completed its first full static-fire test for Starship, though not in a way that makes the first orbital test flight next month sound realistic. The company hoped to fire all 33 Raptor engines at once, but Elon Musk noted that two engines failed to make it: the mission team shut down one before start-up, while the other “stopped itself.” However, the 31 shots lasted the entire time, and Musk claims that’s enough to reach orbit.
While SpaceX’s last static-fire test in November was a success, the company fired only 14 of the booster’s Raptor engines. It had to fire up more engines than that, and it also has to send Starship on multiple successful test flights before it can ferry astronauts to and from the Moon.
As company president Gwynne Shotwell saying at the FAA’s annual Commercial Space Transportation conference, Starship has to fly “hundreds of flights before [it flies] people.” He also reminded everyone that the first Starship flight “is really a test flight” and that “the real goal [for it] is not to blow up the launch pad.”
In mid-2022, SpaceX conducted a test designed to simultaneously spin all 33 engines of Super Heavy’s Booster 7 prototype. The company was aiming to preview the vehicle’s starting sequence, but the booster caught fire during the process at its Boca Chica, Texas facility. SpaceX boss Elon Musk revealed on Twitter that the issue that caused the explosion was “specific to the engine start test”, because the Raptor engine has a complex starting sequence.
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