SpaceX has successfully completed a key test on the Starship: firing nearly all of the booster’s engines, called Super Heavy. Of the 33 engines, 31 performed well.
It was a long-awaited test, a key milestone in the development of Starship, SpaceX’s new rocket. The static firing of the launcher, with all of its engines, finally took place on February 9, 2023. And the results are quite favorable for the American company. Nothing exploded.
The timetable for this test was revealed the day before by Gwynne Shotwell, the president of SpaceX, at a conference in Washington on the 8th. She promised that it would be “ a great day for SpaceX “. Two weeks after the procedure intended to test the complete filling of the Starship’s tanks, a test which also went well, it could only be the static firing.
This ignition consists of examining the behavior of the rocket engine – and more particularly its first stage, the Super Heavy, which provides most of the propulsion at the start of the mission (it is he who must tear the launcher from the terrestrial gravity and reach space, beyond 100 km altitude). But here, the rocket never takes off from its launch pad.
All Starship engines tested at the same time
Static firings have already been observed during the design of the Starship. The fundamental difference of the test organized on February 9, whose formalization took place at the very last moment by SpaceX, with announcements on Twitter published very shortly before the test, is that it put in operates all of the Super Heavy’s rocket engines.
The Super Heavy’s 33 rocket motors had never been triggered together during a static firing – the previous ceiling was 14. It was therefore a question of making an attempt in a complete configuration, with all the motorization in action. And the results are positive, as we can see in the video, but also according to the first feedback.
First, the launch pad did not turn into a ball of fire – Gwynne Shotwell had made a joke of it on February 8, explaining among other things that “ the real goal [des tests du Starship, NDLR] is not to blow up the launch pad, that’s success “. Then almost all of the Super Heavy’s rocket engines were able to function.
An account published by Elon Musk shortly after the booster was ignited indicates that one engine was shut down by SpaceX just before the ignition, while a second flamed out on its own during the attempt. So 31 rocket motors were really able to work. ” But there are still enough engines to reach orbit! », threw Elon Musk.
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