SpaceX test-fires Starship booster in milestone for debut orbital launch

SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster had a test-firing that puts the moon and Mars vehicle closer to its debut orbital flight in the coming months

Published - February 10, 2023 10:06 am IST - WASHINGTON

File photo of the test firing of the Starship Booster

File photo of the test firing of the Starship Booster | Photo Credit: AP

SpaceX's towering Super Heavy booster, one half of the company's Starship rocket system, briefly roared to life for the first time on Thursday in a test-firing that puts the behemoth moon and Mars vehicle closer to its first orbital flight in the coming months, a company live stream showed.

Thirty-one of the Super Heavy booster's 33 Raptor rocket engines fired for roughly 10 seconds at SpaceX's south Texas rocket facilities, the company's Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted shortly after the test.

"Team turned off 1 engine just before start & 1 stopped itself, so 31 engines fired overall," Musk tweeted. "But still enough engines to reach orbit!"

It was unclear whether SpaceX will decide to conduct another static fire test, with all 33 engines, before the powerful, next-generation rocket launches to space for the first time.

(For top technology news of the day, subscribe to our tech newsletter, Today’s Cache)

That launch, a test mission lifting off from Texas and landing off the coast of Hawaii, could happen "in the next month or so," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told a conference on Wednesday, though the exact launch date depends on the outcome of Thursday's static fire test.

"Keep in mind, this first one is really a test flight," Shotwell said. "The real goal is to not blow up the launch pad, that is success."

The test-firing of Starship's 31 Raptor engines appeared to set a new record for the amount of thrust produced by a single rocket - roughly 17 million pounds compared with 10.5 million pounds for the Russian N1, and 8 million pounds for NASA's Space Launch System, commentators on a live stream by space media group NASA Spaceflight said.

Starship, the centerpiece of Musk's goal to colonise Mars, is a stainless steel-clad, two-stage rocket system standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at nearly 400 feet (120 meters). Its 33 Raptor rocket engines make it more powerful than the Saturn V, NASA's rocket that sent humans to the moon under its Apollo program.

Starship's development is partially funded by NASA, which plans to use the rocket in the next decade to land its first crew of astronauts on the moon since 1972, as part of the agency's multibillion-dollar Artemis program.

A day before SpaceX's static fire test, NASA in Mississippi test-fired a redesigned version of its own rocket engines, the Aerojet Rocketdyne-built RS-25, which will power the U.S. space agency's Space Launch System rocket.

SLS and SpaceX's Starship are the two main rockets that will help put NASA astronauts on the moon in the next decade.

Shotwell on Wednesday said Starship will need to launch hundreds of uncrewed missions carrying satellites before it flies humans for the first time.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.