https://www.space.com/spacex-starshi...st-static-fire
SpaceX fires up Starship and Super Heavy Booster 7 ahead of test flight
SpaceX fired up a Super Heavy booster on the launch pad today (Aug. 9) for the first time ever, notching a big milestone in the development of its Starship deep-space transportation system.
The Super Heavy in question, a prototype known as Booster 7, is scheduled to launch on the
Starship program's first orbital test flight in the coming months.
SpaceX is gearing up for that mission, as today's engine test shows.
The test, which took place this afternoon at SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas, involved just one of Super Heavy's 33 https://www.space.com/elon-musk-raptor-2-engines-daleks engines, company representatives
(opens in new tab). The engine lit up while Booster 7 remained anchored to the orbital launch mount, in a test known as a static fire…..
And Ship 24 got a workout today, too: A few hours after the Booster 7 activity, SpaceX conducted a static fire with two of Ship 24's six Raptors…..
SpaceX likely will perform a lot more testing before clearing Booster 7 and Ship 24 for that landmark launch. But some of those prelaunch trials will be big events in themselves. The first time that Booster 7 fires up all 33 of its Raptors, for example, will be a sight — and a sound — to behold. (For perspective: The Falcon 9 has just nine engines in its first stage, as the rocket's name suggests.)….
Tuesday was a very busy day for SpaceX. On Tuesday night, the company launched 52 of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit with a Falcon 9, which lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket's first stage came down for a vertical landing at sea on one of SpaceX's autonomous drone ships a little less than nine minutes after launch.…