Originally Posted by
Max Angle
The reports said it was being fuelled for a static engine fire test, why was the second stage being fuelled I wonder? Perhaps something to do with structural considerations or just a test of fuelling process and equipment, it certainly won't have been fired in the test. Any ideas?
Static fire test is in effect a full dress rehearsal for launch, ie. everything that's done for launch is done up to firing the main engines (albeit briefly)
Part of this will be testing the RP-1 and LOX loading systems etc, with super-cooled fuel/LOX temp is everything so load times etc are very critical, if there is a bug in the ground systems, this is when you want to catch them.