Static fire of 31 rocket engines together was a success!
One of the most successful tests in history paving the wave for Falcon Heavy and therefore Starship towards Space.
It was SpaceX itself to explain, via its Twitter account, that the Super Heavy Booster (B7) has successfully passed its last static fire test with 31 fully operative engines over 33. One of those two had been shut off by team at the beginning of the test and the other shut off by itself during the ignition phase.
- Image by SpaceX
The two shut-off events are perhaps the main reason why this kind of static fire testing is so important. If you are passionate of the topic, maybe you will remember the fire testing and the development of the F-1 engines, the ones used to propel the Saturn V rocket.
Before the final version was developed, numerous static fires were performed, and scientists demonstrated how critical was not only the starting sequence of the engines themselves, but even the sub-part of the ignition chamber, which modulated the ignition of the whole engine. At the beginning, the whole engine was started but the shockwave originated from the reaction propagated inside the combustion chamber destroying the engine structure!
So, this is why the only starting up of a rocket engine is a complex procedure.
Let's come back to Starship. 31 engines completed the static fire test and this is enough to declare it a success: the rocket would reach orbit in this case. Moreover, by the following analysis of the SpaceX team, they concluded that the tank and the other components of the structure did not suffer any damage.
If you want to see a more in-depth analysis, we published an article in our last number of the SpaceInfo Newsletter! To read it, just join the members club: it's free.
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Thank you,
the SpaceInfo Team
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