Starship just took a giant step toward its first-ever orbital flight test.
The static fire lasted about seven seconds, the duration that SpaceX had mapped out beforehand,. And Booster 7 emerged from the huge cloud of kicked-up dust in one piece, which is something to celebrate as well. SpaceX's Booster 7 Super Heavy prototype ignites 31 of its 33 engines during a static fire test at the company's Starbase site on Feb. 9, 2023.colonization and other ambitious off-Earth feats economically feasible.
Both Starship and Super Heavy are designed to be fully reusable, and both are powered by SpaceX's next-generation Raptor engine — 33 for the booster and six for the upper stage. For months, SpaceX has been preparing Booster 7 and a Starship prototype called Ship 24 for an orbital flight test. Such work has included a fueling test with the duo, which the company, and a number of static fires — prelaunch trials in which engines are ignited briefly while a vehicle remains anchored to the ground.
Ship 24 fired up all six of its Raptors at Starbase last September, for example, and Booster 7 ignited two months later. That was the big first stage's static-fire high until today's test, which apparently checked a crucial box on the road to an orbital attempt.
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