The Countdown Begins: SpaceX Set to Launch their Super Heavy Booster7 with 33 Raptor Engines

SpaceX is undergoing final preparations for the Starship Orbital Maiden flight. The most important part of waiting is definitely the super heavy booster. 733 Raptor engine static fire. And guess what? It’s happening this week. How will SpaceX fire those 33 engines?

We’ll find out in today’s article.

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Now, let’s get back to today’s content. The Starship team recently targeted a launch date of January 20. That’s according to people familiar with the planning.

But the date was postponed to conduct testing, which was delayed in part due to road repair near the test site. One of the people said as the result, the company is now targeting January 20th for what’s known as that static fire test to make sure all 33 engines on the rocket function properly.

And that’s coming from people on site. However, this test, which is the final test before attempting to launch, could still be rescheduled, the people cautioned.

SpaceX teams must be very careful with this important test for Booster seven, its near-term successors. It means 33 new Raptor two engines capable of generating a total of about 7600 metric tons. That’s nearly 16.7 million foot lbs of thrust.

At that point, SpaceX has to fully fill the super heavy booster for the first time, depending on the storage situation.

SpaceX Prepares Booster Seven for Launch with 3500 Ton Load of Liquid Nitrogen

That process will likely begin by filling Booster seven with 2500 tons of liquid nitrogen into about two-thirds full. If SpaceX also temporarily fills one of the orbital tank farms with liquid oxygen or lox or methane like four tanks with nitrogen, it could fully load booster seven with around 3500 tons of nitrogen, at least according to SpaceX’s own website.

That’s about the same weight as the propellant 3400 tons that super heavy is designed to lift off with. If that full crew Fireproof goes well, SpaceX will then likely perform one or several wet dress rehearsals, ultimately filling Booster seven with approximately 2900 tons of cryogenic oxygen and 500 tons of cryogenic methane. Out of an abundance of caution.

Super heavy B seven will likely have far less propellant aboard during almost all of its static fire tests. But a full static fire with a full load of propellant simulating most pre-launch conditions will likely be one of the last main goals of any static fire campaign. At full thrust, 33 Raptor two engines will likely burn about 25 tons of propellant per second, 50% more powerful than NASA’s retired Saturn five-moon rocket.

It will also produce a level of thrust seven times greater than Falcon nine. A huge amount of propellant will be needed regardless as the Soviet N-1 rocket is the only other rocket that comes close to this.

It was similar in size to Starship and also featured a similar layout of 30 NK 15 engines arranged in two rings.

N-1 Program Suspended After Series of Failed Launches and Catastrophic Explosions

But sadly, each of the four attempts to launch an N-1 fails with the second attempt resulting in the vehicle crashing back onto the launchpad shortly after liftoff.

And it calls one of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions in human history. Many of the failures were caused by explosive engines, which led to a chain of other problems during the launch.

The KN one program was suspended in 1974 and officially canceled in 1976 with the high innovation space now will hopefully be able to shut down a failing engine before it turns into a grenade.

In fact, the engine problems on the N1 were never discovered prior to launch because the Soviets didn’t have a large enough testing facility to static fire.

The massive N1 first stage. In the spirit of caution, SpaceX has even taken the unusual step of stress testing the starship’s orbital launch mount with a custom jig. In the first week of 2023, SpaceX used that jig to load pairs of the RMS 20 hole-down clamps with hundreds of tons of ballast, ensuring they could withstand the immense weight of a fully fueled starship.

Proof test of super heavy B four and B seven, if likely subjected the old M to 2000 plus tons of force. But a full starship will weigh more than double the maximum weight the ILM has experienced to date.

Whether or not SpaceX Booster seven can achieve that feat, hopefully, the answer will be available this week as planned.

Elon Musk Confirms SpaceX Plans to Build Five Full Stacks of Starship in 2023

However, even if the B seven explodes, there’s nothing to worry about too much. As Elon Musk just confirmed, SpaceX plans to build about five full stacks of Starship in 2023.

Yep, about five full stacks. The launch vehicle is undergoing development at the Starbase facility located in Boca Chica, Texas.

Starship is composed of two stages a spacecraft that’s propelled to orbit by a super heavy rocket powered by 33 methane-fueled Raptor V two engines.

When fully stacked, it’s 390 feet high, which is taller than the US Statue of Liberty. Starship is destined to become the world’s most powerful, fully reusable rocket. And for that scale, SpaceX’s goal is really crazy, but it’s worth waiting for.

Otherwise, this moves entirely in line with Musk’s point of view.

Musk Explains the Benefits of High Production Rate to Speed Up Starship Development

In 2020, Musk explained that manufacturing multiple starship test vehicles simultaneously is necessary to speed up its development. A high production rate solves many ills.

If you have a high production rate, you have a high iteration rate for pretty much any technology whatsoever.

The progress is a function of how many iterations you have and how much progress you make between each iteration, he said. If you have a high production rate, then you have many iterations. You can make progress from one to the next.

Having multiple vehicles ready for testing will enable engineers to rapidly move on to test the next prototype, which is important in the case of a failure during testing.

SpaceX Making Big Strides in Rocket Engineering with Production System for Starships

As of today, SpaceX has test-flown nine starships propelled by three raptor engines on high-altitude flights under 20 kilometers.

The company has never flown a fully stacked vehicle with a super heavy rocket booster into space. We have built a production system for starships.

We’re making lots of ships and boosters, Musk shared.

We’re currently expecting to make a booster and a starship initially, roughly every couple of months. And then hopefully by the end of this year, one every month.

He said this during a TED Talk interview on April 20, 22. Long term, Musk has bold ambitions for SpaceX’s Mars colonization plan.

He envisions manufacturing 1000 starships over the course of 20 years in order to enable a self-sustaining city on the red planet before the year 2050.

He says the STARBASE factory assembly line will eventually be capable of manufacturing a starship every 72 hours. In short, if this plan is real, SpaceX will completely change the rocket equation.

And that concludes today’s article. Let us know what you think about the power of Starship and those comments right there below.

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