Rocket builders must conduct multiple static fire tests of their boosters before they’ll send them into space for the primary time.
Which means securing the vehicle to the bottom before firing up a number of of its engines for anywhere between seconds and several other minutes.
SpaceX has been testing the engines on its next-generation Starship spacecraft that can sit atop the mighty Super Heavy rocket when it takes its first orbital flight in the approaching months.
While most videos of engine tests show the vehicle from the side, SpaceX decided to do things a bit in a different way this time around by placing a camera directly above the Starship when it fired a single engine for about six seconds at its Starbase facility in Texas on Thursday. And we’re sure you’ll agree, the footage is pretty darn amazing.
We’re assuming the camera was attached to a drone flying overhead, though SpaceX doesn’t confirm this in its tweet sharing the video.
And just to present you some more perspective on what’s happening, here’s the identical test from the same old angle.
SpaceX chief Elon Musk also released some equally awesome footage a few months ago showing a static fire test of seven of the Super Heavy’s 33 Raptor engines.
When the Super Heavy lifts off on its maiden test flight in the approaching months, it would be essentially the most powerful rocket ever to have launched. With 17 million kilos of thrust, that’s greater than double that of the Saturn V rocket that propelled American astronauts to the moon five a long time ago, and way greater than the 8.8 million kilos of thrust exhibited by NASA’s latest Space Launch System (SLS) rocket when it took its first flight in November as a part of the Artemis I lunar mission.
The Super Heavy and Starship, that are collectively often known as Starship, will likely be utilized by NASA to hold astronauts and supplies to the moon, and will even be deployed for the primary crewed mission to Mars, possibly within the 2030s.
But before those missions, SpaceX is planning to make use of the Starship for the primary civilian flight to the moon in the subsequent few years. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has already bought all of the seats and chosen his fellow passengers for the week-long adventure that can involve the spacecraft performing a flyby of our nearest neighbor before returning home.
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