SpaceX begins installing Raptor engines on first Super Heavy booster

[Elderberry]

TESLARATI  By Eric Ralph 7/12/2021

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-super-heavy-booster-raptor-engine-installed/

SpaceX has installed a Raptor engine on a Super Heavy booster prototype for the first time, defying expectations and setting the rocket up for two major tests as early as this week.

On Thursday, July 8th, SpaceX briefly filled Super Heavy Booster 3’s (B3) propellant tanks with benign nitrogen gas. The vehicle seemingly came to life for the first time that morning when it was spotted using its tank vents – a generally incontrovertible sign that the complex mechanical system that is a rocket is functional. Later that day, the public highway and beach adjacent to SpaceX’s launch site were briefly closed for what was expected to be an ambient pressure and/or cryogenic proof test.

Booster 3 never got to the cryogenic proof test – easily confirmed thanks to the frost that forms on most rockets’ exteriors as main tanks are filled with extremely cold liquid nitrogen. No such frost formed, no major venting occurred, and the road was only closed for the first two hours of a six-hour test window.

[Idiot]

Any idea how many they'll install to test the booster?  9?

[Elderberry]

Any idea how many they'll install to test the booster?  9?

With ground testing they might only test 3. 9 Raptors would be a lot of energy hitting the test pad.

I have not read how many Raptors will be used for the Orbital Test Flight.

[Elderberry]

SpaceX will soon fire up its massive Super Heavy booster for the first time

Ars Technica by Eric Berger - 7/14/2021

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/07/spacex-will-soon-fire-up-its-massive-super-heavy-booster-for-the-first-time/

What has SpaceX been up to in South Texas since early May?

This week, the company added three Raptor rocket engines to Booster 3 and told area residents it may conduct a static fire test of the vehicle as soon as Thursday, July 15. The road closure schedule indicates a potential test window from noon, local time, to 10 pm (17:00 UTC Thursday to 03:00 UTC Friday).

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said Booster 3 will not launch, but if all goes well with its ground testing, the company will proceed with a launch of Booster 4. This rocket is already being built at the company's assembly facility a few kilometers from the launch site in South Texas. Whereas SpaceX is testing Booster 3 with three Raptor engines, a fully orbital version of Super Heavy will have 33 of the methane-fueled Raptors.

In parallel, SpaceX has been building "Ship 20." (SpaceX has abandoned the SN nomenclature for Starship prototypes and now calls them "Ships.") This is the first of a new generation of Starship prototypes with features that will allow them to ascend into space and then return to Earth. Much of the Ship 20 rocket is already complete in a high-bay facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

All of this work—on rockets, the tower, and ground systems—is in preparation for the test launch of Super Heavy and Starship later this summer. SpaceX wants to make this test flight—which will see the Starship vehicle travel most of the way around Earth before making a controlled re-entry into the ocean north of Kauai—as early as August.

However, regulatory hurdles remain. In addition to all of the technical work and testing to be done, SpaceX still needs to obtain launch permission from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is reviewing the environmental status of the launch facility in South Texas. The FAA said, as of May, it has yet to make a decision on whether to allow SpaceX to launch orbital Starship missions from South Texas.

[Idiot]

SpaceX will soon fire up its massive Super Heavy booster for the first time

Ars Technica by Eric Berger - 7/14/2021

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/07/spacex-will-soon-fire-up-its-massive-super-heavy-booster-for-the-first-time/

However, regulatory hurdles remain. In addition to all of the technical work and testing to be done, SpaceX still needs to obtain launch permission from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is reviewing the environmental status of the launch facility in South Texas. The FAA said, as of May, it has yet to make a decision on whether to allow SpaceX to launch orbital Starship missions from South Texas.

Can you imagine spending that kind of money and not being allowed to launch?  Here's hoping it all gets worked out.