SpaceX begins testing its Tremendous Heavy booster, and it’s “not good”

A ground-based take a look at of the Tremendous Heavy rocket that’s meant to spice up a Starship higher stage into orbit resulted in flames on Monday afternoon at SpaceX’s launch website in South Texas. A fireplace burned within the neighborhood of the pad, on and off, for greater than an hour.

That is the primary time SpaceX has examined a booster stage—this one bears the designation Booster 7—geared up with a full complement of 33 Raptor rocket engines. Monday’s take a look at was not meant to result in a static hearth take a look at, throughout which the engines are briefly ignited, so seeing hearth erupt from the aft finish of the automobile at 4:20 pm CT native time was a shock.

The methane-fueled Raptor engine has an advanced sequence of occasions that should unfold exactly to ensure that it to ignite, and SpaceX was testing the “spin begin” portion of this ignition sequence when the anomaly occurred. One thing should have brought on methane propellant to ignite, with the ambient oxygen within the air serving as an oxidizer, contained in the automobile.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk mentioned on Twitter Monday night that the take a look at was “not good” and defined that the problem occurred throughout a simultaneous take a look at of all of the engines. “Going ahead, we gained’t do a spin begin take a look at with all 33 engines without delay,” he mentioned.

Musk flew into Brownsville on Monday night after the anomaly to evaluate the injury firsthand and decide a plan to maneuver ahead. Tweeting shortly after midnight, he mentioned, “Base of the automobile appears okay by flashlight. I used to be simply on the market about an hour in the past. We shut down the pad for the evening for security. Will know extra within the morning.”

These inspections will embrace assessing the integrity of the rocket’s propellant tanks, the well being of the Raptor rocket engines, and the standing of the bottom programs and the metal construction of the automobile’s large launch tower.

Internally, SpaceX had been focusing on a possible orbital launch try for the Tremendous Heavy rocket and Starship higher stage in August, which might enhance the higher stage to an altitude of about 250 km earlier than the automobile returned to Earth. The corporate has but to get a proper launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration for this take a look at.

Nevertheless, it seems that technical points with the huge rocket symbolize an even bigger hurdle to reaching a launch. SpaceX clearly has numerous work to do earlier than the Tremendous Heavy rocket is prepared for a static hearth take a look at, which should be accomplished efficiently—probably a number of instances—earlier than any orbital launch try.

If Booster 7 can’t be salvaged, it will not be the tip of the world. SpaceX has established an meeting line in South Texas the place boosters and Starship autos might be in-built a matter of months. A number of are presently in varied levels of labor. The potential lack of 33 Raptor engines, nonetheless, could be extra important.

Itemizing picture by NASASpaceflight.com