An orbital launch of SpaceX’s new massive rocket is getting closer to reality with the company firing up its new engines for launch pad hot fires of both a super heavy booster and Starship prototype.
The company performed the two separate hot fires at its Boca Chica, Texas site Starbase on Monday posting images and video to its social media of the dialed-back tests. In mid-July, the Super Heavy Booster 7, spinning up all 33 of its Raptor engines, suffered damage after a fireball exploded during a test, which required repairs.
This time, the company chose to light up just a single Raptor engine during a static fire on the booster sitting on its orbital launch pad while also performing a separate static fire test of only two Raptor engines of the Starship 24 prototype.
