The testing began last Thursday, July 8th, when B3 was filled with ambient temperature nitrogen for pressure and leak testing. Testing resumed this afternoon with the first cryogenic test of the huge booster.
Screen capture from under an hour ago as I type. B3 is very visibly
venting cold, expanding gas from about 2/3 of the way up the booster in three
jets and from just below the top in two visible jets. The road was
opened by 6:36 PM, almost exactly a half hour after this visual display.
Work has slowed on the Orbital Launch Integration Tower, apparently they had to wait for some steel sections to be delivered so that the second to last OLIT section could be completed and the last section started. In the interim, it appears at least two Raptor engines have been delivered and possibly installed. One can be seen here. With no knowledge of just what tests they want to do with just how many Raptors, we have no idea if they're working toward a static fire this week or just what, but if they wanted to do a two engine static fire test, the parts are in place right now.
Fellowship of the Raptors - photo by Elon Musk I'm really not sure how many are in that pic, nine or 10? A full up Superheavy booster will have 29. I have to wonder how many will end up on B3.
Eric Ralph at Teslarati points out he's a little surprised that they installed
Raptors on B3, the first booster ever built to this level, before it had any
real cryogenic proof testing done. They clearly thought they could
fix anything that went wrong. After nearly two years of watching tests (Hoppy's first hop flight was August of 2019), we have to know that it's possible there could be a failure that wastes a couple of Raptor engines. To borrow Eric Ralph's summary of losing a couple of engines on B3:
Knowing SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk’s goals for Raptor, the latter implication isn’t much of a surprise but it’s always interesting to have direct visual evidence that Raptor is, in fact, so cheap to build and easy to install that the minor effort and few days of possible delays required to reduce the risk of losing multiple engines just aren’t worth it.
Pallet fulls of rocket engines!
ReplyDeleteYOW!
Looks like 10, 9 regular and 1 vacuum.
ReplyDeleteAnd SpaceX is pushing to build 2 'Boost' Raptors a day in the new plant they'll be building in MacGregor TX. And 1 a day or so in California, along with any other versions and modified ones. A serious motor twice a day? That's just crazy talk. And we all know Musk is crazy.
Tis the difference between production and prototyping. All other rocket engines have been essentially hand-built one at a time. Why build a factory when you're only planning to make a few every year?
DeleteUp until now, any rocket production bigger than a missile has only a need for a couple dozen widgets per year. SpaceX intends to build thousands a year. One of these you can do by hand with garage shop methods, one you cannot.
The difference in cost is stark.