On February 9, 2023, SpaceX fired 31 of the 33 Raptor engines on Super Heavy Booster 7 during a roughly 10-second static-fire test at Starbase in South Texas. The booster was held at the pad: this was a ground test, not a launch or orbital flight.
What happened in the 31-engine test?
SpaceX’s Super Heavy Booster 7 performed the test as a major ground milestone ahead of Starship’s first orbital flight attempt. The Associated Press reported that 31 engines fired for about 10 seconds. The planned test involved all 33 engines, but the result was not an all-engine firing.
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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk explained that one engine was turned off just before the firing command and another stopped itself. He said: “Team turned off 1 engine just before start & 1 stopped itself, so 31 engines fired overall,” adding, “But still enough engines to reach orbit!” The Associated Press quoted Musk’s account; Futurism also reported the statement.
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What is a static fire test?
A static fire is an engine firing on the ground while the vehicle is restrained rather than allowed to lift off. It lets a rocket’s propulsion system be exercised as part of ground testing, but it is not itself a flight test. In this case, Booster 7 remained held at the pad during the firing. Space.com’s report identifies the event as a static fire.
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Why did firing 31 engines matter?
Super Heavy is Starship’s first stage, and firing a large cluster of its engines together was an important step toward an orbital attempt. It demonstrated that 31 engines fired during this test; it did not establish that the complete vehicle was ready for flight or prove how it would perform in an actual launch.
Contemporaneous reporting described the planned full static fire as a major ground test before flight. Spaceflight Now relayed SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell’s description of the planned test as “really the final ground test that we can do before we light ‘em up and go.” That was her characterization before the firing, not a post-test verdict on the 31-engine result. Spaceflight Now reported the test and the attributed statement.
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How much thrust did the test produce?
Futurism relayed an early back-of-the-envelope estimate by Stephen Clark of NASASpaceFlight that the 31-engine firing generated more than 15 million pounds of thrust. That is a secondary estimate, not a SpaceX-published measurement of the test’s output.
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The Associated Press separately described Starship’s full liftoff thrust capability as about 17 million pounds. That figure refers to the vehicle’s capability, not a measured result from Booster 7’s 31-engine static fire. The AP report gives the full-capability figure, while Futurism attributes the test estimate to Clark.
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