Booster 9 - Successful Static Fire
Booster 9 - Successful Static Fire
2.7 second long static fire with 4 premature shutdown Raptor engines.
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The engine shutdowns and early test end aren't my favorite if Booster 9 is still supposed to be used for the next orbital test flight.
Waiting to find out the reasons for the premature shutdowns, and for pics of the steel plates...
Great to see the test campaign swing back into action!
I'm hoping this test was mostly for the deluge system, not the booster, so they were running with extra safe engine shutdown limits. That's just blind hope, though.
On the other hand, the whole point of testing is to find these issues and fix them before the real flight.
I wonder if they will do another test before orbital.
I mean, I get the hardware rich testing mindset, but I thought the engine design was supposed to be stabilizing and getting more reliable. You have to admit that losing 4 engines in under 3 seconds isn't great.
Engine design is not stabilising yet, they are still pushing performance. Raptor 3s are now rolling off the line which again have increased performance. They also target a reduction in complexity with each iteration which should in the end increase reliability. But reliability itself is a later target once the design is mostly settled.
Yeah, it’s not exactly ideal. Let’s hope the root cause isn’t a big issue.