https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/07/spacex-will-soon-fire-up-its-massive-super-heavy-booster-for-the-first-time/ Skip to main content * Biz & IT * Tech * Science * Policy * Cars * Gaming & Culture * Store * Forums Subscribe [ ] Close Navigate * Store * Subscribe * Videos * Features * Reviews * RSS Feeds * Mobile Site * About Ars * Staff Directory * Contact Us * Advertise with Ars * Reprints Filter by topic * Biz & IT * Tech * Science * Policy * Cars * Gaming & Culture * Store * Forums Settings Front page layout Grid List Site theme Black on white White on black Sign in Comment activity Sign up or login to join the discussions! [ ] [ ] [Submit] [ ] Stay logged in | Having trouble? Sign up to comment and more Sign up Booster 3 goes whee? -- SpaceX will soon fire up its massive Super Heavy booster for the first time What has SpaceX been up to in South Texas since early May? Eric Berger - Jul 14, 2021 5:42 pm UTC A Super Heavy booster rolled out of SpaceX's production facilities in South Texas earlier this month. Enlarge / A Super Heavy booster rolled out of SpaceX's production facilities in South Texas earlier this month. Elon Musk reader comments 382 with 134 posters participating, including story author Share this story * Share on Facebook * Share on Twitter * Share on Reddit SpaceX seems to have gone a long time without launching--or blowing up--a rocket at its South Texas launch site. A little more than two months have passed since the company launched its SN15 Starship prototype to an altitude of 10 km before safely landing the vehicle on May 5. The SpaceX engineering team apparently got the data it needed from that test flight, because the company scrapped plans to fly its next prototype (the SN16) in favor of moving toward higher flights. Accordingly, activity at the so-called "Starbase" facility near Boca Chica, Texas, has focused on building up capabilities for an orbital launch attempt of the Starship system. During the last two months SpaceX has constructed a massive launch tower to support a full stack of the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage. The company has also built several new large tanks as part of the ground-support equipment that fuels the massive vehicles with liquid oxygen and methane. Starbase Production Diagram - 13th July 2021 pic.twitter.com/ 1H5Bf3Gqdm -- Brendan (@_brendan_lewis) July 13, 2021 Finally, SpaceX technicians and engineers have been assembling the Super Heavy boosters themselves, and the company rolled "Booster 3" to the launch pad at the beginning of July. This is the first full-scale booster prototype to actually undergo testing, and it has passed cryogenic pressure tests of its fuel tanks. This week, the company added three Raptor rocket engines to Booster 3 and told area residents it may conduct a static fire test of the vehicle as soon as Thursday, July 15. The road closure schedule indicates a potential test window from noon, local time, to 10 pm (17:00 UTC Thursday to 03:00 UTC Friday). SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said Booster 3 will not launch, but if all goes well with its ground testing, the company will proceed with a launch of Booster 4. This rocket is already being built at the company's assembly facility a few kilometers from the launch site in South Texas. Whereas SpaceX is testing Booster 3 with three Raptor engines, a fully orbital version of Super Heavy will have 33 of the methane-fueled Raptors. Advertisement In parallel, SpaceX has been building "Ship 20." (SpaceX has abandoned the SN nomenclature for Starship prototypes and now calls them "Ships.") This is the first of a new generation of Starship prototypes with features that will allow them to ascend into space and then return to Earth. Much of the Ship 20 rocket is already complete in a high-bay facility in Boca Chica, Texas. All of this work--on rockets, the tower, and ground systems--is in preparation for the test launch of Super Heavy and Starship later this summer. SpaceX wants to make this test flight--which will see the Starship vehicle travel most of the way around Earth before making a controlled re-entry into the ocean north of Kauai--as early as August. However, regulatory hurdles remain. In addition to all of the technical work and testing to be done, SpaceX still needs to obtain launch permission from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is reviewing the environmental status of the launch facility in South Texas. The FAA said, as of May, it has yet to make a decision on whether to allow SpaceX to launch orbital Starship missions from South Texas. Listing image by Elon Musk reader comments 382 with 134 posters participating, including story author Share this story * Share on Facebook * Share on Twitter * Share on Reddit Eric Berger Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA, and author of the book Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston. Email eric.berger@arstechnica.com // Twitter @SciGuySpace Advertisement You must login or create an account to comment. Channel Ars Technica - Previous story Next story - Related Stories Today on Ars * Store * Subscribe * About Us * RSS Feeds * View Mobile Site * Contact Us * Staff * Advertise with us * Reprints Newsletter Signup Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. Sign me up - CNMN Collection WIRED Media Group (c) 2021 Conde Nast. All rights reserved. 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