Starship

SpaceX fired up its Starship Super Heavy Booster 9 for a static test of its liquid methane-fueled Raptor rocket engines. The test was advertised to last “just under five seconds” but appeared to be cut short at 2.74 seconds. Four of the 33 Raptor engines were reported to have shut down prematurely.

SpaceX conducted a six-engine static test fire on Monday of the Starship vehicle that will eventually be paired with a Super Heavy booster for the second test flight of the company’s fully-reusable launch system. The firing took place at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in south Texas.