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As SpaceX gets ready to blast its Starship to its first orbital test flight, the mighty Super Heavy, the most powerful rocket ever built, continues to grab attention. After the Super Heavy prototype Booster 3 completed a static fire test, the Booster 4 prototype is now slated to lift the Starship into orbit in the next major test.
What is SpaceX doing to prepare the booster for the enormous task?
Join us as we explore what is inside the Booster 4 prototype of the Super Heavy booster!
Elon Musk has big plans for space travel. One of his lifelong ambitions is to set up human habitation on planet Mars. To ferry the colonizers to the Red Planet, Musk needs a powerful spaceship that can lift heavy payloads to move all the necessary supplies from the earth and Mars. The spacecraft must also be able to cover the vast distance between the two planets.
The Starship will be put to use in other endeavors like taking both cargo and crew to the Earth orbit or other locations on the earth. Farther into space, it will take NASA’s astronauts from the moon’s orbit to its surface. Musk has also floated the idea of using Starships as novel space refueling stations for other Starships that are setting out for long interplanetary voyages.
Despite all varied use cases, SpaceX wants to reuse the Starship many times before retiring them, as airlines do with their planes.
To achieve that goal, SpaceX is building what is turning out to be an absolute monster. The Starship is a giant structure, standing at 120 meters when both stages are stacked, with a diameter of 9 meters. The spacecraft produces enough thrust to carry in excess of 100-150 metric tonnes to Earth orbit.
The upper stage, which SpaceX has tested more extensively, is 50 meters tall and a complete spacecraft in its own right. After detaching from the upper stage, it can embark on long trips and land either on the earth or other planets or the moon, entirely on its own and standing on its own legs. It will need minimal refurbishment to fly again, meaning a quick turnaround time and economical space operations.
Powering the upper stage is a system of 6 Raptor engines, another feat of engineering by SpaceX that we will get into pretty soon.
Spaceship’s lower stage is the Super Heavy. Standing 70 meters tall and made of shiny steel, it is easy to spot the booster at the Starbase location in Boca Chica, Texas, where SpaceX builds and tests the prototypes.
The Super Heavy beats all other rockets ever built as it can lift a gross mass of 3 million kg. While building and testing the booster prototype called Booster 3, SpaceX is already building the Booster 4.
The Booster 3 had three Raptor engines when it had the very first fired test of any prototype of the booster. Musk left the door open for at least one more test of the Booster 3, stating it would probably use 9 Raptor engines. But he said another Booster 3 test would depend on the successor’s progress, the Booster 4.
When SpaceX eventually comes around to the first orbital test flight of the Starship, it would involve both the booster and the upper stage. It is prepping the upper stage prototype, previously known as the SN 20 but now called the Ship 20, to be mated with the Booster 4.
What does the Booster 4 look like currently?
SpaceX is making rapid progress, which we have been following from various sources, including Musk himself.
For example, Musk shared a picture of the Super Heavy booster, and there is no doubt it would be an absolute beast.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1420819718701780995?s=20
Musk accompanied the photo with the caption “Completing feed system for 29 Raptor rocket engines on Super Heavy Booster.”
We could see a lot of pipes in the plumbing system of the engine system, showing how complicated the booster is. What stands out is the system of metal tubes that radiate outward from the engine section’s center like the spokes on a bicycle wheel.