Prepare for a thrilling journey as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hints at a nine-engine Starship and Raptor upgrades. The future of space exploration is about to get even more exciting, promising unprecedented advancements in technology and interstellar travel.
At one point, SpaceX was expected to utilize a “Boost” variant of Raptor that would trade thrust vector control (TVC) and a wide throttle range for far greater thrust.
However, that substantially different “Raptor Boost” variant is now no more
- CEO Elon Musk says that the company has plans to boost Raptor’s performance by at least 15% and the number of those engines installed on Starship by 50%.
- The updated goals came hand in hand with significant changes to the design and operation of both Starship and its Super Heavy booster.
If SpaceX manages to boost “Raptor 2” to 230 tons of thrust, a Super Heavy booster with 33 mostly identical engines would have a peak liftoff thrust around 7600 tons (~16.8 million lbf), translating to a thrust to weight ratio of more than 1.5.
For a large rocket with liquid propulsion only, a TWR greater than 0.5 is very respectable and improves acceleration off the launch pad.
Eric Ralph
Eric Ralph is Teslarati’s senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade
- His primary goal is to cover humanity’s ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere
- Mostly spurred by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX’s plans for Mars
