Starship's booster fires 7 engines for first time; Elon Musk heaps praises on his rocket

SpaceX completed a major task ahead of Starship's first orbital flight as it test-fired seven engines of the mega rocket's Booster 7 for the first time. This objective was achieved during the recent tests at the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, just hours after SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 rocket with 54 Starlink satellites. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, following the tests, shared a short clip of the Booster's Raptor 2 engines roaring to life and kicking off a dust storm around it. "Great for clearing dust!", Musk jokingly tweeted. 

Responding to another clip of the static fire test, Musk revealed that the performance of all seven engines was as expected. He further said that the Booster 7 will move to "the high bay" for upgrades whereas Booster 8 will be brought next for testing. Musk said that a full-stack 'wet dress rehearsal' (pre-launch tests will propellants) is in order followed by the firing of all 33 engines of the Booster in a few weeks. 

SpaceX is taking things slow and firing few engines during the tests after a recent mishap which ended up in a big explosion at the launch pad. 

Elon Musk explains Starship's role

Replying to a post comparing Starship's size to other rockets, including NASA's Saturn V rocket and new Space Launch System (SLS), Musk explained why Starship is important for space exploration. "Starship will be an incredible enabler for science. Full reusability & high production rate drive several orders of magnitude improvement in $/kg to orbit & beyond (sic)", he tweeted. "Next gen Starlink constellation is primary user of this rocket, so science doesn’t need to cover fixed cost (sic)".

Standing 120 metres (394 feet tall), Starship is the world's biggest rocket in development, however, it is yet to take flight. The mega-rocket is awaiting its first orbital flight which has been mired with delays in regulatory approvals. The Starship rocket is composed of two components, the Super Heavy Booster having 33 engines and the upper stage Ship equipped with six engines. Once complete, the rocket would become the most powerful rocket to ever lift off as each engine on the booster would produce roughly 230 tons of maximum thrust.