As part of its engine development in McGregor, Texas, SpaceX tested another Raptor engine last night local time Space exploration technologies tested and developed two engine lineups at its McGregor facility, one to power the company's main Falcon rocket and the other to launch its next-generation rocket, starship.
The engine that powers starship is called the Raptor, and SpaceX is currently testing its second-generation design in Texas as it continues to build engines and build its inventory before the long-awaited starship orbital test flight. Compared with the Merlin engine responsible for powering the Falcon rocket, the Raptor is a larger engine with different design and fuel.
SpaceX builds and tests the engine at its facility in McGregor, Texas, and then ships it to boccachica in the same state, or to Florida, if it's the Merlin. Most engine tests are also conducted in Texas, but SpaceX will also test them after they are integrated with the rocket.
The test of Raptor 2 is the latest generation of Raptor engines, which began in December. Since then, SpaceX has been rapidly igniting these engines. The goal of each Raptor 2 is to generate more thrust at higher pressure than the first generation engine. The upgrading of performance will naturally bring higher pressure to the components of the engine. SpaceX is testing them as soon as possible.
The latest of these tests was conducted before 19:00 local time in Texas yesterday. The engine was shut down shortly after the ignition. In the test video captured in the real-time video transmission of spacexmcgregor facility, it can be seen that the water suppression system of the test bench blows out steam when the engine is ignited, and the unique "sucking" sound during ignition can also be heard. However, about four seconds after ignition, the flame began to spray from the right side of the test bench, the engine was turned off, and the test bench began to emit smoke clouds. These smoke clouds are unusual and have not appeared in the successful Raptor 2 test on the same test bench before.
According to the video shared by Adam cook on youtube, SpaceX Raptor 2 emitted green smoke during testing in McGregor, Texas, in mid January. Yesterday's test was a rare failure of Raptor 2, which has been at the center of rapid testing for months. The last major failure occurred in January, when the engine melted its internal components and emitted a green flame during tests at different locations also in McGregor.
Through Raptor 2, SpaceX aims to achieve a thrust of at least 230 tons (up to 250 tons), marking a significant improvement over the first generation engine. In rocket motion, chamber pressure refers to the pressure of fuel and oxidant mixed in the engine combustion chamber, resulting in thrust, enabling the rocket to take off from the earth's surface. Raptor 2 uses methane as fuel and liquid oxygen as oxidant.