Here’s our first look at SpaceX Super Heavy booster with Raptor 3 engines

SpaceX is ready to move to the next milestone in the Starship saga, with its Super Heavy booster 19 standing tall on the launch pad for a static fire with the first-ever Raptor 3 engine assembly.

Images shared by StarshipGazer on X show the vehicle’s engine assembly area, revealing 9 Raptor 3 engines. Though the Super Heavy equips 33 Raptor engines, the purpose of assembling nine of these is currently unknown. These fewer engine counts might be a result of the debut static-fire test.

Since the rocket has reached the launch pad, it will now conduct a static fire. Usually, SpaceX keeps the static-fire duration to 10 or 20-second, but this time, we might see the engines burning multiple-times before returning to the factory.

SpaceX Super Heavy booster 19 with 9 Raptor 3 engines assembly (Source – Starshipgazer)

Last month, Super Heavy Booster 19 entered a multi-day cryo-proofing test campaign. This first V3 block has been filled with supercooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen to simulate launch conditions. These tests aimed to verify and find flaws in the new design and structure of the booster.

In the meantime, the engineers also performed these verifications on the upper stage – Ship 39 on Massey’s test site.

The outcome of the Raptor 3 engine static fire will be crucial; a desired result will allow us to see more of such testing in the coming days. We also can’t deny a possbility of SpaceX switching single and all engines ignition during this static-fire test campaign.

The new engines offer 280 tf of thrust, compared to 230 tf of thrust in Raptor 2, so the new version offers 50tf of extra thrust. But this advantage comes within a smaller size, which makes Raptor 3 mass-efficient. The full assembly could save more than 1 ton of vehicle mass, allowing the ship to increase payload capacity.

I will keep you posted on the first ever Raptor 3 assembled Super Heavy static-fire.