At 12:36 CDT on August 25th 2023, SpaceX's Super Heavy Booster 9 fired up its engines for its second static fire test. This static fire saw all thirty-three engines fire together for the first time. SpaceX did state however that all but two engines lasted for the full duration and declared the test a success! The test is speculated to have been just under six seconds long. Booster 9 generated 7.9 million pounds of thrust, ~3,600 metric tons, which is almost half of its maximum thrust.
It is believed the next milestones towards another flight of the full Starship-Super Heavy vehicle are; Stacking Ship 25 atop Booster 9, a potential wet dress rehearsal of the launch, and then the second flight test. The second flight test will also be the first time SpaceX will attempt to hostage the rocket during flight.
What is Super Heavy?
Super Heavy is the first stage booster for the Starship-Super Heavy launch vehicle and is planned to be reused, it is also currently the most powerful rocket stage ever flown. The Super Heavy booster is seventy-one meters tall and nine meters wide. The booster is powered by thirty-three Raptor engines burning liquid methane and liquid oxygen with a maximum thrust of 7590 tons. Super Heavy is believed to weigh two hundred tons empty and three thousand six hundred tons fully fuelled. For reuse, Super Heavy will launch from the Orbital Launch Mount and will then perform a boost back burn and land on the 'chopsticks' of the launch tower, also called Mechazilla, using its grid fins at the top for greater aerodynamic control during unpowered flight.
So far the Super Heavy booster has flown once but was destroyed in flight during the first integrated flight test.
