SpaceX Raptor 3 is an improved and more powerful rocket enigine. It has reached 350 bar of pressure and 269 tons of thrust.
Raptor 2 engines were achieving 230 tf (510,000 lbf) of thrust consistently by February 2022, although SpaceX expects to be able to tune engine parameters and design over time to achieve at least 250 tf (550,000 lbf). Moreover, Musk indicated that the engine production cost was approximately half that of the Raptor 1 version SpaceX had been using in 2018–2021. In June 2022, Musk tweeted that 250 tons was achievable.
Raptor V3 just achieved 350 bar chamber pressure (269 tons of thrust). Congrats to @SpaceX propulsion team!
Starship Super Heavy Booster has 33 Raptors, so total thrust of 8877 tons or 19.5 million pounds. pic.twitter.com/ZlskpCXUmu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2023
The Saturn V rocket generated 34.5 million newtons (7.6 million pounds) of thrust.
The Starship Super Heavy Booster with Raptor 3 engines would have 2.56 times the thrust of the Saturn V.
SpaceX is making a water spraying metal plate for the launch pad.
Yeah. To be frank, we did not expect the engine to survive a full duration run at that pressure. It is uncharted territory.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2023
Can Raptor 3 can be a drop-in replacement for Raptor 2, or will the vehicles require changes to cater for Raptor 3 engines?
Here’s the full firing from the raw pull out of https://t.co/Eh5oaibOBY pic.twitter.com/u3GP4O2pvh
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) May 13, 2023
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
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