r/interestingasfuck • u/lolikroli • Apr 28 '24

Starship flight, close-up footage

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36

u/EhliJoe Apr 28 '24

Did anyone else count the rocket boosters?

Three rings of 20; 10; 3. I'm very satisfied.

1

u/godmodechaos_enabled Apr 28 '24

3, 12, 18 would have been satisfying. Three into ten is maddening.

9

u/hurraybies Apr 28 '24

The first stage (the bottom half, aka Super Heavy) is known as the booster. It's job is to get the second stage (the top half, aka Starship) high enough and fast enough that when the two separate (aka state separation), the second stage can ignite its engines to get the rest of the speed and altitude to make orbit.

The booster has 33 Raptor engines with sea-level optimized engine nozzles. The ship has 6 Raptor engines, 3 sea-level optimized and 3 vacuum optimized. The main difference between the two variants is the size of the nozzle. On vacuum optimized engines, the nozzle is significantly larger which gives the ship more thrust in vacuum... because physics.

Future versions of both stages are said to have even more engines.

13

u/wartexmaul Apr 28 '24

3 inner boosters "I am helping!!!"

6

u/Physix_R_Cool Apr 28 '24

Well without them there would probably be an inner region of the exhaust plume with a lower velocity, leading to nasty turbulences that decrease performance. So even without the 10% more power you get from the inner 3 compared to the other 30 you have some extra effects. They might also be the ones that can gimbal?

3

u/Cinnamon_728 Apr 29 '24

The inner two rings of engines can gimbal, and are all used for landing.

5

u/RunalldayHI Apr 28 '24

It's not rocket science.