That Coast Guard warning above didn't turn into a static fire. There was just what appeared to be some testing of the tank farm and the ground support plumbing. Presumably they want it working reliably before they run massive quantities of liquid methane thru it. But there are more road closures scheduled for the next two weeks so everyone is on the lookout for more notmars and notams and for the over-pressure notices.
Meanwhile, in just the last few minutes SpaceX posted some extraordinary photographs of the vehicles being pencilled in for the first orbital launch.
First, a view straight up at the business end of booster B7 (the first stage) sitting on the Orbital Launch Platform at the Launch Area. The engineer onlookers almost fell out of their chairs trying to identify every little feature. There are 20 fixed sea-level Raptors in the outer ring, an inner steerable ring of ten sea-level Raptors and the three middle steerable sea-level Raptors that the booster will use to land. For a total of 33 Raptors. There's lots of talk about things like thermal protection and blast shielding in case one of the engines explodes during ascent (so it doesn't take out adjacent engines). These engines are supposed to generate a total of 8,000 tons of thrust. The Saturn V Moon rocket generated about 4,000 tons, so at least on paper Starship is 2x as powerful.
(SpaceX photos)
And this one is the engines partially installed on Ship24 (the second stage) in the High Bay. The thermal protection is yet to come. (note the wooden plank walkways up above for technicians.) There are three steerable sea-level Raptors in the middle and three fixed big-belled vacuum raptor around the edge. It appears that each engine's powerhead will eventually be encased in a cylindrical steel shell. (If an engine blows, it's typically a turbopump or something like that and the shell should help contain it.)
Meanwhile, in just the last few minutes SpaceX posted some extraordinary photographs of the vehicles being pencilled in for the first orbital launch.
First, a view straight up at the business end of booster B7 (the first stage) sitting on the Orbital Launch Platform at the Launch Area. The engineer onlookers almost fell out of their chairs trying to identify every little feature. There are 20 fixed sea-level Raptors in the outer ring, an inner steerable ring of ten sea-level Raptors and the three middle steerable sea-level Raptors that the booster will use to land. For a total of 33 Raptors. There's lots of talk about things like thermal protection and blast shielding in case one of the engines explodes during ascent (so it doesn't take out adjacent engines). These engines are supposed to generate a total of 8,000 tons of thrust. The Saturn V Moon rocket generated about 4,000 tons, so at least on paper Starship is 2x as powerful.
(SpaceX photos)
And this one is the engines partially installed on Ship24 (the second stage) in the High Bay. The thermal protection is yet to come. (note the wooden plank walkways up above for technicians.) There are three steerable sea-level Raptors in the middle and three fixed big-belled vacuum raptor around the edge. It appears that each engine's powerhead will eventually be encased in a cylindrical steel shell. (If an engine blows, it's typically a turbopump or something like that and the shell should help contain it.)