Lifeboat Foundation

SpaceX has shared dramatic slow-motion footage showing a Raptor engine powering down at the end of a recent test fire.

“Shutdown of a Raptor vacuum engine in slow motion,” SpaceX said in a message accompanying the video (below). It added that the engine’s nozzle “is sized for use by Starship in the Earth’s upper atmosphere and outer space, so operation at sea level and low chamber pressures results in flow separation creating visible rings in the exhaust.”