{"id":137767,"date":"2022-04-06T19:02:29","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T00:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/spacexs-upgraded-super-heavy-booster-sails-through-first-major-test"},"modified":"2022-04-06T19:02:29","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T00:02:29","slug":"spacexs-upgraded-super-heavy-booster-sails-through-first-major-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/spacexs-upgraded-super-heavy-booster-sails-through-first-major-test","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s upgraded Super Heavy booster sails through first major test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/spacexs-upgraded-super-heavy-booster-sails-through-first-major-test2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>SpaceX\u2019s first upgraded 33-engine Super Heavy booster appears to have passed a crucial test with surprising ease, boding well for a smooth qualification process.<\/p>\n<p>Attempting that test so early on did not appear to be SpaceX\u2019s initial plan. Instead, shortly before Super Heavy Booster 4\u2019s third and likely final removal from Starbase\u2019s \u2018orbital launch mount\u2019 (OLM) on March 24th, SpaceX transported a massive structural test stand from a Starbase storage yard to the orbital launch site (OLS), where technicians have focused on modifying nearby ground systems to support apparent structural testing of Super Heavy Booster 7. As of March 31st, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.teslarati.com\/spacex-super-heavy-booster-7-test-plans\/\" target=\"_blank\">all available evidence<\/a> suggested that SpaceX was preparing that stand to verify Booster 7\u2019s mechanical strength and simulate the major stresses it might experience <em>before<\/em> investing a significant amount of time and resources in qualification testing.<\/p>\n<p>However, SpaceX appeared to change its plans at the last minute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceX\u2019s first upgraded 33-engine Super Heavy booster appears to have passed a crucial test with surprising ease, boding well for a smooth qualification process. Attempting that test so early on did not appear to be SpaceX\u2019s initial plan. Instead, shortly before Super Heavy Booster 4\u2019s third and likely final removal from Starbase\u2019s \u2018orbital launch mount\u2019 [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1514],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-space-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}