Company president Gwynne Shotwell made the announcement during the Small Satellite Conference Tuesday in Logan, Utah, saying the company has shipped its next-generation Raptor engine to its test site in McGregor, Texas, according to what a spokesman told Ars Technica.
While official details surrounding the Raptor engine remain scarce, it is supposed to be three times as powerful as the Merlin engines in the Falcon 9 rockets in the company’s stable. The Raptor won’t power these rockets or even the company’s next-generation rocket, the Falcon Heavy.
Readers may recall that in a July 19 article, Digital Journal discussed the Falcon Heavy rocket. The Falcon Heavy is a three-stage rocket and will be the largest rocket in existence when it launches later this year.
Instead, the Raptor engines will power the Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT). That spacecraft is still a big secret, but Elon Musk is expected to reveal his plans for the MCT this summer at the International Astronautical Conference being held September 26 – 30 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Musk says the Raptor engine could possibly have a thrust of about 500,000 pounds or 230 metric tons, about the same power as the space shuttle’s main engines. While the space shuttle was powered by three main engines and two booster rockets, it is believed the MCT will be powered by a cluster of nine Raptor engines.
There is an undercurrent of excitement in knowing the Raptor engine is going to be tested, and the news also lends credibility to Musk’s claims of a manned Mars mission by as early as 2024. The glue that holds any space flight development together is the rocket engines. And it typically takes five to seven years for development, and that’s cutting the time close.
Right now, we really don’t know exactly what kind of testing will be done at the Texas facility, but it will be big news for SpaceX, whatever happens.
