Too many Raptor engines fail to ignite
During the first test flight, at least six Raptors conked out as Starship pitched downrange and flew over the Gulf of Mexico. Previously, company CEO Elon Musk said it’s not the worst thing in the world if all 33 engines fail to ignite, as the full complement is not needed to reach orbit.
Still, Raptor reliability remains an open question, and it’ll be super interesting to see how the engine array, consisting of 13 in the center and 20 around the perimeter, behaves this time around. The Starship system is powered by the reusable Raptor engine, which employs methane-oxygen staged combustion and delivers twice the thrust of the Falcon 9 Merlin engine.
