BOCA CHICA, Texas (ValleyCentral) — In a change before ignition, SpaceX turned off one of the 33 Super Heavy booster engines it intended to test Thursday at its Cameron County launch facility.
Only 31 fired.
Minutes after the static fire test, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to report that his “team turned off 1 engine just before start & 1 stopped itself, so 31 engines fired overall.”
Musk stated the power of the 31 engines would still be enough to reach orbit.
On Wednesday, speaking at the Federal Aviation Administration’s annual Commercial Space Transportation conference in Washington, D.C., SpaceX president & COO Gwynne Shotwell said Thursday’s test would be a “big day” for SpaceX.
The test brings SpaceX closer to its goal of a suborbital launch, possibly as soon as March.
