First Rocket Motor Shipped To McGregor, TX Facility For Firing

SpaceX is preparing to test its latest rocket motor, the Raptor. Company president Gwynne Shotwell said in a speech at the 30th annual Conference on Small Satellites at Utah State University that the first such full engine had been shipped to its McGregor, TX test facility for firing.

Spaceflight Insider reports that Shotwell said that test firing would occur "soon" in the speech.

In January of this year, the U.S. Air Force awarded a contract worth $33.6 million to develop a prototype upper stage version of the Raptor engine. the oxygen preburners of the engine have been tested by NASA in some 76 hot-fire tests totalling about 400 seconds of firing time.

The Raptor's specs have not yet been finalized, but SpaceX founder Elon Musk said last year that engineers are targeting about 510,000 pounds of thrust, or about three times the thrust of the Merlin 1D engines currently boosting Falcon rockets. But still only about a third of the power of the Saturn V's F-1 engine.

(NASA image of Raptor preburner test)

FMI: www.spacex.com