/sci/ - Science & Math

With 33 engines, Starship has a TWR of 1.5.
With 30 engines, plus a 90% throttle, starship has a TWR of 1.22. This was what we saw on OFT-1
With 25 engines, plus a 90% throttle, starship has a TWR of 1.02. This is a “worst case” given OFT-1 lost 8 engines maximum by the time it hit MECO.
With only 25 engines at 100% throttle, Starship has a TWR of 1.12. For reference, Saturn V had a TWR of 1.13 ish

Long story short, Starship OFT-1 had a very low TWR at liftoff, but even assuming all 8 Raptors failed at liftoff, Starship could probably make it to orbit successfully by running the other engines at 100% throttle.
At the very worst, with a 90% throttle, the vehicle could clear the pad and go down range before terminating.

I’m curious if the reason we saw so many engines fail on Booster 7 was because the static fire was at 50% thrust, not full.

Delta II

Kino