After the test, Elon Musk tweeted that BN3 was tested with three raptor engines. This is not the complete number of raptor engines the orbital flight will have. The booster used for the orbital flight, BN4, will have over 30 raptor engines. According to Nasa Space Flight, Elon Musk noted that they might test BN3 with 9 engines if progress on BN4 is slow. The 230 ft stainless steel booster will be a reusable and will aid Starship in flying to orbit.

Full test duration firing of 3 Raptors on Super Heavy Booster!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2021

For the test orbital flight, the Starship will launch from SpaceX’s launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, the BN4 booster will detach from Starship and splash down near the Gulf of Mexico while Starship reaches orbit. After this, Starship will aim to land off the coast of Kauai and be recovered to be reused.

Although BN4 is already pre-stacked in the High Bay, the projected date for the orbital mission is not certain. Space News noted that Musk expects that the vehicle will be ready for the moon in 2024. SpaceX plans to use the BN4 booster for Yusaku Maezawa‘s Dear Moon project and NASA has prechosen SpaceX for their Artemis mission to land astronauts on the moon.

Excitement for SpaceX’s plans have really ramped up after Virgin Galactic successfully launched their space plane into orbit and at the time of writing this article, Blue Origin is hours away from embarking on their first orbital mission. I will be eagerly watching Blue Origin’s mission as it is a view into the next step in space exploration and for humanity.

Technically, SpaceX could have tested the waters with a smaller Super Heavy prototype for the initial Starship orbital missions. Based on the purported images captured of the assembly, however, it seems that SpaceX has gone from the prototype directly into the development of a full-scale booster.

The Super Heavy Booster aft tank section was moved into the high bay at SpaceX Boca Chica. ??@NASASpaceflight https://t.co/9sTD7oIUwZ pic.twitter.com/f2M1lufvLV

— Mary (@BocaChicaGal) November 8, 2020

The second Super Heavy tank section has been stacked in the high bay. Yes, keep on stacking. ??@NASASpaceflight https://t.co/9sTD7p0vVz pic.twitter.com/019QAxTqO3

— Mary (@BocaChicaGal) November 8, 2020

The first booster rings, which were literally labeled as Super Heavy, surfaced back in September 22. In the span of approximately a month and a half, SpaceX’s factory in Boca Chica, TX, managed to produce close to 25 steel rings – at least 6 sections with each section comprised of 4 stacked rings – as per the images captured. Note that each completed booster is purported to need at least 40 steel rings.

SpaceX can fast-track the development and assembly of both the Starship and Super Heavy by utilizing almost identical hardware and tank design to two prior Starship prototypes. With this, the company is able to leverage its existing manufacturing infrastructure for most of Starship and Super Heavy. It is also purported that the next-generation booster is likely to be simpler than its upper stage, which is one of, if not the largest, reusable upper stage and spacecraft ever once completed.

Aerodynamics, internal header tanks, tiled heat shield and conical nose section aside, Super Heavy only has one major wall to climb – an engine section that can support up to 28 raptor engines. Simply put, granted that SpaceX successfully designs a thrust structure that can feed a 28-Raptor engine configuration, the Super Heavy could very well be realized in a much easier fashion than expected.

For just a booster hop you could probably get away with 3 or 6 Raptors only… But it’ll be a while before you have 2 dozen + similar and capable engines for an orbital booster, right?

— Everyday Astronaut (@Erdayastronaut) August 28, 2020

Regardless of their success and failure, however, Starship and Super Heavy will doubtlessly be the largest rocket booster, upper stage and spacecraft once completed.

The Super Heavy booster’s 28-Raptor engine configuration is purported to have a combination of high-trust Raptors (20) with limited throttle capabilities wrapping around the other 8 gimbaling engines that can be throttled. Albeit, Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, recently said that hop tests with the Super Heavy are possible with just two engines.

Granted that these 28 engines are operating at maximum capacity, this engine configuration is touted to produce 14.5 million lbs. (6,600 metric tons) of thrust during liftoff. This is two times as much as that of Soviet N- rockets and Saturn V; three times as much as SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy.

At approximately 230 ft. (70m), the Super Heavy, by itself, would be as tall as the Falcon Heavy, Falcon 9 and most of the operation rockets on the planet. When filled to capacity with methane propellant and liquid oxygen, the booster would come in at, roughly, 7.7 million lbs. (3500 metric tons).

To accompany the Super Heavy booster #1, which SpaceX officially named as “BN1”, is a 270-feet tall high bay, which should see a lot more activity in the days ahead. Without any major mishaps, the Super Heavy booster is expected to be completed within a couple of months; a month at the soonest.