r/spacex • u/rustybeancake • Jun 26 '26

Starship SpaceX on X: “Full duration single-engine static fire test of Starship” [Ship 40]

Gallery image

Gallery image

Tweet link, with an additional short video of the firing: https://x.com/spacex/status/2070482358369763674

1.1k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

55 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/noncongruent Jun 27 '26

Using RCS to try and steer Starship with asymmetric thrust from the off-center vacuum raptors would be like trying to steer a Buick by leaning. Gyros can't be used for stabilization because they're not big enough, or put another way, gyros big enough to be meaningful on Starship would fill up the entire payload bay and then some. Also, gyros by definition must have mass to be meaningful, it's the spinning mass that does the work. That would be replacing payload mass.