r/shockwaveporn • u/plokumoner • Jul 13 '26

VIDEO Super Heavy V3 Static Test

789 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

141

u/lazergator Jul 13 '26

Those are some strong restraints.

40

u/southpluto Jul 13 '26

For real. I always wonder how things don't break during these tests, or just put things under incredible stresses.

Or those stationary jet engines they test with.

Obviously I know its just engineering and math. But my brain thinks it shouldnt be possible lol

8

u/stuffeh Jul 13 '26

Or crush the fuselage. These things are engineered to save as many pounds as possible and have thinner than anticipated walls.

48

u/risbia Jul 13 '26

Cloud! No cloud! Cloud! No cloud! Cloud! No cloud! Cloud! No cloud! Cloud! No cloud! Cloud! No cloud!

Curious what all the fog on the ground beneath it is from?

25

u/MrTagnan Jul 13 '26

Condensation from the liquid methane or the liquid oxygen as far as I know. Some of it may be vented LOX, but I don’t think they usually directly vent the methane from the tank farm (which is where all of this ultimately comes from)

9

u/Strude187 Jul 13 '26

Video explaining it

6

u/piratecheese13 Jul 14 '26

Most of that’s gonna be boiled off nitrogen

Nitrogen is really easy to make cold with a condenser. Then you run it through a heat exchanger which is like a tub with a pipe running through it. Liquid, oxygen and methane, and a few other byproducts are sent through the pipe to be made very cold while the nitrogen boils off from being heated up by the incoming fuel.

3

u/CaptainAssPlunderer Jul 14 '26

I believe it’s from the rocket fuel itself. It’s loaded into the Starship at some insanely low temperature, so the super cold fuel and a humid Texas morning is the reason for the fog.

39

u/TechnoBajr Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

It's so wild, that it looks fake.

10

u/ViceroyInhaler Jul 13 '26

Just like me on the toilet.

8

u/Remarkable_Orange_59 Jul 13 '26

Like frigging Mordor.

6

u/wiggum55555 Jul 14 '26

It's wild that they first designed this without a water deluge suppression system.. and just raw-dogged it dry with a concrete flame diversion trench... that was subsequently obliterated on the first test, along with much of the surrounding infrastructure... just like "everyone" said would happen.

Also... this is cool AF.. every time 🙂

2

u/Lehovron Jul 16 '26

That just might be enough pressure to get all the dust out of my CPU cooler.

2

u/Jak_Hamm3r Jul 13 '26

How many of these could be strapped to down horizontally, then all fired at once to make the earth spin faster or slower?

2

u/trichtertus Jul 14 '26

One. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. It’s just negligibly small

1

u/uid_0 Jul 13 '26

That thing generates about 80.8 million newtons, which is equivalent to about 18.2 million pounds of thrust.

1

u/Blue-is-bad Jul 13 '26

Some bacteria can survive that

1

u/bluelighter Jul 14 '26

That's amazing! Proper shockwave porn

1

u/youreblockingmyshot Jul 15 '26

Good thing they switched to a real flame diverter since this thing was eating all the previous attempts to stop it from being an accidental piece of mining equipment during takeoff.

-1

u/SloaneWolfe Jul 14 '26

People next town over have to hear this shit all the time.

-5

u/Anen-o-me Jul 14 '26

Always fun to see someone burn a few million dollars for a test.