r/interesting • u/lonewolff321 • 19h ago
SCIENCE & TECH The engineering required to create a mechanism capable of simply keeping that secured in position is mind-blowing.
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u/Weep4Thee 19h ago
Couple ratchet staps and a good pat should be adequate
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u/el_condor_nm 18h ago
And duct tape...somewhere.
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u/DIuvenalis 16h ago edited 11h ago
Don't forget to give it a good slap and say "that's not going anywhere now!"
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u/Icy-Quarter-3344 17h ago
The "This is going nowhere" pat
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u/Jacques7Hammer 17h ago
The magic only works if you use bad grammar, "that ain't goin' nowhere"
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u/AvariceLegion 17h ago
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u/Visible_Office2637 16h ago
Hijacking the top comment. In all seriousness that's the least impressive engineering feat in SpaceX. Steel and Concrete engineering hasn't had paradigm shifts for a long time.
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u/Weep4Thee 15h ago
I bet ur fun at parties...
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u/Visible_Office2637 15h ago edited 11h ago
Bitches loves engineers, engineering degrees and alcoholism are correlated. I'm actually a blast at parties.
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u/Weep4Thee 15h ago
Oh. Did u think I was having a conversation? No thanx.
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u/Beginning-Invite7166 7h ago
You got burned by a drunk nerd. New lows. Accurate username though.
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u/Weep4Thee 4h ago
U realize this is reddit right? All of these comments have 3sec worth of effort and u think they are profound and earth shattering statements. None of this matters.
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u/Show_Me_Your_Cubes 15h ago
You jest, but I bet ratchet straps could do the job if applied correctly
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u/insane_observer_ 18h ago
This booster is firing 18 million pounds of thrust. That's 40.8 million horsepower. The "smoke" seen here is steam mixed with beach sand.
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u/CosmicRuin 16h ago
It's actually 22 million pounds since they're all Raptor V3 engines (33 of them).
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u/Inevitable_Butthole 3h ago
Now do the weight!
I wanna see the horsepower to weight ratio
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u/Expensive_Kitchen525 24m ago
If I had 40,8 million horses, I would just climb them all and be in space :)
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u/Glass-Violinist-3549 19h ago
It would be nice to have a little further explanation of what exactly we are looking at here. That way we can admire the engineering more by having a better understanding.
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u/tom_gent 18h ago
A static fire test of a rocket. Clamps are keeping it in place so it doesn't go up. Op is admiring those clamps. Glad to be of service
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u/popcycle69 17h ago
The same way the clamps on my bbq cover keep it from flying off during high winds.
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u/snakepliskinLA 14h ago
Sometimes it isn’t even clamps. Instead it is bolted to the launch mount with frangible bolts that have a pyrotechnic charge inside.
For the ELI5 crew…Bolts go boom—rocket go zoom.
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u/Medical-Temporary-35 2h ago
Why not turn the rocket upside down instead? Is it because the fuel tanks stop working if you do that?
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u/IndigoSeirra 18h ago edited 18h ago
This is a Superheavy Booster 33 engine static fire. It's the booster for the SpaceX Starship, which is launching tonight at 6:45 ET. The static fire is to test the engines before the flight.
The booster is the most powerful booster ever made, with 18 million pounds of thrust at full capacity. The booster is multiple stories high (237 ft), and its 30 ft wide. It's difficult to see the scale, but when you see people standing next to it it's truly incredible to see the sheer size.
This is the hold down mechanism used for this static fire, and the upcoming launch.
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u/piratecheese13 15h ago edited 14h ago
This is the super heavy booster. The bottom half of starship super heavy.
It has 33 full flow stage combustion raptor engines capable of generating 23,000,000 pounds of thrust that lift off
So those clamps have to keep down 22,000,000 pounds minus the weight of the rocket and the fuel
(they don’t throttle the engines all the way up on these tests)3
u/Accomplished-Crab932 15h ago
The V3 booster tests are conducted at full throttle now, that was not the case on V2 because the original pad was not capable of operating with hold downs.
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u/Fuzzy_Inevitable9748 17h ago
I don’t understand why they couldn’t have flipped the rocket over and shot the flames straight up.
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u/Best-Research4022 17h ago
Probably something about gravity and the rocket won’t work upside down, the upper stages that actually go into zero gravity probably have some other design for the rockets
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u/Fuzzy_Inevitable9748 14h ago
That makes sense, I just figured it was for some stupid reason the musk insisted on given his long history of insisting on stupid things.
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u/longcreepyhug 17h ago
Because they are trying to test the design and performance of the rocket as close to the way it would actually operate as possible and it doesn't operate upside down.
That being said, rocket engines are often tested laying on their side.
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u/HeartOn_SoulAceUp 17h ago
That works much better for me too. Much more dramatic for viewers.
Let's go with that next time.
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u/Accomplished-Crab932 13h ago
It’s a liquid rocket, so prior to ignition, the liquid propellants need to be “pushed” into the inlets. Because you want to reduce mass wherever reasonable on rockets, you design your rocket to intake propellants at the bottom since it means you don’t need a complicated intake system just to make firing on the ground easier. On top of this, you can just conduct the tests on the launch stand, which is what SpaceX is doing here.
In flight, you usually use a set of small “thrusters” that accelerate the vehicle in the forward direction to push the propellant in the tanks to the bottom of the vehicle so you can ignite the main engines.
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u/craidie 13h ago
I don't recall one being done in that orientation.
But NASA has one test site that does horizontal for solid rocket motors
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u/E4tPineapple 13h ago
Because that end should point toward the ground if you want to go to space.
If it starts pointing toward space, you are having a bad problem and you will not go to space today.1
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u/that_dutch_dude 16h ago
imagine having a tube that has a diameter big enough you can park a city bus inside. now make that tube the size of a decent tall office block and strap a bunch of rockets to it that can accelerate it faster upwards than it can fall down.
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u/JamesBondMargarita 18h ago
The same effect can be achieved by connecting a rope to the rocket with a dog pulling in the opposite direction
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u/Foreign-Chocolate86 18h ago
It’s probably a lot simpler than you think.
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u/Practical_Science11 15h ago
Just a tap on the ass and the saying "that ain't going anywhere" should be sufficient
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u/decollimate28 7h ago
The amount of people that don’t understand bolts is really quite astonishing.
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u/dumbspacecookie 18h ago
It’s pretty simple, no pointy so no flight and no terrifying.
https://giphy.com/gifs/zq6APovEAGr7O
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u/lonewolff321 19h ago
Context - SpaceX just completed a full-duration static fire of Super Heavy Booster 20 at Starbase, Texas! On July 10, 2026, the world's most powerful rocket stage lit up the Texas coast. This incredible aerial perspective captures all 33 Raptor 3 engines firing simultaneously, sending massive plumes of smoke drifting out toward the Gulf.
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u/tandkramstub 16h ago
But fuck me if I use a plastic straw.
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u/AffectionateBall4648 16h ago
No one cares that you miss your plastic straw, people do actually care about this.
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u/adumbCoder 18h ago
what would happen if you were standing on top of that platform, right next to the rocket's body?
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u/BigmacSasquatch 15h ago
You would die. The sound and pressure would be so intense it would practically shake your internal organs apart.
I think they determined if you were closer than 800 yards to the Saturn V at launch, you’d most likely be killed.
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u/KnightOfSvea 7h ago
Imagine if capitalism had mankinds best in mind.
We would have saved the planet and coloniced the moon by now.
But no... a moron trillionare is what it created.
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u/farts_juggler 6h ago
I like what you’re putting down but I don’t wanna live on the moon. they’d prolly charge us out the ass for moon air to breathe and like you’d have $35 moon bucks in your bank account and then the first of the month comes and they’re like sorry bro gotta pay your breathing bill which is like $37 moon bucks and then I’m broke and have to go work in the moon mines just to pay for air
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u/KnightOfSvea 5h ago
Not if we fix the free market first No company would be able to charge large sums for ordernary people. The system is rigged and it need to be pulled down and restructured.
Also you dont have to live on the moon if you dont like too ✨🌕
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u/SaveTheAles 18h ago
Seems crazy you wouldn't have it further away from other things just in case it blows.
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u/Sea-Relationship9619 18h ago
What they should do is have the exhaust outlet encased in strong material that loops back round and directly downwards onto the top of the rocket. That way the pressure coming out of the bottom would equal the pressure coming back round and down onto the top. The rocket would not move at all then. It fact you could replicate the experiment with only 1lb of thrust.
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u/Jmandeluxe 18h ago
Conspiracy, it’s less about measuring thrust, and more about making sure the heat stays isolated to help facilitate some sort of alchemical-chemistry related reaction beneath. Need a science guy to confirm if there’s other easier less violent ways to isolate high temperatures over extended periods of time. Or you would indeed need to strap down a rocket to make a giant Bunsen burner.
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u/Lucas_2234 17h ago
there are MUCH simpler ways to get stupid high temperatures that don't include an entire rocket thruster.
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u/Holiday_Pi 17h ago
That’s the machine my wife uses to kill spiders when they get stuck in the bathtub
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u/General-Piece8490 17h ago
Same for satellites! And everything just has got to work and every possible effect taken into account, every failure needs to be accounted for so this becomes a success.
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u/nthensome 17h ago
What am I looking at here?
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u/Accomplished-Crab932 15h ago
SpaceX conducting a static fire of a super heavy booster.
This is the lower stage of Starship, which at liftoff produces 18 million pounds of thrust out of a set of 33 engines. As a consequence, the vehicle needs to be held down to the pad. This complete vehicle is the most powerful rocket ever made and is the heaviest manmade object to fly.
The goal of a test like this is to validate the installation and behavior of the engines and vehicle when attached before attempting a flight.
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u/farts_juggler 6h ago
22 million pounds*
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u/Accomplished-Crab932 6h ago
V3 advertised launch thrust is 80,800 kN, or 18.2e9 lbf.
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u/farts_juggler 6h ago
it’s definitely 22 mlbs I dunno what to tell you.
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u/Accomplished-Crab932 5h ago
Today’s livestream said 18, as does NextSpaceflight. Wikipedia lists the Sea Level thrust of a single Raptor 3 at 551 klbf. Multiply that by 33 and you also get about 18 mlbf.
22 is the aspirational goal for future vehicles and comes from older presentations.
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u/pitchdarklabs 13h ago edited 13h ago
Not really, it takes a tremendous amount of energy output for a long period of time to get to space. "For a long period of time" being the hard part. Rockets accelerate relatively slowly, but they keep accelerating faster as they lose mass, and as that mass is decreases so does the force imparted on the structure from the same amount of energy. The ground station doesn't have any mass limitations. Bolting up a steel structure as robust as it needs to be and attaching it to the ground is easy, comparatively. The rocket can't release energy fast enough to damage it because that's precisely not what it's designed to do. It is designed to release that energy slowly and consistently over time.
if rockets were like bullets, releasing all their energy stored into the projectile at once, then yes, that would be impressive to have a structure contain that.
sort of like tapping a steel plate a couple hundred thousand times gently with a hammer vs shooting at it with a 50 calibur bullet. Same total energy, very different effects.
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u/ipx-electrical 6h ago
All the nutters saying the USA have had secret alien propulsion technology from UFOs locked away for decades, and here we are in 2026 still burning tonnes of stuff and chucking it out of the back of rockets to get tiny distances.
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u/__phil1001__ 18h ago
Don't worry about the noise, vibration or toxins. Just fuck the wildlife and nature reserves. Smh.
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u/Accomplished-Crab932 15h ago edited 14h ago
Noise and vibes are limited, only reaching 150 db peak. That’s a lot, but sound drops off with the inverse square law. There are no toxins in this exhaust. Raptor has no specialized ignition fluids and burns methane and oxygen, both in high purity forms. The pad water supply is potable and comes from the local municipal supply.
I’d love to see where you think where else would be possible to test and launch a vehicle. Some basic constraints: No people in 5+ mile radius, 500+ miles down range devoid of people, east facing, on coastline, closer to equator, in US or US territories, oxygen and methane distilleries and/or large port access (preferably both, but primarily distilleries).
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u/__phil1001__ 14h ago
Stick to Florida
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u/Accomplished-Crab932 14h ago
They were out of space. At the time, the only pad they “could” fly out of is 39A. The problem is that at the same time, 39A was the only pad able to fly people to the ISS outside of Russia. Worse yet, any test ops on the pad evacuate the VAB (where SLS is stacked), 39B (the pad for SLS), and SLC40, SpaceX’s other pad at the cape.
Building further north would mean potential evacuations for Titusville during test and operations.
Also, the cape is also a national wetlands and preserve. They seem to do fine given the shuttle and vehicles like Atlas, SLS, and Vulcan actually do pollute the air and water around their pads.
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u/Codex_Absurdum 17h ago
Watching this while drinking my ice tea in a recycled cup with a paper straw
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u/realbobenray 17h ago
A Blue Origin rocket blew up last month. Why do our rockets keep blowing up? Didn't we solve that?
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u/MrTagnan 17h ago
So long as rockets are powered by combustion, the threat of them blowing up will remain (in other words, this will always be the case, unless actual magic is invented)
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u/realbobenray 17h ago
I mean, we made it to the moon, now we're back to "do a lot of test flights and some blow up"
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u/Safe_Cabinet7090 17h ago
Tell me you aren’t informed of the technology advancements of space industry without telling me.
Completely different vehicles with different purposes with different companies.
It’s idiotic statements like the one you made.
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u/Lucas_2234 17h ago
Well, we made it to the moon on a proven design.
You can't just build a new design and go "eh, we made it to moon, we good" and then proceed to kill three incredibly smart people because you didn't wanna do testflights to iron out the issues that'd lead to kabooms.
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u/MrTagnan 17h ago
Different agencies with different methodologies. Move fast and break things vs spend a lot of money to get it right the first time. Both have advantages and disadvantages. (They’re also entirely different levels of complexity in different areas. Artemis II was very complicated on the crewed spaceflight and orbital mechanics side of things, but is extremely simple (comparatively) on the rocket side (in part due to it effectively being 50 year old hardware). Starship is exceptionally complex on the rocket side)
In the case of blue origin, they’re a bit closer to the “spend a lot of money” side of things (albeit nothing compared to what NASA necessarily has to do), but they also have next to no experience with large scale spaceflight operations. The combined wet dress rehearsal and static fire is what ultimately killed their pad - a static fire like the one in the post only uses a partial fuel load so that if something goes catastrophically wrong it won’t cause an entire fully fueled rocket to explode. Blue Origin wasn’t doing that due to inexperience
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u/MrTagnan 17h ago
I should probably shorten this comment, but oh well. Short version is that different levels of experience and different levels of complexity matter a lot. NASA has an extraordinary amount of experience, and is using 50 year old hardware that is “fairly” simple on the rocket side (still very complex, but less so than New Glenn or Starship). Blue Origin has next to no orbital spaceflight experience and has a very complicated rocket. SpaceX has a quite a bit of experience, but is essentially trying to develop a brand new class of rocket more complex than anything that has ever flown before
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u/Accomplished-Crab932 15h ago
You might want to read about the history of rocket development. The Saturn V didn’t explode on the pad, but it cost between 10 and 100x the amount we spend on rocket development today. Additionally, NASA had a lot of explosions, as did the Soviet program prior to missions the public remembers. To date, NASA has still exploded more rockets for the Apollo program than SpaceX has entirely.
Even the engines themselves are difficult. The RS-25 engines used on the shuttle and later SLS frequently exploded during development. Famously, 25 were destroyed in the process of figuring out how to start the engine, with many more sacrifices to figure out how to throttle and how to shut down.
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u/craidie 13h ago edited 13h ago
Didn't we solve that?
For that particular engine, yes. But engineers are engineers and they can't help but to improve things
Different fuel, more thrust, less weight, better control software. Enough changes and you want to test things again. And this is rocket science after all, you make one tiny mistake and that tiny thing sets the dominoes falling which ends up as a the whole thing blowing up.
Compared to saturn V rocket motors the ones they're testing now are 25% more fuel efficient provide third of the thrust, but with twice as good thrust to weight ratio.
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u/MonsteraBigTits 17h ago
what a fucking waste of resources
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u/rupert1920 15h ago
Rocketry has terrestrial benefits you know? Weather satellites for more accurate forecasts, Earth observation satellite for optimizing agricultural yields, GPS so you don't get lost, etc...
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