Next-Gen Starship will have over 20% liftoff power boost

SpaceX is now on the road to use the Raptor 3 engine, which will boost liftoff thrust in the next-gen Starship rocket with more power.

The company has shared the first look at the Raptor 3 engine with a more well-organized and efficient design than 1st and 2nd generation. It offers 280tf of thrust at sea level, 350s specific impulse, and 1525kg of engine mass.

Compared to Raptor 2, this new engine offers 50tf more thrust, 3s increased specific impulse, and 105kg less engine mass. Furthermore, Raptor 3 will reduce engine +  vehicle-side commodities and hardware mass by 1155kg.

SpaceX Raptor 3 Engine (Source – SpaceX)

SpaceX has been using Raptor engines exclusively for the Starship heavy-lift vehicle with two stages. The first stage is 71 meters tall, and 9 meters wide to house 33 Raptor 2 engines with sub-cooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen. It can carry 3,400 tons of propellant capacity and generate 7,590 tf of thrust during liftoff.

On the other hand, the second stage has 6 Raptor engines including three vacuum. With the next-gen upgrades, the Starship is likely to take the thrust around 10,000, which is more than a 20 percent increase compared to the previous generation.

Elon Musk Founder and CEO of SpaceX said that “Thrust will exceed 300 tons with Raptor 3.x (thrust/mass>200), enabling 10,000 tons of thrust at liftoff and there might be up to 5 sec of Isp gain over time.”

SpaceX Starship 4 Lifting Off (Image Source – SpaceX)

He also predicts that new improvements will increase thrust and isp to a new level. RVAC will also get upgrades with a bigger nozzle and isp of 380 to improve in-space operations.

This new engine is the key to bringing humungous changes in the next Starship design but we’ll have to wait until SpaceX officially reveals its new space rocket.