--- title: "SpaceX Tests Highest Pressure Rocket Engine In History" description: "SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter that his space company's Raptor engine just aced an important pressure test \"without exploding.\"" date: "2020-08-18" modified: "2020-08-18" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-tests-highest-pressure-rocket-engine" categories: - "Space" - "SpaceX" tags: - "elon musk" - "raptor engine" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "the digest" --- # SpaceX Tests Highest Pressure Rocket Engine In History ![SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter that his space company's Raptor engine just aced an important pressure test "without exploding."]() *\Image: Elon Musk via Twitter\* ## Under Pressure SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says that his space company's Raptor engine just aced an important pressure test — and set a world record. The company is planning to use six of the engines to eventually get its massive Starship spacecraft off the ground, while a Super Heavy booster itself will likely need [closer to 40](). "Raptor engine just reached 330 bar chamber pressure without exploding!" Musk exclaimed in a [Monday tweet](). That's quite a lot of pressure, even for a rocket engine, surpassing the previous record of the Soviet's RD-701 engine from the 1980s, as [*Teslarati* reports](). ## Long Burn SpaceX will still have to prove that the Raptor engine can burn for long-duration flights — and that it can be reused for the Starship. We also still don't know if the Raptor engine, in a Falcon Heavy booster configuration, will be able to reach orbit. According to *Teslarati*, SpaceX will have to vastly increase the production of Raptor engines, and test whether they can sustain pressure over a burn of five to ten minutes. A single Raptor engine was used during the first [full-scale prototype's first flight]() (SN5) earlier this month. As for the next test flight, the eighth full-scale Starship prototype, dubbed SN8, will likely be tested using three of the engines up to a maximum altitude of 20 kilometers, as opposed to the 150 meters during SN5's test hop, on August 4 **2020**. **READ MORE:** [SpaceX crushes rocket engine world record during Raptor test]() \[*Teslarati*\] **More on the engines:** *[Watch SpaceX's Epic Starship Test Flight From the Inside]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()