When it left the Launch Pad at Boca Chica, Texas "SpaceX STARBASE"... on the morning of October 13th, 2024, they 'topped it off'... with 10,000,000 Pounds of Cryogenic LOX and Liquid Methane.
And it either "Burned a Boatload" of that Fuel on the way UP... or ... as can be seen in other videos of the Giant Booster's descent, they programmed the Oxidizer Discharge Valves to open wide at Altitude in order to spray away the bulk of whatever tonnage of Fuel was not needed to make this incredibly hairy attempt at the MOST Astonishing Technological Feat involving the Largest Rocket Booster EVER Made on Earth... Coming right back down to its own Launch Position on its Very FIRST Try. Wuuuuut? RUFKM?
THIS is what an O2 & Liquid Methane Fuel Mixture Looks Like when the Combustion Ratios are O2 RICH...and it goes BEYOND Stoichiometric "Blue Perfection", just as the Earth's Atmospheric Pressure subsided at Very High Altitude. Meanwhile, the 33 Raptor Engines underneath it were generating a combined 15,000,000 Pounds of Thrust to push the Booster toting a Fully Loaded Starship into Orbit after a "Hot Fire" separation:
Eat Your Hearts Out, Roscosmos...
And it either "Burned a Boatload" of that Fuel on the way UP... or ... as can be seen in other videos of the Giant Booster's descent, they programmed the Oxidizer Discharge Valves to open wide at Altitude in order to spray away the bulk of whatever tonnage of Fuel was not needed to make this incredibly hairy attempt at the MOST Astonishing Technological Feat involving the Largest Rocket Booster EVER Made on Earth... Coming right back down to its own Launch Position on its Very FIRST Try. Wuuuuut? RUFKM?
THIS is what an O2 & Liquid Methane Fuel Mixture Looks Like when the Combustion Ratios are O2 RICH...and it goes BEYOND Stoichiometric "Blue Perfection", just as the Earth's Atmospheric Pressure subsided at Very High Altitude. Meanwhile, the 33 Raptor Engines underneath it were generating a combined 15,000,000 Pounds of Thrust to push the Booster toting a Fully Loaded Starship into Orbit after a "Hot Fire" separation:
Eat Your Hearts Out, Roscosmos...
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