SpaceX to hot stage

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Hasn't been a thing for rockets for years.



The soviet N1 used hot staging. The upper engines turn on and blast through the metal grid before the lower stage separates.

This is normally done to simplify designs. If the rocket separates first, you need some way to handle starting an engine in zero g. SpaceX however announced they're switching to this to increase payload mass by 10%. Hot staging allows the rocket to avoid falling for a few seconds during stage seperation.

There’s a lot of speculation about this part, and while the theory about windows for the HLS Starship seems possible, this is an awful lot of cutouts. Maybe it is, maybe they’re something else, or maybe SpaceX is about to do some N1 style hotstaging lol. (19/21)

????? @TDSN19 pic.twitter.com/ij90otGZU6

— The Ringwatchers (@Ringwatchers) May 31, 2023