u/Daniels30

Engine integration has begun! The first Aeon R engines are now installed on Terran R’s thrust structure.

💪 The thrust structure will house 13 Aeon R engines, each producing 269,000 lbf of sea level thrust for a combined thrust of 3,497,000 lbf at liftoff.
🔥 Each engine has successfully completed acceptance testing before installation on the vehicle.
🌀 Custom ground equipment precisely positions each engine for installation, then will rotate the fully integrated thrust structure into position for mate with stage 1.

One step closer to a fully integrated stage 1!

Stage 2 testing is officially underway at NASA Stennis

The campaign kicked off with successful cryoproof, loading the stage with cryogenic fluids and pressurizing it beyond expected flight loads to validate its structural integrity, followed by COPV manifold proof testing to verify the high-pressure system that will pressurize propellants during flight.

These tests also marked the activation of A2, bringing together the infrastructure, flight hardware, ground and vehicle software, and the integrated team of test, launch, and vehicle engineers.

Next up: hot fire capable assembly work, then back to the stand ahead of stage hot fire testing.

Wanted to give an update on the hotfire anomaly investigation. Progress continues. The anomaly originated at the main oxygen valve on one of the BE-4 engines, which was later confirmed by hardware recovery and inspections. Extensive component-level and engine hotfire tests have been conducted to understand the failure mode better and inform mitigations. The path forward is clear. We're making small modifications to the valve that can be quickly retrofitted to existing engines. We’re manufacturing the updated hardware, which will be ready by the end of this month. In parallel, we're working through the remaining fault tree analysis.