It's clear that with SpaceX, Elon Musk wants to push the boundaries of space travel, even if every project isn't a success. Despite scrapping 100 Starlink satellites, there are plenty of important missions SpaceX has completed, and the spacecraft manufacturer has been focusing on a new behemoth: Starship. 

顯然，馬斯克希望透過 SpaceX 突破太空旅行的界限，即使並非每個專案都會成功。儘管廢棄了 100 顆 Starlink 衛星，但 SpaceX 已經完成了大量重要任務，這家太空船製造商一直專注於一個新的龐然大物：星際飛船。

Starship is the largest rocket ever flown. It measures 397 feet tall, weighs hundreds of thousands of pounds, and is made of stainless steel. Naturally, with all that mass, it's going to take an impressive amount of thrust for the spacecraft to not only take off but generate enough velocity to exit Earth's atmosphere. That's where SpaceX's Raptor engines come into play. In total, the Starship Heavy has 39 Raptor engines, with most of them located on the Super Heavy. 

星艦是有史以來飛行過的最大的火箭。它高 397 英尺，重數十萬磅，由不銹鋼製成。當然，憑藉如此大的質量，太空船不僅需要巨大的推力才能起飛，而且要產生足夠的速度才能離開地球大氣層。這就是 SpaceX 的 Raptor 引擎發揮作用的地方。重型星艦總共擁有 39 個猛禽發動機，其中大部分位於超重型艦上。

The Super Heavy is the Starship's booster, the first stage of the spacecraft's launch system that eventually separates once it reaches Earth's orbit. The reusable booster features 33 Raptor engines powered by liquid methane (CH4) and liquid oxygen. All are found on the spacecraft's tail end (bottom), with 13 in the center while the remaining 20 encircle them, working together to create behemoth thrust when ignited. 

超級重型火箭是星艦的助推器，是太空船發射系統的第一級，一旦到達地球軌道，它最終會分離。可重複使用的助推器配備 33 個由液態甲烷 (CH4) 和液態氧提供動力的猛禽引擎。所有這些都位於太空船的尾端（底部），其中 13 個位於中心，其餘 20 個環繞它們，在點燃時共同產生巨大的推力。

Six Raptor engines power the main Starship craft once the Super Heavy breaks off after the initial launch. Three are traditional Raptor engines, while the other three are Raptor Vacuum engines designed for use in the vacuum of space.

一旦超重型飛船在首次發射後中斷，六台猛禽引擎將為主星艦飛船提供動力。其中三個是傳統的猛禽發動機，另外三個是專為真空太空設計的猛禽真空發動機。

How powerful are SpaceX Raptor engines?

SpaceX 猛禽引擎有多強大？

It's hard to imagine the amount of thrust needed to launch a space shuttle into orbit, let alone one as massive as SpaceX's Starship. However, the company's Raptor engines do just the trick, even if they need nearly 40 of them to complete the spacecraft's journey. So, how powerful are they?

很難想像將太空梭送入軌道需要多大的推力，更不用說像 SpaceX 的星際飛船那麼大了。然而，該公司的 Raptor 引擎卻能發揮作用，即使他們需要近 40 個引擎才能完成太空船的旅程。那麼，他們的實力到底有多強呢？

Each Raptor engine has a thrust of 230 ton-force (tf) or 507 kip-force (klbf). Considering the Super Heavy has 33 total engines, that means it's outputting 7,590 ton-force to get the Starship (plus the booster) off the ground and into space. For comparison, the GEnx-2B Engine that powers a Boeing 747-8 creates 66,500 lb of thrust compared to the 507,063 pound-force from each Raptor engine. 

每個 Raptor 引擎的推力為 230 噸力 (tf) 或 507 kip 力 (klbf)。考慮到超重型總共有 33 個發動機，這意味著它可以輸出 7,590 噸的力量來讓星艦（加上助推器）離開地面進入太空。相比之下，為波音 747-8 提供動力的 GEnx-2B 發動機可產生 66,500 磅的推力，而每個猛禽發動機可產生 507,063 磅的推力。

However, the SpaceX propulsion team didn't stop there. In May 2023, Elon Musk tweeted that the SpaceX engineers achieved even more thrust with the Raptor V3. The newest version of the space rocket achieved 269 tons of thrust, putting the Super Heavy Booster's total thrust at 8,877 tons or 19.5 million pounds. 

然而，SpaceX 推進團隊並沒有就此止步。 2023 年 5 月，馬斯克 (Elon Musk) 在推特上表示，SpaceX 工程師利用 Raptor V3 實現了更大的推力。最新版本的太空火箭可實現 269 噸的推力，使超重型助推器的總推力達到 8,877 噸或 1,950 萬磅。

On the other hand, the Raptor Vacuum engines boast a larger exhaust and expansion nozzle, which increases their efficiency and possesses more thrust than the standard Raptors (especially in space). The engines output 258 tf, giving Starship 774 tons of force (from just three RVacs) after separation in space.

另一方面，猛禽真空引擎擁有更大的排氣和膨脹噴嘴，這提高了效率並比標準猛禽擁有更大的推力（特別是在太空中）。引擎輸出 258 tf，在太空分離後為星際飛船提供 774 噸的力量（僅來自三架 RVac）。