2 ms·
I haven't checked the data, but being a pintle injector engine, there's potential for the Merlin to throttle quite deeply. Maybe they haven't done that yet.
by Gravityloss 12y ago
I haven't checked the data, but being a pintle injector engine, there's potential for the Merlin to throttle quite deeply. Maybe they haven't done that yet.
- jccooper 12y agoIt's published to be able to run at 70%, which is quite nice. But 70% is still way too much to match stage weight. It's been said to be capable of 60% (or maybe 40%, depending on how you interpret a three-character tweet). But even that is still not enough: the stage is 40k lb empty and a Merlin D at sea level is 165k lb thrust. You'd need to get it to 25-33% to hover nearly-empty. (Keep in mind most SpaceX numbers involve a fair amount of guesswork and Kremlinology, and they're always changing, but they should be ballpark accurate.)