SpaceX's next Raptor engine is aiming for about 300 metric tons of sea-level thrust. Elon Musk said Raptor 4 should hit that figure at roughly the same mass as Raptor 3, Teslarati reports.
How Raptor has grown
- Raptor 1: 185 tons of thrust at about 2,080 kg.
- Raptor 2: 230 tons at about 1,630 kg.
- Raptor 3: a 280-ton target at about 1,525 kg, Teslarati says.
- Raptor 4: about 300 tons, mass ideally similar to Raptor 3.
What SpaceX publishes today
SpaceX's own Starship page still lists the Raptor engine at 250 tf (551 klbf) of thrust, 1.3 m wide and 2.9 m tall. It lists Super Heavy, with 33 Raptors, at 8,240 tf, and says Raptor has twice the thrust of Falcon 9's Merlin.
Why it matters
More thrust per engine at the same weight means more lift for the same booster. Teslarati works out that 33 engines at 300 tons would give roughly 9,900 tons of liftoff thrust. Musk's figure is a target, not a tested specification, and SpaceX has not given a date for Raptor 4.
