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SpaceX on Jan 13, 2021 did three static fires in one day.

Elon Musk tweeted:

All three static fires completed & no RUDs!

And that was in response to this tweet of his own:

Today at SpaceX is about practicing Starship engine starts. Ship is held down by massive pins while engines are fired. Two starts completed, about to try a third.

This is a 400,000 lb thrust engine, and they fired three of them, three times in the same day on a prototype launch vehicle.

Has there ever been anything even close? In terms of three firings in one day?

Smaller engines like XCOR have been fired multiple times in one day, but not even within 3 orders of magnitude of thrust level, nor 3 big boys at one time.

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    $\begingroup$ You specifically asked about static fires so it doesn't count, but of course Falcon9 first stage does 3 burns during a mission (launch, entry, landing). I assume they also tested that during development except we didn't follow that so closely as with starship. $\endgroup$ – Jester Jan 14 at 13:14
  • $\begingroup$ BTW, if you step frame-by-frame through the various angles available from NASASpaceFlight (Mary "BocaChicaGal", Jack Beyer, and the NSF Robot Army), Everyday Astronaut (Cosmic Perspective), LabPadre, and friends, it looks like at least one, maybe two, of the firings were two engines, not three. $\endgroup$ – Jörg W Mittag Jan 14 at 13:22
  • $\begingroup$ @JörgWMittag IT has been suggested that one of the static fires was from the header tanks, which only supports two engines for landings, so that would be consistent, but even then, 3 static fires of 2 engines in one day seems like it might be a record as well. $\endgroup$ – geoffc Jan 14 at 13:49
  • $\begingroup$ I can imagine McGregor having fired Merlins or Raptors multiple times in succession, but probably not multiple ones. They have three test stands, but I don't think they actually fire them simultaneously, it's more like they can mount an engine on stand 1 while unmounting it on stand 2 while firing on stand 3. $\endgroup$ – Jörg W Mittag Jan 14 at 14:17

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