eli5 why didn’t spacex super heavy booster lift off from the static fire? was it somehow tethered to the ground?

Question

eli5 why didn’t spacex super heavy booster lift off from the static fire? was it somehow tethered to the ground?

In: 0

Answer 1

Big clamps

There are large clamps on the launch structure that clamp onto the base of the rocket, generally the place where the engines are mounted (thrust puck), that hold it onto the launch pad

These work for static test fires, but are also used for each and every launch. It takes a bit for liquid rocket engines to come up to full thrust so the clamps hold the rocket firmly in place while that happens in case there’s some thrust imbalance or one of the engines doesn’t do its thing and they need to abort then the rocket won’t hop off the pad or fall over or anything bad