Do Falcon 9 preflight static fire ignitions use up the engines' ignitors?

Question

After a Falcon 9 has its static fire several days prior to the actual launch, are the TEA-TEB ignitors inside the engine replenished? Or do they have enough to ignite the engines for the static fire and the actual mission?

I thought that there is a duplicate but can't find it on my phone. — jkavalik, Oct 23 '17 at 05:14
@jkavalik there is this answer for example, but I don't think it answers this question. It might be the one you are thinking of - you have a comment there as well. — uhoh, Oct 23 '17 at 11:55

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 23 '17 at 19:16

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Only the in-flight restarts are supplied from onboard TEA-TEB storage. The launch and static fire ignition uses fluids supplied from the ground tanks. There was a problem on the ground supply on the SES-8 launch — the tank was contaminated and the flight computer aborted the launch after detecting non-standard readings during ignition.

Only three engines have the onboard ignitor available on the first stage as others do not restart after launch. There has to be another engine which can start mid-flight — the second stage one (capable of multiple restarts too).

edited Oct 23 '17 at 19:16

Nathan Tuggy

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answered Oct 23 '17 at 05:13

jkavalik

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This sounds reasonable, but do you have a reference? – Organic Marble Oct 23 '17 at 12:17
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@OrganicMarble: added the original tweet and the article linked to that SES-8 launch attempt with an ignition-related scrub. – jkavalik Oct 23 '17 at 15:27

Do Falcon 9 preflight static fire ignitions use up the engines' ignitors?

1 Answers1