[amorphous]

Image of "thrust dome" with single raptor engine installed:

[Moonman62]

The first stage, which is the same diameter, will have 31 Raptors stuffed in there.

[amorphous]

Aerojet Rocketdyne wins propulsion contracts worth nearly $1.4 billion

NASA and Boeing have awarded Aerojet Rocketdyne widely-anticipated contracts to restart the production of simplified shuttle-era rocket engines for the heavy-lift Space Launch System and supply the propulsion system for the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew capsule, officials announced this week.

The deals are welcome news for Aerojet Rocketdyne, which in the last year has lost an engine contract for Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket and is running second in a race with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to supply engines for United Launch Alliance’s next-generation Vulcan rocket.

The Space Launch System contract announced Monday, valued at $1.16 billion, begins the process to resume production of RS-25 engines after the assembly line was shut down nearly a decade ago in the final years of the space shuttle program.

Snip

ASA’s current inventory includes 16 RS-25 engines left over from the space shuttle program, enough for four SLS missions. The construction of six new engines enables a fifth SLS flight in the 2020s.

RS-25 - The Ferrari of Rocket Engines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP1CQtV8Qk8

[tennmountainman]

I read where SpaceX will not be static testing this engine for a month.
It was supposed to be tested over the weekend. No reason was given.
I can only speculate that an issue was discovered.
Or SpaceX did not want to take the risk of it blowing up so close
to its first launch of American astronauts to the Space Station (May 27).