photo #9443798

Aerospace Now For months, whenever a massive, high-clearance tent showed up inside the security perimeter at SpaceX’s McGregor test site, everyone naturally assumed it was built to test rocket engines.It turns out the rocket technology being fired inside wasn't attached to a booster at all—it was bolted to a sports car.SpaceX’s McGregor facility has served as the proving ground for Merlin engines, early Grasshopper hops, and Raptor static firings for over a decade. But behind the closed doors of that mysterious giant enclosure, engineers were running low-altitude pneumatic flight trials for the new Tesla Roadster. Utilizing the site's industrial high-pressure gas infrastructure and acoustic test stands, the team quietly evaluated the vehicle's cold-gas thruster package, dialing in real-world hover stability, attitude control, and fast-acting solenoid valves in a contained, interference-free environment. For an aerospace test site dedicated to reaching orbit, McGregor’s most secretive project was learning how to make an electric car leave the ground.#Tesla #SpaceX #Roadster #TeslaRoadster #McGregor #AerospaceEngineering #ColdGasThrusters #RocketScience #AerospaceNow