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SpaceX Starship flight tests

SpaceX Starship during IFT-2

SpaceX Starship flight tests include fifteen launches to date of prototype rockets during 2019–2024 for the SpaceX Starship launch vehicle development program. Eleven test flights were of single-stage Starship spacecraft flying low-altitude tests (2019–2021),[a][1] while four were orbital trajectory flights of the entire Starship launch vehicle (2023–2024), consisting of a Starship spacecraft second-stage prototype atop a Super Heavy first-stage booster prototype.[2] None of the flights to date has carried an operational payload. Additional flight tests are planned in 2024.

Designed and operated by private manufacturer SpaceX, the prototype Starship and Super Heavy vehicles flown to date are Starhopper, SN5, SN6, SN8, SN9, SN10, SN11, SN15, Ship 24/B7, Ship 25/B9, Ship 28/B10, and Ship 29/B11.[3][4][5][b]

Starship is planned to be a fully-reusable two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle,[6] and this affects expansion of the flight envelope during the long-running flight test program. Unusual for previous launch vehicle and spacecraft designs, the upper stage of Starship is intended to function both as a second stage to reach orbital velocity on launches from Earth, and also as a long-duration spacecraft.[7] It is being designed to take people to Mars and beyond into the Solar System.[8]

Nomenclature

SpaceX calls the launch vehicle "Starship", which consists of the Super Heavy first-stage booster and the identically named Starship second-stage.[9] To avoid confusion, "Starship" in this article on the flight testing phase (2019–2024) means the second-stage, while the complete launch vehicle will be referred by the particular prototype booster and ship serial number. For example, the integrated flight test 1 booster was Booster 7 (B7), the spacecraft was Ship 24 (S24), and the launch vehicle stack is referred to as Ship 24/Booster 7, or S24/B7.[10]

The first tests started with the construction of an initial flight prototype in 2018, Starhopper, which performed several static fire tests plus two successful low-altitude flights in 2019.[11] SpaceX began constructing the first full-size Starship Mk1 and Mk2 upper-stage prototypes before 2019, at the SpaceX facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, and Cocoa, Florida, respectively. After the Mk prototypes, SpaceX began naming its new Starship upper-stage prototypes with the prefix "SN", short for "serial number".[12] Around mid-2021, SpaceX changed their naming scheme from "SN" to "Ship", or simply "S," for Starship vehicles,[13] and from "BN" to "Booster," or simply "B," for Super Heavy boosters.[14]

Vehicle testing

Starship prototype tests can generally be classified into three main types. In proof pressure tests, the vehicle's tanks are pressurized with either gases or liquids to test their strength, sometimes deliberately until they burst (known as a test to failure). In a static fire test, SpaceX loads the vehicle prototype with propellant and briefly fires its engines while the vehicle does not move.[15] Alternatively, the engines' turbopump spinning can be tested without firing the engines, referred to as a spin prime test.[16] Before a test flight, the vehicle performs mission rehearsals, with or without propellants, to check the vehicle and ground infrastructure.

Following successful testing, uncrewed flight tests and launches may take place. During a sub-orbital launch, Starship prototypes fly to a high altitude and then descend, landing either near the launch site or in the sea. During an orbital launch, Starship performs procedures as described in its mission profile.[15]: 19–22  The tests, flights, and launches of the Starship rocket have received significant media coverage due to SpaceX's relatively open approach to allowing outsiders to view the facilities.[17]

Upper-stage flight tests (2019–2021)

Launch outcomes

1
2
3
4
2019
2020
2021
  •   Success (tethered)
  •   Success (untethered)

Landing outcomes

1
2
3
4
2019
2020
2021
  •   Loss before landing
  •   Loss on landing
  •   Loss after landing
  •   Success (tethered)
  •   Success (untethered)


Integrated flight tests (2023–)

The first Starship integrated flight test (IFT) took place on 20 April 2023, marking the beginning of the orbital test campaign.

Launch outcomes

3
6
9
2023
2024
2025
  •   Failure
  •   Partial failure
  •   Success
  •   Planned

Booster landing outcomes

1
2
2023
2024
2025
  •   Precluded
  •   Loss before landing
  •   Loss on landing
  •   Partial failure
  •   Success (splashdown)
  •   Success (tower catch)

Starship landing outcomes

1
2
2023
2024
2025
  •   Precluded
  •   Loss before landing
  •   Loss on landing
  •   Partial failure
  •   Success (splashdown)
  •   Success (tower catch)

Upcoming flights

Notes

  1. ^ Not including tethered, short hops of Starhopper on 3 and 5 April 2019.
  2. ^ In hardware prototyping, the term Serial Number is abbreviated to "SN", and shows the chronological order of production between prototypes. The Starship spacecraft, after SN19, began to be referred to with only the S, for Ship, as in S24. The Superheavy booster had also initially been labeled with BN, as in BN3, for Booster Number, but had shifted to B, as in B7, for Booster. This shift occurred around the same time as the shift from SN to S and likely occurred because of the focus on orbital flight configurations following the stacking of S20 and B4, the first Ship and Booster respectively to be labeled as such.
  3. ^ All launches are from the same Boca Chica site. SpaceX started calling this Starbase from March 2021 after discussions called a "casual inquiry". See Boca Chica (Texas) § Starbase
  4. ^ Despite making an intact landing and beginning the detanking procedures, the vehicle suffered an explosion several minutes later destroying the vehicle in the process. SpaceX called it a successful landing but later acknowledged a problem with lower-than-expected engine thrust causing a hard landing[48] exceeding maximum leg loads[49] and the vehicle exploded.[45]
  5. ^ a b c d Time until vehicle telemetry loss
  6. ^ a b A controlled "ocean landing" denotes a controlled atmospheric entry, descent and vertical splashdown on the ocean's surface at near zero velocity, for the sole purpose of gathering test data; such boosters were destroyed at sea.

See also

References

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