SpaceX Starship flight tests include 14 launches 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), while three 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. [a] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] None of the flights to date has carried an operational payload. More flight tests are planned in 2024 and 2025.
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, and Ship 28/ B10. [6] [7] [8] [b]
Starship is planned to be a fully-reusable two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle, [9] 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 eventually [10] be used in outer space as an on-orbit long-duration spacecraft. It is being designed to take people to Mars and beyond into the Solar System. [11]
SpaceX calls the entire launch vehicle "Starship", which consists of the Super Heavy first-stage booster and the ambiguously named Starship second-stage. [12] To avoid confusion, "Starship" in this article means the second-stage, while the complete launch vehicle will be referred by the particular 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 rocket stack is referred to as Ship 24/ Booster 7, or S24/B7. [13]
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. [14] 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". [15] Around mid-2021, SpaceX changed their naming scheme from "SN" to "Ship", or simply "S," for Starship vehicles, [16] and from "BN" to "Booster," or simply "B," for Super Heavy boosters. [17]
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. SpaceX loads the vehicle prototype with propellant and briefly fires its engines in a static fire test. [18] Before a test flight, the vehicle performs mission rehearsals, with or without fuel, to check the vehicle and ground infrastructure. Alternatively, the engines' turbopump spinning can be tested without firing the engines, referred to as a spin prime test. [19]
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. [18]: 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. [20]
Flight No. |
Date and time ( UTC) |
Vehicles | Launch site [c] | Flight apogee | Duration | Launch outcome | Landing outcome |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
- | 3 April 2019 | Starhopper | Suborbital Launch Site | <0.3 m (1 ft 0 in) | ~3 seconds | Success | — |
The first firing of Starhopper and the first tethered hop (according to Musk [21] [22]). The burn was a few seconds in duration and the vehicle was tethered to the ground. The vehicle may have lifted off the ground, but only to a very small height, and it was not possible to see the lift off in public video recordings of the test. [22] [23] | |||||||
- | 5 April 2019 | Starhopper | Suborbital Launch Site | 1 m (3 ft 3 in) | ~5 seconds | Success | — |
Tethered hop which hit tether limits. [1] | |||||||
1 | 25 July 2019 [24] | Starhopper | Suborbital Launch Site | 20 m (66 ft) [2] | ~22 seconds | Success | Success |
First free (untethered) flight test. | |||||||
2 | 27 August 2019, 22:00 [3] [25] | Starhopper | Suborbital Launch Site | 150 m (490 ft) [3] | ~1 minute [26] | Success | Success |
Starhopper was retired after this launch and used as a water tank at the production site. [3] [27] [28] | |||||||
3 | 4 August 2020, 23:57 [29] [30] | Starship SN5 | Suborbital Pad A | 150 m (490 ft) [29] | ~45 seconds | Success | Success |
Second 150-meter hop, and first hop of a full Starship prototype. [4] [31] | |||||||
4 | 3 September 2020, 17:47 [32] | Starship SN6 | Suborbital Pad A | 150 m (490 ft) [33] | ~45 seconds | Success | Success |
Third 150-meter hop, and second hop of a full Starship prototype. [32] | |||||||
5 | 9 December 2020, [34] 22:45 | Starship SN8 | Suborbital Pad A | 12.5 km (41,000 ft) [35] | 6 minutes, 42 seconds | Success | Failure |
First high-altitude flight test. Vehicle successfully launched, ascended, performed the skydive descent maneuver, relit the engines fueled from header tanks, and steered to the landing pad. [35] [36] The flip maneuver from horizontal descent to vertical was successful, but a sudden pressure loss in the methane header tank caused by the flip maneuver reduced fuel supply and thrust, resulting in a hard landing and explosion. [35] | |||||||
6 | 2 February 2021, [37] 20:25 | Starship SN9 | Suborbital Pad B | 10 km (33,000 ft) [38] [37] [39] | 6 minutes, 26 seconds [39] | Success | Failure |
A raptor failed to start due to a problem with its oxygen preburner,[ citation needed] causing SN9 to over-rotate and hit the landing pad. Vehicle destroyed on impact. [39] [40] [41] [42] | |||||||
7 | 3 March 2021, [43] [44] 23:15 | Starship SN10 | Suborbital Pad A | 10 km (33,000 ft) [45] | 6 minutes, 24 seconds [46] [d] | Success | Partial failure |
SN10 experienced a hard landing with a slight lean after the landing, and a fire developed near the base of the rocket. [49] Eight minutes after landing, SN10 exploded.[ undue weight? ] [45] Insufficient deacceleration was possibly due to helium ingestion from the fuel header tank. [47] | |||||||
8 | 30 March 2021, 13:00 [50] | Starship SN11 | Suborbital Pad B | 10 km (33,000 ft) [51] | ~6 minutes [50] | Success | Failure |
SN11 had engine issues during ascent (according to Elon Musk). [52] Vehicle lost before T+6:00. [53] [54] Musk stated that a "relatively small" methane leak caused a fire on one of the Raptor engines during ascent, causing the engine to experience a hard start when relit. [55] | |||||||
9 | 5 May 2021, 22:24 [56] | Starship SN15 | Suborbital Pad A | 10 km (33,000 ft) [57] | 5 minutes, 59 seconds | Success | Success |
SN15 was a new iteration of prototype Starship with many upgrades over previous vehicles. [58] SN15 achieved a soft landing, with a small fire starting near the base shortly after landing. The post-flight fire was out within 20 minutes, and SN15 was retired by the end of the month and scrapped in July 2023. [59] [60] |
The first orbital flight test of Starship took place on 20 April 2023, marking the begin of the orbital test campaign.
Flight | Date and time ( UTC) |
Vehicles | Launch site [e] | Orbit | Duration | Launch outcome | Booster landing | Spacecraft landing |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IFT-1 | 20 April 2023, 13:33:09 | Ship 24/ Booster 7 | Starbase Orbital Pad A | Transatmospheric [61] (planned) | 3 minutes, 59 seconds (until vehicle loss) | Failure (SpaceX declared success) | Precluded | Precluded |
The first integrated flight test of Starship was the first flight test of the full launch vehicle with both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage integrated. If all early parts of the test were nominal on the test plan, the booster would ultimately make a powered splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, and the ship would enter a transatmospheric Earth orbit before reentering and impacting the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. Three engines were shut down before the booster lifted off the launch mount, with at least three more engines shutting down during booster powered flight. The vehicle eventually entered an uncontrolled spin before stage separation due to loss of thrust vector control. The flight termination system detonated with the intent to destroy the vehicle immediately, but the vehicle remained intact until T+3:59, more than 40 seconds after activation of the flight termination system. [62] SpaceX declared this flight a success, as their primary goal was to only clear the pad. [63] The launch resulted in extensive damage to the orbital launch mount and the infrastructures around it, including the propellant tank farm. | ||||||||
IFT-2 | 18 November 2023, 13:02:50 [64] [65] | Ship 25/ Booster 9 [66] [67] | Starbase Orbital Pad A | Transatmospheric (planned) | 8 minutes, 5 seconds (until vehicle loss) | Failure (SpaceX declared success) | Failure | Precluded |
The second integrated flight test of Starship had a test flight profile similar to the first flight, with the addition of a new hot-staging technique and the introduction of a water deluge system as part of the ground support equipment at the launch pad. During the first stage ascent, all 33 engines fired to full duration. Starship and Super Heavy successfully accomplished a
hot-staging separation. After initiating a flip maneuver and initiating boostback burn, several booster engines began shutting down. One failed energetically, which caused the destruction of the booster.
[68] The root cause was filter blockage leading to inadequate inlet pressure in the engine oxidizer turbopumps.
[68] The filter and filter operation were upgraded for the next flight.
[68]
[69]
The upper stage ascended normally for six minutes. [70] A leak in the aft section developed while a planned liquid oxygen venting was underway, triggering a combustion event that interrupted communication between the craft’s flight computers, causing full engine shutdown. [68] The Autonomous Flight Safety System detected this mission rule violation and activated the flight termination system (FTS) as the ship reached an altitude of ~148 km and velocity of ~24,000 km/h. [68] | ||||||||
IFT-3 | 14 March 2024, 13:25:00 [71] | Ship 28/ Booster 10 [71] | Starbase Orbital Pad A [72] |
Suborbital |
49 minutes, 35 seconds (until vehicle loss) | Success | Failure | Failure |
The third integrated flight test of Starship involved an internal propellant transfer demonstration, a deorbit burn, and a test of the Starlink dispenser door.
[73] A hard splashdown of the ship was planned to occur in the Indian Ocean, approximately 1 hour 4 minutes after launch.
[74]
[75]
The booster successfully propelled the spacecraft to staging with 13 engines successfully ignited for a boostback burn, which was successful. However, several minutes later, during a second re-ignition of the booster engines to decelerate the booster for a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, only three engines ignited, and the booster was destroyed by unknown causes at an altitude of approximately 460 meters above the ocean. [75] The spacecraft trajectory was suborbital, with a 234 km (145 mi) apogee and −50 km (−31 mi) perigee, [71] although the ship did reach orbital speed. [76]). A scheduled restart of a Raptor engine for a prograde burn test did not occur, which would have resulted in a 50 km (31 mi) perigee and somewhat later entry into the atmosphere. [71] Minutes into atmospheric re-entry, Ship 28's telemetry cut off, leading SpaceX to conclude the ship had disintegrated prior to its planned splashdown. The FAA declared that a mishap had occurred involving both the upper stage and booster, triggering the start of a SpaceX-led investigation, which will be overseen by the FAA. [77] |
Flight | Date and time
( UTC) |
Vehicle | Launch site | Orbit | Booster landing | Spacecraft landing |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IFT-4 | NET May 2024 [78] | Ship 29/ Booster 11 [79] [80] [81] | Starbase Orbital Pad A [82] | Unknown [83] | Planned (soft splashdown) | Planned (hard splashdown) |
As of April 2024, the flight profile for IFT-4 is expected to have some differences when compared to the previous launch. [83] Starlink satellites are not planned to be flown on IFT-4. [84] | ||||||
IFT-5 | TBD | Ship 30/ Booster 12 [79] [80] | Starbase Orbital Pad A | Unknown | Planned (Tower Catch) | Unknown |
In April 2024, Musk stated that Flight 5 could involve a catch of the Super Heavy booster on the tower, if Flight 4 soft ocean landing on a "virtual tower" is successful. [85] | ||||||
IFT-6 | TBD | Ship 31/ Booster 13 [79] [80] | Starbase Orbital Pad A | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
As of April 2024, the flight profile for IFT-6 is unknown. | ||||||
IFT-7 | TBD | Ship 32/ Booster 14 [86] | Starbase Orbital Pad A | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
As of April 2024, the flight profile for IFT-7 is unknown. |
SpaceX has on various occasions made a few public statements about preliminary ideas for future operational orbital flights using the Starship system. All dates for future flights are approximate, being "no earlier than" (NET) dates.
Elon Musk has stated that Starship would fly hundreds of times before launching with humans. [10] A planned use for many of these flights is to launch the much larger Starlink Gen2 satellites. [87]
Date | Vehicle | Mission | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
NET 2025 [88] | Starship HLS | HLS Demo | NASA demonstration mission for the Human Landing System prior to Artemis 3, announced in April 2021. [89] Includes refueling and landing vehicles. |
Starship Cargo (refueling) [f] | |||
NET 2026 | Starship HLS | Artemis 3 | Human Landing System vehicle for Artemis Program. Date is dependent on many NASA Artemis program and SpaceX Starship development contingencies. |
Starship Cargo (refueling) [f] | |||
NET Mid 2026 | Starship Cargo | Astrolab FLEX rover mission [91] | Could be a rideshare. Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover will include 1,000 kilograms of customer payloads. |
NET 2026 | Starship Cargo | Unnamed | As of 2023 [update], this was mentioned as the earliest potential cargo flight to Mars. [92] |
2027 [93] | Starship Cargo | Superbird-9 | Superbird-9 is a SKY Perfect JSAT's fully flexible HTS (High Throughput Satellites) mounted the payload missions to be configured and combined to match end-user needs. The satellite will be based on Airbus' standardised OneSat product line. Superbird-9 will be launched by SpaceX's Starship launch vehicle in 2027 to geosynchronous transfer orbit. [94] [95] |
NET 2028 | Starship HLS | Unnamed | On 15 November 2022, NASA announced it had awarded a contract to SpaceX as part of Option B of the Appendix H contract. This would allow SpaceX to use a second-generation Starship HLS design to conduct a Lunar Gateway-based demonstration mission as part of Artemis 4. [96] |
NET 2028 [97] | Starship Cargo | Starlab | Starship was selected to launch the Starlab space station to LEO before the decommissioning of the ISS. [98] |
NET 2029 | Starship Crew (Heart of Gold [99]) |
Unnamed | As of March 2022 [update], 2029 was mentioned as the earliest potential crewed flight to Mars. [100] |
TBD | Starship Crew | Third Polaris Program Flight | On behalf of Jared Isaacman, last flight of the Polaris Program and first crewed mission of Starship. [101] [g] |
TBD | Starship Crew | dearMoon | The dearMoon project was announced in 2018, with the goal of a crewed flyby loop around the Moon. [102] [103] |
TBD | Starship Crew | Unnamed | As of 2022
[update],
Dennis and Akiko Tito are the first two crewmembers announced on Starship's second commercial spaceflight around the Moon. This will be Dennis' second mission to space after becoming the first commercial astronaut to visit the International Space Station in 2001, and Akiko will be among the first women to fly around the Moon on a Starship. The Titos joined the mission to contribute to SpaceX's long-term goal to advance human spaceflight and help make life multiplanetary.
Over the course of a week, Starship and the crew will travel to the Moon, fly within 200 km of the Moon's surface, and complete a full journey around the Moon before safely returning to Earth. Ten other seats on Starship remain unsold and are available. Tito said he was not at liberty to disclose the price he paid. [104] |