SpaceX Starship flight tests

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), 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. 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.

Starship is planned to be a fully-reusable two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle, 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. It is being designed to take people to Mars and beyond into the Solar System.

Nomenclature

SpaceX calls the entire launch vehicle "Starship", which consists of the Super Heavy first-stage booster and the ambiguously named Starship second-stage. 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.

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. 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". Around mid-2021, SpaceX changed their naming scheme from "SN" to "Ship", or simply "S," for Starship vehicles, and from "BN" to "Booster," or simply "B," for Super Heavy boosters.

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. Alternatively, the engines' turbopump spinning can be tested without firing the engines, referred to as a spin prime test. 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.^: 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.

Upper-stage flight tests (2019–2021)

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.

Upcoming flights

Notes

See also

• SpaceX Starship design process

References