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Starship (rocket)

Starship (rocket)25 posts

Starship is a fully-reusable, super-heavy-lift launch vehicle being developed by SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer. It is the tallest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built.

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19 Nov, 2024

Trump, Cruz attend Starship launch with Musk

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President-elect Trump, along with Cruz, attend the test launch of Starship 6. Trump is the first US president to attend a Starship launch. Before arriving, Trump posted:

I’m heading to the Great State of Texas to watch the launch of the largest object ever to be elevated, not only to Space, but simply by lifting off the ground. Good luck to @ElonMusk and the Great Patriots involved in this incredible project!

Starship 6 Test

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SpaceX conducts its sixth test of Super Heavy booster (Booster 13) and Starship (Ship 31) at Starbase, Texas. The test focusses on operational improvements, including experiments with the heat shield, flying the spacecraft at a steeper reentry angle to gather data on thermal protection system performance. The flight carried a banana as payload. After a successful launch and hot-stage separation, the Booster was diverted to splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico instead of being caught by the Mechazilla arms. Ship 31 reignited one of its Raptor engines in space, and after a flight of 1hr 5 mins completed its splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Musk:

Successful ocean landing of Starship! We will do one more ocean landing of the ship. If that goes well, then SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower.

14 Oct, 2024

Starship Test 5: Mechazilla arms catch Booster

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For its fifth flight test, Starship, consisting of the Super Heavy booster (Booster 12) – powered by 33 Raptor engines – and the Starship spacecraft (Ship 30), lifts off from Boca Chica, Texas. At 2m 40s the Super Heavy booster separates from the Starship spacecraft (Ship 30) using hot-staging. Post-separation, the Super Heavy ascends to 69 km (43 miles) and then executes a boostback burn to reverse its course and return towards the launch site, where it slides horizontally into the Mechazilla launch tower’s 30m “chopstick” arms, completing the first successful Heavy Booster catch.

Meanwhile, Starship continues its suborbital trajectory, reaching an apogee of about 212 km (132 miles) over the Indian Ocean. Despite damage to one of its control flaps, Starship maintains stability using its flaps through re-entry to splashdown in the Indian Ocean, approximately 7,000 km (4,350 miles) from separation. Musk:

Even rockets need hugs 

6 Jun, 2024

Starship Test 4: Succesful splashdowns

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SpaxeX conducts the fourth flight test of Starship, comprising the Starship Ship 29 upper-stage and Super Heavy Booster 11. The test successfully achieved its two main objectives: simulate a landing with the Super Heavy booster near the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, and ensure Starship could survive peak heating during atmospheric re-entry. Despite minor engine issues, the flight was considered a success, with successful spashdowns. The test was a step forward from the third test, where both stages were destroyed upon re-entry. Modifications included upgrades to the oxygen tanks for better propellant filtration, enhancements to the Raptor engines for improved reliability, and additional roll control thrusters on the ship. The mission profile omitted certain demonstrations from previous tests but included jettisoning the hot staging ring from the booster, a temporary measure for mass reduction during descent.

The FAA did not require a mishap investigation, a first for Starship flights, indicating that the flight stayed within the parameters of planned and authorized activities.

Musk gives high fives to the SpaceX team and his son, Lil X.

6 Sep, 2023

Musk: Starship ‘ready to launch’

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Reponding to a video posted on X by SpaceX, showing a “fully stacked” Starship on the launchpad at Boca Chica Starbase, Musk says Starship is ready for its second attempt at an orbital flight test, pending regulatory approval.

Starship is ready to launch, awaiting FAA license approval

The FAA says the launch licence application for Starship depends on various requirements being met, including reviews on policy, payload, safety, airspace integration, financial responsibility and environmental impacts.

The FAA will make a licence determination only after the agency is satisfied SpaceX meets all licensing, safety and other regulatory requirements.

21 Jul, 2023

Starship Super Heavy booster moved to launch pad

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SpaceX says the Starship Super Heavy booster is being moved to the launch pad and will be undergoing testing leading up to its next test flight.

Starship Super Heavy Booster 9 transported to the orbital launch pad at Starbase for testing ahead of flight

25 Jun, 2023

Musk: SpaceX ‘six weeks’ away from second Starship launch

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In a Twitter Spaces discussion with Vance, Musk says SpaceX is six weeks away from launching their second attempt to reach orbit with their Starship rocket. Despite implementing “well over a thousand” changes since the first attempt the launch will not go ahead unless the Federal Aviation Administration gives it clearance and signs off on the Starship’s self-destruct system which was slow to respond on the first attempt. During the Super Heavy’s maiden flight, a half-dozen engines shut down or never started and the Starship never separated from the Super Heavy first stage. The next test will use ‘hot staging’, which means that the Starship engines will ignite before separation.

We shut down most of the engines on the booster, leaving just a few running and then at the same time, start the engines on the ship, or upper stage

Musk says roughly 1,000 cubic meters of steel-reinforced high-strength concrete will be added to the launchpad to avoid damaging breakup.

On top of that, we have a sort of a steel sandwich, which is basically two thick plates of steel that are welded together with channels going through (with) perforations in the top so it will actually shoot a lot of water out. Think of it like a gigantic upside-down shower head. It’s going to basically blast water upwards while the rocket is over the pad to counteract the massive amount of heat from the booster. The booster is basically like the world’s biggest cutting torch with a massive amount of … heat, but also a massive amount of force.

Musk says the chance of the test getting to orbit is 60%:

I think the probability of this next flight working, getting to orbit, is much higher than the last one. Maybe it’s like 60%. It depends on how well we do at stage separation…In launching, what you’re doing is trying to resolve the unknowns which you cannot know before you launch, or at least we are not smart enough to know. So like I said, what appears to be the biggest risk right now is stage separation.

27 May, 2023

SpaceX releases Starship launch video

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SpaceX releases a video of the first Starship launch, which flew for four minutes on April 20, 2023.

Another step closer to Mars — the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket

Starship | First Integrated Flight Test

Musk: Next Starship launch in two months

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Musk says the next Starship launch will take place in two months, after tested upgrades are made to the launchpad that was destroyed during the first launch.

Major launchpad upgrades should be complete in about a month, then another month of rocket testing on pad, then flight 2 of Starship

24 May, 2023

Musk: Starship will lift 300 tons expendable, 180 tons reusable

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Responding to a Twitter user, Musk says SpaceX Starship with improved Raptor 3 engines should lift 300 tons in expendable mode, or 180 tons in reusable mode.  This compares with two years ago, when Two years ago Musk estimated a Starship would lift 250 tons to orbit in expandable mode and 150 tons in reusable mode. For comparison, the International Space Station weighs 450 tons and took around 50 Space Shuttle launches to complete. An earlier, SpaceX concept, called the Interplanetary Transport System, was planned to carry 550 tons expendable, 300 tons reusable.

Starship payload is 250 to 300 tons to orbit in expendable mode. Improved thrust & Isp from Raptor will enable ~6000 ton liftoff mass.

1 May, 2023

Conservationists sue FAA over SpaceX launches

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Conservation groups sue the Federal Aviation Administration for approving expanded rocket launch operations by SpaceX without an environmental impact study (EIS), an extensive study that includes public review and can take years or decades to complete. The FAA approved the launches based on a far less thorough assessment and a finding that SpaceX activities at Boca Chica pose “no significant impact” on the environment.

The federal court lawsuit is filed in the District of Columbia by the Center for Biological Diversity, the American Bird Conservancy, Surfrider Foundation, Save RGV (Rio Grand Valley), and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation. It says that explosion was only the latest in a series of at least nine that have occurred at Boca Chica in recent years and that the mishaps are disrupting a haven for protected wildlife and vital habitat for migratory birds. The plaintiffs are asking the court to vacate the finding of no significant impact and require a full EIS before any more launches occur.

This case concerns whether the nation’s commitment to preserving our critical wildlife habitat and treasured coastal landscapes must be sacrificed as we reach out to explore the cosmos.

30 Apr, 2023

Musk: First Starship launch ‘roughly what I expected’

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In an audio chat with SpaceX fans, Musk says Starship’s first test flight was successful, even though it exploded before reaching space, and says a new rocket can be ready for liftoff within six to eight weeks, along with repairs to the damaged launchpad.

The outcome was roughly in what I expected, and maybe slightly exceeding my expectations, but roughly what I expected, which is that we would get clear of the pad. [The launch was] obviously not a complete success, but still nonetheless successful.

Musk says he hadn’t expected a “rock tornado” to be generated under the booster at liftoff and said SpaceX “chose not to start” three of the 33 Raptor engines on the booster, because they were not “healthy enough to bring them to full thrust.” Musk also said the reason Starship slid off the launchpad while ascending was “because of the engine failures.” SpaceX “lost communications” with another Raptor about 27 seconds into the flight due to “some kind of energy event” that knocked the heat shields out of several other engines.

At about 85 seconds, “things really hit the fan” and SpaceX lost its ability to steer the rocket. Finally, Starship’s Automated Flight-Termination System was working too slowly, so it took about “40 seconds-ish” to self-destruct. Still, Musk downplayed the effects of the explosion as a whole, saying the (Boca Chica) “pad damage is actually quite small” and should “be repaired quickly.”

Despite the fact that debris from the explosion fell into the Gulf of Mexico and rained dust onto residents of Port Isabel (as well as their cars and homes), that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called the explosion responsible for a 3.5-acre fire, the spread of debris over 365 acres of land, and throwing of “pulverized concrete” up to 6½ miles, Musk says:

To the best of our knowledge there has not been any meaningful damage to the environment that we’re aware of.

Musk believes, too, that the Starship program does not need $750 million in additional funding it had been set to raise, and will spend about $2 billion on the Starship program to attempt five launches. Musk says he expects success by the end of the year;

I will be surprised if we exit this year without getting to orbit.

24 Apr, 2023

FAA grounds Starship pending crash investigation

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SpaceX’s Starship rockets are grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration, after the rocket exploded on Thursday morning, to investigate the failed launch. FAA statement:

An anomaly occurred during the ascent and prior to stage separation resulting in a loss of the vehicle.  No injuries or public property damage have been reported. The FAA will oversee the mishap investigation of the Starship / Super Heavy test mission. A return to flight of the Starship / Super Heavy vehicle is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety. This is standard practice for all mishap investigations. The FAA is responsible for protecting the public during commercial space transportation launch and reentry operations.

20 Apr, 2023

Starship launch debris covers Texas coast

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SpaceX’s Starship rocket launch causes a massive debris field around the launch pad. The force of the rocket engines creates a crater under the concrete launch pad, sending debris away from the pad at thousands of miles an hour, causing damage to the nearby tank farm, a car parked miles away and forming a dust cloud that blocks out the sun over the Texas coast until strong winds blows it away. Video shows chunks of debris landing in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Starship explodes four minutes into second test attempt

AnomalyUnmanned launch0 Comments

After being delayed from April 18, SpaceX makes a second attempt at launching Starship. After a short countdown hold at 40 seconds the spacecraft launches and clears the tower. Four minutes into the flight, at a height of 34km, the vehicle explodes, after the second stage fails to separate. Musk congratulates the team:

Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.

Starship Flight Test

18 Apr, 2023

Musk announces Starship blowtorch

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Following Musk’s tweet about a “Mini Starship with flame,” SpaceX announces the pre-sale of a collectable, Starship-themed blowtorch. The $175 burner has a safety lock as well as a windproof, adjustable flame and is being marketed for things like melting cheese and lighting candles. As one advert puts it:

It’s collectible. It’s functional. And it burns, burns, burns. The Starship Torch.

17 Apr, 2023

Starship launch scrubbed

ScrubbedUnmanned launch0 Comments

The first Starship launch is scrubbed, ten minutes before launch, due to a pressurant valve being frozen. The countdown continues as a ‘wet dress rehearsal’, to T minus 40 seconds. Another launch attempt may happen in the next 48 hours.

Starship launch rescheduled to Apr 20

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SpaceX says it is targeting Thursday, April 20 for the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Starbase in Texas. The 62 minute launch window opens at 8:28 a.m. CT and closes at 9:30 a.m. CT.

16 Apr, 2023

Musk: Starship launch ‘may not be successful’

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Musk says expectations should remain low for the Starship system, and that his team is mainly looking to gather data about how the vehicle ascends to space and returns back to Earth.

I guess I would just like to set expectations… low…Success is not what should be expected. It’s just a very fundamentally difficult thing. Probably, tomorrow will not be successful… If we get far enough away from the launchpad before something goes wrong, I would consider that to be a success. Just don’t blow up the launchpad.

Starship is due to launch at 8am CST (2pm BST).

7 Mar, 2023

Musk ‘not saying’ Starship will get to orbit

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SpaceX will debut its Starship vehicle in a month or so, but the chances of its first-ever orbital mission being a success are apparently only about 50%.

I’m not saying it will get to orbit, but I am guaranteeing excitement. So, won’t be boring!…So I think we’ve got, hopefully, about an 80% chance of reaching orbit this year. It’ll probably take us a couple more years to achieve full and rapid reusability.

According to Musk, Starship will be the most powerful rocket to ever fly, featuring about 2.5 times more thrust at liftoff than NASA’s Saturn V. SpaceX hopes that, among other things, Starship will get people and cargo to the moon and Mars. It is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, which Musk considers the most important breakthrough for making Mars colonization and other ambitious exploration feats feasible.