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Wikipedia

SpaceX Starship

December 07, 2023

Starship is a two-stage super heavy lift launch vehicle and spacecraft under development by SpaceX. It is the heaviest, tallest and most powerful space launch vehicle to have flown into space.[b] Starship is intended to be fully reusable, which means both stages will be recovered after a mission and reused.

Starship
Starship system in launch configuration: Starship spacecraft sits on top of Super Heavy.
Function
Manufacturer
Country of origin
  • United States
Project costat least US$5 billion[a][1]
Size
Height121 m (397 ft)
Diameter9 m (30 ft)
Mass5,000,000 kg (11,000,000 lb)
StagesSuper Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft
Capacity
Payload to LEO100t – 150t (reusable)
Up to 250t (expendable)[2]
Associated rockets
Comparable
Launch history
StatusIn development
Launch sitesSpaceX Starbase
Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A (planned)
Total launches2
Success(es)0
Failure(s)1
Partial failure(s)1[disputed – discuss]
First flight20 April 2023
[edit on Wikidata]

The Starship space vehicle is designed to supplant SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, expand SpaceX's Starlink satellite constellation, and launch crews to both LEO and Mars. SpaceX plans to use Starship vehicles as tankers, refueling other Starships to allow missions to geosynchronous orbit, the Moon, and Mars. A lunar lander variant of Starship is to land astronauts on the Moon as part of NASA's Artemis program. Starship is primarily meant to enable SpaceX's ambition of colonizing Mars.

Starship is composed by the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft. The booster and spacecraft are both powered by clusters of Raptor rocket engines, which burn liquid methane and liquid oxygen. Both stages are constructed primarily of stainless steel, a material chosen as an alternative to a series of prior designs. The booster is designed to use its engines to slow itself down before it is caught by a pair of mechanical arms attached to the launch tower. The Starship spacecraft is protected during atmospheric reentry by its thermal protection system, using a 'belly flop' maneuver where the spacecraft turns from a horizontal into a vertical position, then lands using its engines.

The Starship system aims to achieve frequent space launches at low cost. Development follows an iterative and incremental approach involving frequent, and often destructive, test flights of prototype vehicles.[3] The first flight test of the Starship system took place on 20 April 2023 and ended four minutes after launch with the destruction of the test vehicle. The second flight test attempt of the vehicle happened on 18 November 2023, but while the stages successfully separated, the Super Heavy booster exploded seconds into the boostback burn, while the upper stage was lost nearly eight minutes after launch.[4]

History

Early design conceptions (2012–2018)

Main article: SpaceX Starship design process

In November 2005,[5] before SpaceX had launched its first rocket the Falcon 1,[6] CEO Elon Musk first mentioned a long-term and high-capacity rocket concept able to launch 100 tons to low Earth orbit, dubbed the BFR.[5] Later in 2012, Elon Musk first publicly announced plans to develop a rocket surpassing the capabilities of their existing Falcon 9.[7] SpaceX called it the Mars Colonial Transporter, as the rocket was to transport humans to Mars and back.[8]

In 2016, Elon changed the name to Interplanetary Transport System, as he planned the rocket to travel beyond Mars.[9] Made of carbon fiber,[10] this design would have been over 10,000 tons when fueled and carry 300 tons to low Earth orbit, while hoping to be fully reusable.[10] By 2017, the large rocket was temporarily re-dubbed the BFR[11] and had multiple versions announced, such as cargo, tanker and crew.[12]

Settlement on the current design (2019)

In 2019, the structural material was changed from carbon composites to stainless steel, marking the transition from early design concepts to the current design of Starship.[13][10][14] Musk cited numerous reasons for the design change; low cost and ease of manufacture, increased strength of stainless steel at cryogenic temperatures, as well as its ability to withstand high heat.[15][14] The high temperature at which 300-series steel transitions to plastic deformation would eliminate the need for a heat shield on Starship's leeward side, while the much hotter windward side would be cooled by allowing fuel or water to bleed through micropores in a double-wall stainless steel skin, removing heat by evaporation.[16] This idea was abandoned in 2019 in favor of reusable heat shield tiles[16] similar to those of the Space Shuttle.[17][18] The high melting point of Starship's stainless steel allows the tiles to be lighter and thinner.[16]

In 2019, SpaceX began to refer to the entire vehicle as Starship, with the second stage being called Starship and the booster Super Heavy.[19][20][21][22] In September 2019, Musk held an event about Starship development during which he further detailed the lower-stage booster, the upper-stage's method of controlling its descent, the heat shield, orbital refueling capacity, and potential destinations besides Mars.[23][24][25][26]

Over the years of design, the proportion of sea-level engines to vacuum engines on the second stage varied drastically.[27] By 2019, the second stage design had settled on six Raptor engines— three optimized for sea-level and three optimized for vacuum.[24][25] To decrease weight, aft flaps on the second stage were reduced from three to two.[26]

Later in 2019 Musk stated that Starship was expected to have an mass of 120,000 kg (260,000 lb) and be able to initially transport a payload of 100,000 kg (220,000 lb), growing to 150,000 kg (330,000 lb) over time. Musk hinted at an expendable variant that could place 250 tonnes into low orbit.[28]

Low-altitude flights (2019–2020)

 
Starhopper under construction, March 2019
 
A crane lifting Starship SN5, August 2020

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.[23] Neither prototype flew: Mk1 was destroyed in November 2019 during a pressure stress test and Mk2's Florida facility was abandoned and deconstructed throughout 2020.[29][30] After the Mk prototypes, SpaceX began naming its new Starship upper-stage prototypes with the prefix "SN", short for "serial number".[31] No prototypes between SN1 and SN4 flew either—SN1 and SN3 collapsed during pressure stress tests, and SN4 exploded after its fifth engine firing.[32]

In June 2020, SpaceX started constructing a launch pad for orbital Starship flights.[33] The first flight-capable Starship, SN5, was cylindrical as it had no flaps or nose cone: just one Raptor engine, fuel tanks, and a mass simulator. On 5 August 2020, SN5 performed a 150 m (500 ft) high flight and successfully landed on a nearby pad.[34] On 3 September 2020, the similar-looking Starship SN6 repeated the hop;[35] later that month, a Raptor Vacuum engine underwent it's first full duration firing at McGregor, Texas.[36]

High-altitude flights (2020–2021)

Further information: SpaceX Starship (spacecraft) § High-altitude test flights (SN8–SN15)

Starship SN8 was the first fully complete Starship upper-stage prototype. It underwent four preliminary static fire tests between October and November 2020.[32] On 9 December 2020, SN8 flew, slowly turning off its three engines one by one, and reached an altitude of 12.5 km (7.8 mi). After SN8 dove back to the ground, its engines were hampered by low methane header tank pressure during the landing attempt, which led to a hard impact with the landing pad.[37] Because SpaceX had violated its launch license and ignored warnings of worsening shock wave damage, the Federal Aviation Administration investigated the incident for two months.[38]

On 2 February 2021, Starship SN9 launched to 10 km (6.2 mi) in a flight path similar to SN8. The prototype crashed upon landing because one engine did not ignite properly.[39] A month later, on 3 March, Starship SN10 launched on the same flight path as SN9.[40] The vehicle landed hard and crushed its landing legs, leaning to one side.[41] A fire was seen at the vehicle's base. It exploded less than ten minutes later,[42] potentially due to a propellant tank rupture.[41] On 30 March, Starship SN11 flew into thick fog along the same flight path.[43] The vehicle exploded during descent,[43] possibly due to excess propellant in a Raptor's methane turbopump.[44]

In March 2021, the company disclosed a public construction plan for two sub-orbital launch pads, two orbital launch pads, two landing pads, two test stands, and a large propellant tank farm.[45] The company soon proposed developing the surrounding Boca Chica Village, Texas into a company town named Starbase.[46] Locals raised concerns about SpaceX's authority, power, and a potential threat for eviction through eminent domain.[47] In early April, the orbital launch pad's fuel storage tanks began mounting.[33] Starship prototypes SN12, SN13, and SN14 were scrapped before completion; SN15 was selected to fly instead.[48] SN15 had better avionics, structure, and upgraded engines.[42] On 5 May 2021, SN15 launched, completed the same maneuvers as older prototypes, and landed safely.[48] Even though SN15, like SN10, had a small fire in the engine area after landing, it was extinguished, completing the first successful high-altitude test.[42] According to a later report by SpaceX, SN15 experienced several issues while landing, including the loss of tank pressure and an engine.[49]: 2 

First attempted orbital test flight (2021–2023)

Main article: SpaceX Starship first integrated flight test
 
Starship during the first orbital flight attempt. Notice the multiple engine failures on the first stage.

In July 2021, Super Heavy BN3 conducted its first full-duration static firing and lit three engines.[50] Around this time, SpaceX changed their naming scheme from "SN" to "Ship" for Starship crafts,[51] and from "BN" to "Booster" for Super Heavy boosters.[52] A month later, using cranes, Ship 20 was stacked atop Booster 4 to form the full launch vehicle for the first time; Ship 20 was also the first craft to have a body-tall heat shield.[53] In October 2021, the catching mechanical arms, also known as "chopsticks", were installed onto the integration tower and the first tank farm's construction was completed.[33] Two weeks later, NASA and SpaceX announced plans to construct Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 49.[54]

The public spotted the Raptor 2 engine at the start of 2022.[55]

In June 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration determined that Starbase did not need a full environmental impact assessment but that SpaceX must address more than 75 issues identified in the preliminary environmental assessment.[56] In July, Booster 7 tested the liquid oxygen turbopumps on all thirty-three Raptor engines, resulting in an explosion at the vehicle's base, which destroyed a pressure pipe and causing minor damage to the launchpad.[57] By the end of November, Ship 24 had performed 2- and full 6-engine static test fires,[58]: 20  while Booster 7 had performed static fires with 1, 3, 7, 14, 11 engines[59][58]: 20  and finally on February 9, 2023, a static fire with 31 engines at 50% throttle (33 was attempted but one engine was disabled pre-firing, and another engine aborted).[citation needed] In January 2023, Starship underwent a full wet dress rehearsal at Starbase, where it was filled with more than 4,500 t (10,000,000 lb) of propellant.[60]

After a canceled launch attempt on 17 April 2023,[61] Booster 7 and Ship 24 lifted off on 20 April at 13:33 UTC in the first orbital flight test.[62] Three engines were disabled during the launch sequence and several more failed during the flight.[63] The spacecraft also lost thrust vectoring control of the Raptor engines later in the flight, which led to the rocket starting an out of control tumbling motion.[63] The vehicle reached a maximum altitude of 24 mi (39 km).[64]

At around 3 minutes following liftoff, the rocket received a command to activate the automated flight termination system. However, the flight termination system failed to destroy the vehicle, the vehicle tumbled for another 40 seconds, and finally exploded.[65][66][67] Had the launch proceeded as planned, the spacecraft would have continued to fly with its ground track passing through the Straits of Florida and eastward around the globe, with a hard splashdown in the Pacific Ocean around 100 km (60 mi) northwest of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands, having made nearly one full revolution around the Earth.[68][69]: 2–4 

Second attempted orbital test flight (2023)

Main article: SpaceX Starship second integrated flight test
 
Starship during the second orbital flight attempt

After the first test flight significant work was done on the launch mount to repair the damage it sustained during the test and to prevent future issues. The foundation of the launch tower was reinforced and a steel water deluge flame deflector was built under the launch mount.[70] Ship 25 was rolled to the suborbital launch site in May and underwent spin prime and static fire testing ahead of flight.[71] Once that was completed, Booster 9 was rolled to the launch site to undergo cryogenic proof testing, spin primes and static fires of its set of engines.[72]

Following the failure of Starship's first flight, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) required SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation in accordance with SpaceX's approved mishap plan under FAA oversight, preventing Starship from being issued another launch license pending the outcome of SpaceX's investigation.[73][74] In August, SpaceX submitted to the FAA the 63 corrective actions they had to take before another launch could take place.[73][75] Following SpaceX's final report, the FAA closed the investigation on September 8, 2023.[76][77] The FAA emphasized that launches could resume once SpaceX had "implemented all corrective actions that impact public safety" and applied for a "license modification from the FAA" that addresses the FAA's "safety and other environmental regulatory requirements".[76][78]

Although a launch license approval from the FAA was initially expected as early as October,[79][80] delays in the approval led William Gerstenmaier, SpaceX's Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability, to call for the FAA to increase licensing staff.[81][82] On October 19, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) surveyed the area around Starbase.[83][84] The FWS reviewed the changes to the launch pad, especially the water deluge system.[85] By October 31, 2023, the FAA had concluded the safety review portion of the launch license.[86][87]

On November 11, 2023, SpaceX announced a target launch date of November 17, pending regulatory approval.[88] On November 14 the FWS concluded its environmental review.[89] The FAA gave its approval for launch shortly after.[90] SpaceX then announced the launch window was scheduled to open at 7:00 am CST (13:00 UTC).[91] The launch attempt was delayed by one day to replace faulty actuators for the grid fins used to control the booster.[92]

On November 18, 2023, Booster 9 and Ship 25 lifted off the pad.[93] All 33 engines continued to function until staging, where the second stage successfully separated by pushing itsef away from the first stage.[94] Following separation, the Super Heavy booster completed its flip maneuver and initiated the boostback burn, before exploding.[94][95][96] The vehicle breakup occurred more than three and a half minutes into the flight at an altitude of ~90 km over the Gulf of Mexico.[94] The second stage continued until it reached an altitude of ~150 kilometres (93 mi), after over eight minutes of flight, prior to engine cutoff, telemetry was lost on the second stage.[94] SpaceX said that a safe command destroyed the second stage,[94] prior to achieving its planned orbit or attempting re-entry.[97] It appeared to re-enter a few hundred miles north of the Virgin Islands, according to NOAA weather radar data.[98]

Design

When stacked and fully fueled, Starship has a mass of approximately 5,000 t (11,000,000 lb)[c], a diameter of 9 m (30 ft)[101] and a height of 121 m (397 ft).[102] The rocket has been designed with the goal of being fully reusable to reduce launch costs.[103] In its fully reusable configuration Starship is designed to carry 150 t (330,000 lb) to low Earth orbit, while the expended configuration is projected to have a payload capacity of 250 t (550,000 lb).[104]

The rocket consists of the Super Heavy first-stage or booster, and the Starship second-stage or spacecraft,[105] powered by the Raptor and Raptor Vacuum engines.[106] The bodies of both rocket stages are made from stainless steel as opposed to carbon fiber as the latter is far more expensive and less durable.[107]

According to Eric Berger of Ars Technica, the manufacturing process starts with rolls of steel, which are unrolled, cut, and welded along the cut edge to create a cylinder of 9 m (30 ft) in diameter, 2 m (7 ft) in height, and 4 mm (0.16 in) thick, and around 1,600 kg (4,000 lb) in mass.[108] These cylinders, along with the nose cones, are stacked and welded along their edges to form the outer layer of the rocket.[108] Inside, the methane and oxygen tanks are separated by the robot-made domes.[108] Also according to Berger, Starship's reusability and stainless-steel construction has influenced the Terran R rocket[109] and Project Jarvis, the second stage of Blue Origin's New Glenn super heavy-lift launch vehicle.[110]

Raptor engine

Main article: SpaceX Raptor
 
Sea level–optimized Raptor 1 engine, May 2020

Raptor is a family of rocket engines developed by SpaceX for use in Starship and Super Heavy vehicles. It burns liquid oxygen and methane in an efficient and complex full-flow staged combustion power cycle. The Raptor engine uses methane rather than kerosene as fuel, because methane gives higher performance and also prevents a build-up of deposits in the engine;[111] methane can be directly synthesized from carbon dioxide and water, using the Sabatier reaction.[112] The engines are designed to be reused many times with little maintenance.[113]

Raptor operates with an oxygen-to-methane mixture ratio of about 3.6:1, lower than the stoichiometric mixture ratio of 4:1 necessary for complete combustion. Operation at the stoichiometric ratio provides better performance in theory but the higher temperatures reached would melt the engine.[99] The propellants leave the pre-burners and get injected into the main combustion chamber as hot gases instead of liquid droplets, enabling much higher power density as propellants mix rapidly via diffusion.[111] The methane and oxygen are at high enough temperatures and pressures that they ignite on contact, eliminating the need for igniters in the main combustion chamber.[114] The engine structure itself is mostly aluminum, copper, and steel; oxidizer-side turbopumps and manifolds subject to corrosive oxygen-rich flames are made of an Inconel-like SX500 superalloy.[114] Some components are 3D printed.[115]

At sea level, the standard Raptor engine produces 2.3 MN (520,000 lbf) at a specific impulse of 327 seconds (3.21 km/s), increasing to 350 seconds (3.4 km/s) in a vacuum.[114] Raptor Vacuum, used on the Starship upper stage, is modified with a regeneratively cooled nozzle extension made of brazed steel tubes, increasing its expansion ratio to about 90 and its specific impulse in vacuum to 380 seconds (3.7 km/s).[99] The main combustion chamber operates at a pressure of 350 bar (5,100 psi), which higher than any previous operational rocket engine.[111] The Raptor's gimbaling range is 15°, higher than the RS-25's 12.5° and the Merlin's 5°. When mass produced, SpaceX aims to achieve a per unit cost of US$250,000.[114]

Super Heavy booster

Main article: SpaceX Super Heavy
 
Underside of the Super Heavy booster prior to engine installation

The first-stage booster, named Super Heavy is 71 m (233 ft) tall and 9 m (30 ft) wide,[101] and contains thirty-three Raptor engines arranged in concentric rings.[116] The outermost ring of 20 engines are of the "Raptor Boost" configuration, which lack gimbal actuators to save weight and cost.[117] At full power, all engines combined produce 75.9 MN (17,100,000 lbf) of thrust.[118]

The booster's tanks can hold 3,400 t (7,500,000 lb) of propellant, consisting of 2,650 t (5,840,000 lb) of liquid oxygen and 750 t (1,650,000 lb) of liquid methane.[d][119] In 2021 Elon Musk said that the final design will have a dry mass between 160 t (350,000 lb) and 200 t (440,000 lb), with the tanks weighing 80 t (180,000 lb) and the interstage 20 t (44,000 lb).[99]

The booster uses four electrically actuated grid fins for control, each with a mass of 3 t (6,600 lb).[120] Adjacent pairs of grid fins are spaced sixty degrees apart instead of being orthogonal (as is the case on Falcon 9) to provide more authority in the pitch axis.[121] Also, unlike Falcon 9, the grid fins do not retract and remain extended during ascent.[99] The booster can be lifted through protruding hardpoints located between gridfins.[33]

Above the grid fins is the vented interstage, used for hot staging.[122] Hot-staging is a type of rocket staging in which the upper stage fires its engines before breaking itself away from the first-stage, instead of after.[123]

Starship spacecraft

Main article: SpaceX Starship (spacecraft)
 
Starship SN20 getting a tile inspection

The Starship spacecraft is 50 m (160 ft) tall and 9 m (30 ft) in diameter. It has 6 Raptor engines, 3 of which are optimized for use in outer space.[124][125] The vehicle's payload bay is planned to measure 17 m (56 ft) tall and 8 m (26 ft) in diameter with an internal volume of 1,000 m3 (35,000 cu ft); slightly larger than the ISS's pressurized volume.[126] Starship has a total propellant capacity of 1,200 t (2,600,000 lb)[127] across its main tanks and header tanks.[128] According to Elon Musk in 2019, the header tanks are better insulated due to their position and are reserved for use to flip and land the spacecraft following reentry.[129] A set of reaction control thrusters, which use the pressure in the fuel tank, control attitude while in space.[130]

The spacecraft has four body flaps to control the spacecraft's orientation and help dissipate energy during atmospheric entry,[131] composed of two forward flaps and two aft flaps.[132] According to SpaceX, the flaps replace the need for wings or tailplane, reduce the fuel needed for landing, and allow landing at destinations in the Solar System where runways don't exist (for example, Mars).[133]: 1  Under the forward flaps, hardpoints are used for lifting and catching the spacecraft via mechanical arms.[134] The flap's hinges are sealed in aero-covers because they would be easily damaged during reentry.[135]

Starship's heat shield, composed of eighteen thousand[136][137] hexagonal black tiles that can withstand temperatures of 1,400 °C (2,600 °F),[138][139] is designed to protect the vehicle during atmospheric entry and be used multiple times with minimal maintenance between flights.[140] The tiles are made of silica[141] and are attached with pins rather than glued,[139] with small gaps in between to allow for heat expansion.[135]

 
Diagram of Starship's internal structure. Not shown in this diagram are the flaps: the aft flaps are placed at the bottom (or left in this orientation), and the forward flaps are placed at the top (here, right) portion of the spaceship.

Variants

For satellite launch, Starship is planned to have a large cargo door that will open to release payloads, similar to Nasa's space shuttles, and close upon reentry instead of a jettisonable nose-cone fairing. Instead of a cleanroom, payloads would be integrated directly into Starship's payload bay, which requires purging the payload bay with temperature-controlled ISO class 8 clean air.[142] To deploy Starlink satellites, the cargo door is to be replaced with a slot and dispenser rack, whose mechanism has been compared to a Pez candy dispenser.[143]

Starship Human Landing System (HLS) is a crewed lunar lander variant of the Starship vehicle that is modified for landing, operation, and takeoff from the lunar surface.[144] Its design features modified landing legs, a body-mounted solar array,[145] a set of thrusters mounted mid-body to assist with final landing and takeoff,[145] two airlocks,[144] and an elevator to lower crew and cargo onto the lunar surface.[146] If fully fueled, Starship HLS is designed to be able to land more than 100 t (220,000 lb) of payload on the Moon per flight.[144]

Starship is planned to be able to be refueled by docking with separately launched Starship propellant tanker spacecraft in orbit. Doing so would increase the spacecraft's mass capacity and allow it to reach higher-energy targets,[e] such as geosynchronous orbit, the Moon, and Mars.[147] A Starship propellant depot could store methane and oxygen on-orbit, and will be used by Starship HLS to replenish its fuel tanks.[148] In 2023 a NASA official estimated the number of Starship launches required for one lunar landing to be "in the high teens",[149] and in 2021 the Government Accountability Office said that SpaceX would "require 16 launches overall". [149] These launches will reportedly have to be in "rapid succession" in order to manage schedule constraints and cryogenic fuel boil-off. This number contrasts with Musk's statement in 2021 that between "four and eight" launches would be required.[149]

Planned mission profile

Animation of Super Heavy's integration to the launch mount, using mechanical arms

The payload will be integrated into Starship at a separate facility and then rolled out to the spaceport.[119] After Super Heavy and Starship are stacked onto their launch mount, they are loaded with fuel via the Starship quick disconnect (SQD) arm and booster quick disconnect (BQD) .[33] Roughly four hundred truck deliveries are needed for one launch.[119] Then, the SQD retracts, all thirty-three engines of Super Heavy ignite, and the rocket lifts off.[33]

A short animation of Super Heavy's landing on mechanical arms. The actual landing speed is a few times slower

After 159 seconds,[150] at an altitude of 65 km (40 mi), Super Heavy cuts off 30 of its engines, leaving only three center ones running at 50% thrust.[citation needed] Then, hot-staging happens; the ship ignites its engines while still attached to the booster, and separates away.[123] During hot-staging, the booster throttles down its engines.[123] The booster then returns to the launch site in a controlled descent, being caught by a pair of mechanical arms.[151] After six minutes of flight, about 20 t (44,000 lb) of propellant remains inside the booster.[150][99]

Meanwhile, the Starship spacecraft accelerates to orbital velocity. Once in orbit, the spacecraft may be refueled by one or more tanker variant Starships, increasing the spacecraft's capacity.[152] Musk estimated that 8 launches would be needed to completely refuel a Starship in low Earth orbit, having extrapolated this by using Starship's payload to orbit and combining it with how much fuel a fully fueled Starship contains.[153] To land on bodies without an atmosphere, such as the Moon, Starship will fire its engines to slow down.[154] To land on bodies with an atmosphere such as the Earth and Mars, Starship first slows by entering the atmosphere via a heat shield.[103] The spacecraft would then perform a "belly-flop" maneuver by diving back through the atmosphere body at a 60° angle to the ground,[14] controlling its fall using four flaps at the front and aft sides of the spacecraft. [37]

Shortly before landing, the Raptor engines fire,[37] using fuel from the header tanks,[155] causing the spacecraft to resume vertical orientation. At this stage, Raptor engines' gimbaling, throttle, and reaction control system's firing help to maneuver the craft.[37] A pseudospectral optimal control algorithm by the German Aerospace Center predicted that the landing flip would tilt up to 20° from the ground's perpendicular line, and the angle would be reduced to zero on touchdown.[156] Future Starships are envisioned to be caught by mechanical arms, like the booster.[33]

If Starship's rocket stages land on a pad, a mobile hydraulic lift will move them to a transporter vehicle. If the rocket stages land on a floating platform, they will be transported by a barge to a port and then transported by road. The recovered Super Heavy and Starship will either be positioned on the launch mount for another launch or refurbished at a SpaceX facility.[119]: 22 

Cost and funding

As part of the development of the Human Landing System for the Artemis program, SpaceX was awarded in April 2021 a $2.89 billion contract from NASA to develop the Starship lunar lander for Artemis III.[157][158] Blue Origin, a bidding competitor to SpaceX, disputed the decision and began a legal case against NASA and SpaceX in August 2021, causing NASA to suspend the contract for three months until the case was dismissed in the Court of Federal Claims.[159][160][161]Two years later Blue Origin was awarded $3.4 billion for their lunar lander.[162]

In 2022, NASA awarded SpaceX $1.15 billion for a second lunar lander for Artemis 4.[158] The same year, SpaceX was awarded a $102 million five-year contract to develop the Rocket Cargo program for the United States Space Force.[163]

SpaceX develops the Starship with private funding.[164][165][166] SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen disclosed in court that SpaceX has invested more than $3 billion into the Starbase facility and Starship systems from July 2014 to May 2023.[166]

Elon Musk stated in April 2023 that SpaceX expected to spend about $2 billion on Starship development in 2023.[167][168] Musk has predicted that a Starship orbital launch will eventually cost $1 million. Eurospace's director of research Pierre Lionnet however stated that Starship's launch price would likely be higher because of the rocket's development cost (estimated by Musk in 2023 to be roughly 10 billion USD, with 3-5 billion having been spent as of 2023).[169][170]

Potential uses

Further information: SpaceX Starship flight tests § Future operational flights

Starship's reusability is expected to reduce launch costs, expanding space access to more payloads and entities.[171]

Crewed and cargo launches

Starship also plans to launch the second generation of SpaceX's Starlink satellites, which deliver global high-speed internet.[172] A space analyst at financial services company Morgan Stanley stated development of Starship and Starlink are intertwined, with Starship launch capacity enabling cheaper Starlink launches, and Starlink's profits financing Starship's development costs.[173] In deficit from its inception until the end of 2022,[174] Starlink was first reported slightly profitable in the first 3 months of 2023,[175][176] and Elon Musk said that it continued to remain profitable through 2023.[177]

As of 19 August 2022, the Superbird-9 communication satellite is Starship's first and only known contract for externally made commercial satellites. The satellite has a dry mass of 3 t (6,600 lb), planned for 2024 launch to a geostationary orbit.[178] In the future, the spacecraft's crewed version could be used for space tourism—for example, for the DearMoon project[179] or the third flight of the Polaris program.[180]

Musk stated that SpaceX would complete hundreds of cargo flights before carrying human passengers.[181] In January 2022, SpaceX was awarded a $102 million five-year contract to develop the Rocket Cargo program for the United States Space Force.[163]

One possible future use of Starship that SpaceX has proposed is point-to-point flights (called "Earth to Earth" flights by SpaceX), traveling anywhere on Earth in under an hour.[182] SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell said point-to-point travel could become cost competitive with conventional business class flights.[183] John Logsdon, an academic on space policy and history, said point-to-point travel is unrealistic, as the craft would switch between weightlessness to 5 g of acceleration.[184]

Space exploration

Starship's lunar lander Starship HLS was initially chosen by NASA as the sole lunar Human Landing System for the planned Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 crewed missions, as part of the Artemis program.[185][186] The lander is to be launched into a low Earth orbit, and refueled by multiple Starship tanker spacecraft.[187]: 4, 5  Once fueled, it would perform a trans lunar injection burn and enter a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon.[187]: 4, 5  The Orion spacecraft, launched with the Space Launch System, then would dock with Starship HLS and its crew would transfer into the lander.[187]: 4, 5  The lander would then make a powered descent and land near the lunar south pole.[187]: 4, 5  After the crew performs the surface portion of their mission the HLS would ascend with the crew to rendezvous with the Orion spacecraft.[187]: 4, 5  The crew would transfer into the Orion spacecraft and perform a burn to return to Earth.[187]: 4, 5 

 
Artemis 3 launch profile of a human landing on the Moon, involving Starship HLS, Starship tanker variants, and Orion spacecraft

Opinions differ on how Starship's planned low launch cost will affect the cost of space science. According to Waleed Abdalati, former NASA Chief Scientist, the planned low launch cost would cheapen satellite replacement and enable more ambitious missions for budget-limited programs.[188] According to Lionnet, low launch cost might not reduce the overall cost of a science mission significantly: of the Rosetta space probe and Philae lander's mission cost of $1.7 billion, the cost of launch (by the expendable Ariane 5) only made up ten percent.[188]

Astronomers have called to consider Starship's larger mass to orbit and wider cargo bay for proposed space telescopes such as LUVOIR, and to develop larger telescopes to take advantage of these capabilities.[189][190] Starship's 9 meters fairing width could hold an 8 meters-wide large space telescope mirror in a single piece,[189] alleviating the need for complex origami deployments such as that of the JWST's 6.5m mirror which added cost and delays.[190]

The low launch cost could also allow probes to use heavier, more common, cheaper materials, such as glass instead of beryllium for large telescope mirrors.[190][169] At 5 tons, the JWST represents only 10% of the mass deliverable by a Starship to the Sun-Earth L2 point, and therefore minimizing the weight of the telescope may not have been a dominant design consideration.[190]

A refueled Starship could launch 100 ton observatories to the Moon, L2 Lagrange point, or anywhere in the Solar System.[190] Starship might also launch probes orbiting Neptune, Jupiter's moon Io, or large sample-return missions.[152] Astrophysicists have noted Starship could deploy multiple antennae up to 30 meters in length, opening up radio astronomy to frequencies below 30MHz and wavelengths greater than 10m.[190] This would give the ability to study the Universe's dark ages, unfeasible on Earth due to the atmosphere and human radio background.[190]

Space colonization

Further information: SpaceX ambition of colonizing Mars

Starship is intended to be able to land crews on Mars.[191]: 120  The spacecraft is launched to low Earth orbit, and is then refueled by around five tanker spacecraft before heading to Mars.[192] After landing on Mars, the Sabatier reaction is used to synthesize liquid methane and liquid oxygen, Starship's fuel, in a power-to-gas plant. The plant's raw resources are Martian water and Martian carbon dioxide.[112] On Earth, similar technologies could be used to make carbon-neutral propellant for the rocket.[193]

SpaceX and Musk have stated their goal of colonizing Mars to ensure the long-term survival of humanity,[169][194] with an ambition of sending a thousand Starship spacecraft to Mars during a Mars launch window in a very far future.[195] Musk had maintained an interest in Mars colonization since 2001, when he joined the Mars Society and researched Mars-related space experiments before founding SpaceX in 2002.[196]: 99–100, 102, 112  Musk has made tentative estimates of Starship's Mars landing;[197] in March 2022, he gave a date of 2029 for the first crewed Mars landing.[198] SpaceX has not published technical plans about Starship's life support systems, radiation protection,[199] or in-orbit refueling.[192]

Facilities

Further information: SpaceX Starbase and SpaceX facilities

Testing and manufacturing

 
Ship 27, Ship 26 and Booster 10 forward section under construction in Starbase build site, March 2023

Starbase consists of a manufacturing facility and launch site,[200] and is located at Boca Chica, Texas. Both facilities operate twenty-four hours a day.[108] A maximum of 450 full-time employees may be onsite.[119]: 28  The site is planned to consist of two launch sites, one payload processing facility, one seven-acre solar farm, and other facilities.[119]: 34–36  As of April 2022, the expansion plan's permit has been withdrawn by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, citing lack of information provided.[201] The company leases Starbase's land for the STARGATE research facility, owned by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. It uses part of it for Starship development.[202]

At McGregor, Texas, the Rocket Development facility tests all Raptor engines. The facility has two main test stands: one horizontal stand for both engine types and one vertical stand for sea-level-optimized rocket engines.[citation needed] Other test stands are used for checking Starship's reaction control thrusters and Falcon's Merlin engines. The McGregor facility previously hosted test flights of landable first stages—Grasshopper and F9R Dev1.[citation needed] In the future, a nearby factory, which as of September 2021 was under construction, will make the new generation of sea-level Raptors while SpaceX's headquarters in California will continue building the Raptor Vacuum and test new designs.[203]

At Florida, a facility at Cocoa purifies silica for Starship heat-shield tiles, producing a slurry that is then shipped to a facility at Cape Canaveral. In the past, workers constructed the Starship Mk2 prototype in competition with Starbase's crews.[204] The Kennedy Space Center, also in Florida, is planned to host other Starship facilities, such as Starship launch sites at Launch Complex 39A, the planned Launch Complex 49, and a production facility at Roberts Road. This production facility is being expanded from "Hangar X", the Falcon rocket boosters' storage and maintenance facility. It will include a 30,000 m2 (320,000 sq ft) building, loading dock, and a place for constructing integration tower sections.[205]

Launch sites

 
The under construction orbital launch mount for Starship at Starbase launch site, August 2021

Starbase is planned to host two launch sites, named Pad A and Pad B.[119]: 34  A launch site at Starbase has large facilities, such as a tank farm, an orbital launch mount, and an integration tower.[119] Smaller facilities are present at the launch site: tanks surrounding the area containing methane, oxygen, nitrogen, helium, hydraulic fluid, etc.;[119]: 161  subcoolers near the tank farm cool propellant using liquid nitrogen; and various pipes are installed at large facilities.[33] Each tank farm consists of eight tanks, enough to support one orbital launch.[citation needed] The current launch mount on Pad A has a water sound suppression system, twenty clamps holding the booster, and a quick disconnect mount providing liquid fuel and electricity to the Super Heavy booster before it lifts off.[33]

The integration tower or launch tower consists of steel truss sections, a lightning rod on top,[206] and a pair of mechanical arms that can lift, catch and recover the booster.[33] The decision was made to enable flights and reduce the rocket's mass and part count.[49]: 2  The mechanical arms are attached to a carriage and controlled by a pulley at the top of the tower.[citation needed] The pulley is linked to a winch and spool at the base of the tower using a cable. Using the winch, the carriage, and mechanical arms can move vertically, with support from bearings attached at the sides of the carriage.[207] A linear hydraulic actuator moves the arms horizontally.[citation needed] Tracks are mounted on top of arms, which are used to position the booster or spacecraft.[citation needed] The tower is mounted with a quick disconnect arm extending to and contracting from the Starship spacecraft; its functions are similar to the quick disconnect mount that powers the booster.[33]

Since 2021,[208] the company is constructing a second Starship launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A,[205] which is currently used to launch Crew Dragon capsules to the International Space Station.[208] SpaceX plans to make a separate pad at 39A's north, named Launch Complex 49.[205] Because of Launch Complex 39A's Crew Dragon launches, the company is studying how to strengthen the pad against the possibility of a Starship explosion and proposed to retrofit Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 instead.[208] The towers and mechanical arms at the Florida launch sites should be similar to the one at Starbase, with improvements gained from the experience at Boca Chica.[205]

Phobos and Deimos were the names of two Starship offshore launch platforms, both in renovation as of March 2022.[209] Before being purchased from Valaris Limited in June 2020,[210] they were nearly identical oil platforms named Valaris 8501 and Valaris 8500. However, following further analysis from SpaceX, it has been announced that the offshore platforms were not suitable for Starship launches.[211] The platforms were sold in early 2023.[211]

Community reception

 
Starship SN15 and SN16 juxtaposed with a local tiki bar

Reception to Starship's development among nearby locales has been mixed, especially from cities close to the Starbase spaceport. Proponents of SpaceX's arrival said the company would provide money, education, and job opportunities to the country's poorest areas. Fewer than one-fifth of those 25 or older in the Rio Grande Valley have a bachelor's degree, in comparison to the national average of one-third.[212] The local government has stated that the company boosted the local economy by hiring residents and investing, aiding the three-tenths of the population who live in poverty.[213]

Activist Elias Cantu of the League of United Latin American Citizens said the company encourages Brownsville's gentrification, with an ever-increasing property valuation.[213] Even though Starbase had originally planned to launch Falcon rockets when the original environmental assessment was completed in 2014,[214] the site in 2019 was subsequently used to develop Starship, ultimately requiring a revised environmental assessment.[215] Some of the tests have ended in large explosions, causing major disruption to residents and wildlife reserves. The Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe and environmental activists also accused SpaceX of overpolicing the area and disrupting indigenous ceremonies and local fishing.[216]

Starship's first integrated spaceflight attempt blasted large amounts of sand in the air, reaching communities within a 10-km (6-mile) radius.[217][218] A small brushfire on nearby state parkland also occurred.[219] There were concerns about the launch's impact on the health of both human residents and endangered species because of the sand blast, which was rumored to be concrete and silt particulate matter before analyses ruled against it.[217][218]

The impact of the first launch led to a lawsuit against the FAA, later joined by SpaceX, from four environmental groups and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe.[220][221][222] The disruption to residents is compounded by SpaceX's frequent closures of the road to the beach for vehicle testing.[215] Some residents have moved away or requested financial reparations from the company.[213]

Notes

  1. ^ Source states cost is the amount invested by SpaceX and doesn't state whether it includes NASA investment
  2. ^ See Comparison of orbital launch systems for more information
  3. ^ Super Heavy dry mass: 200 t (440,000 lb); Starship dry mass: <120 t (260,000 lb); Super Heavy propellant mass: 3,400 t (7,500,000 lb);[99] Starship propellant mass: 1,200 t (2,600,000 lb).[100] The total of these masses is about 5,000 t (11,000,000 lb).
  4. ^ 78% of 3,400 t (7,500,000 lb)[99] is 2,650 t (5,840,000 lb) of liquid oxygen.
  5. ^ Synonymous with increasing the delta-v budget of the spacecraft

See also

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External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to SpaceX Starship.
  • Official website  
  • Programmatic Environmental Assessment by the Federal Aviation Administration
  • Starship of SpaceX on eoPortal directory, administered by the European Space Agency
  • Tim Dodd's Starship interviews with Elon Musk on YouTube:
    • A conversation with Elon Musk about Starship, 2019
    • Starbase and Starship tour, 2021: part 1, part 2, and part 3
    • Launch tower and Raptor engine tour, 2022: overview, launch infrastructure, Raptor engine

December 07, 2023
spacex, starship, this, article, contain, bundled, citations, with, poor, text, source, integrity, please, help, improve, this, article, this, article, verifying, sources, moving, citations, closer, claims, they, support, removing, original, synthesis, october. This article may contain bundled citations with poor text source integrity Please help improve this article this article by verifying its sources moving citations closer to the claims they support and removing original synthesis October 2023 Learn how and when to remove this template message Starship is a two stage super heavy lift launch vehicle and spacecraft under development by SpaceX It is the heaviest tallest and most powerful space launch vehicle to have flown into space b Starship is intended to be fully reusable which means both stages will be recovered after a mission and reused StarshipStarship system in launch configuration Starship spacecraft sits on top of Super Heavy Functionsub orbital spaceflightorbital spaceflightinterplanetary spaceflightManufacturerSpaceXCountry of originUnited StatesProject costat least US 5 billion a 1 SizeHeight121 m 397 ft Diameter9 m 30 ft Mass5 000 000 kg 11 000 000 lb StagesSuper Heavy booster and Starship spacecraftCapacityPayload to LEO100t 150t reusable Up to 250t expendable 2 Associated rocketsComparableN1 Saturn V Space Shuttle Falcon Heavy Space Launch System Long March 9Launch historyStatusIn developmentLaunch sitesSpaceX StarbaseKennedy Space Center LC 39A planned Total launches2Success es 0Failure s 1Partial failure s 1 disputed discuss First flight20 April 2023 edit on Wikidata The Starship space vehicle is designed to supplant SpaceX s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets expand SpaceX s Starlink satellite constellation and launch crews to both LEO and Mars SpaceX plans to use Starship vehicles as tankers refueling other Starships to allow missions to geosynchronous orbit the Moon and Mars A lunar lander variant of Starship is to land astronauts on the Moon as part of NASA s Artemis program Starship is primarily meant to enable SpaceX s ambition of colonizing Mars Starship is composed by the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft The booster and spacecraft are both powered by clusters of Raptor rocket engines which burn liquid methane and liquid oxygen Both stages are constructed primarily of stainless steel a material chosen as an alternative to a series of prior designs The booster is designed to use its engines to slow itself down before it is caught by a pair of mechanical arms attached to the launch tower The Starship spacecraft is protected during atmospheric reentry by its thermal protection system using a belly flop maneuver where the spacecraft turns from a horizontal into a vertical position then lands using its engines The Starship system aims to achieve frequent space launches at low cost Development follows an iterative and incremental approach involving frequent and often destructive test flights of prototype vehicles 3 The first flight test of the Starship system took place on 20 April 2023 and ended four minutes after launch with the destruction of the test vehicle The second flight test attempt of the vehicle happened on 18 November 2023 but while the stages successfully separated the Super Heavy booster exploded seconds into the boostback burn while the upper stage was lost nearly eight minutes after launch 4 Contents 1 History 1 1 Early design conceptions 2012 2018 1 2 Settlement on the current design 2019 1 3 Low altitude flights 2019 2020 1 4 High altitude flights 2020 2021 1 5 First attempted orbital test flight 2021 2023 1 6 Second attempted orbital test flight 2023 2 Design 2 1 Raptor engine 2 2 Super Heavy booster 2 3 Starship spacecraft 2 3 1 Variants 3 Planned mission profile 4 Cost and funding 5 Potential uses 5 1 Crewed and cargo launches 5 2 Space exploration 5 3 Space colonization 6 Facilities 6 1 Testing and manufacturing 6 2 Launch sites 6 3 Community reception 7 Notes 8 See also 9 References 10 External linksHistoryEarly design conceptions 2012 2018 Main article SpaceX Starship design process In November 2005 5 before SpaceX had launched its first rocket the Falcon 1 6 CEO Elon Musk first mentioned a long term and high capacity rocket concept able to launch 100 tons to low Earth orbit dubbed the BFR 5 Later in 2012 Elon Musk first publicly announced plans to develop a rocket surpassing the capabilities of their existing Falcon 9 7 SpaceX called it the Mars Colonial Transporter as the rocket was to transport humans to Mars and back 8 In 2016 Elon changed the name to Interplanetary Transport System as he planned the rocket to travel beyond Mars 9 Made of carbon fiber 10 this design would have been over 10 000 tons when fueled and carry 300 tons to low Earth orbit while hoping to be fully reusable 10 By 2017 the large rocket was temporarily re dubbed the BFR 11 and had multiple versions announced such as cargo tanker and crew 12 Settlement on the current design 2019 In 2019 the structural material was changed from carbon composites to stainless steel marking the transition from early design concepts to the current design of Starship 13 10 14 Musk cited numerous reasons for the design change low cost and ease of manufacture increased strength of stainless steel at cryogenic temperatures as well as its ability to withstand high heat 15 14 The high temperature at which 300 series steel transitions to plastic deformation would eliminate the need for a heat shield on Starship s leeward side while the much hotter windward side would be cooled by allowing fuel or water to bleed through micropores in a double wall stainless steel skin removing heat by evaporation 16 This idea was abandoned in 2019 in favor of reusable heat shield tiles 16 similar to those of the Space Shuttle 17 18 The high melting point of Starship s stainless steel allows the tiles to be lighter and thinner 16 In 2019 SpaceX began to refer to the entire vehicle as Starship with the second stage being called Starship and the booster Super Heavy 19 20 21 22 In September 2019 Musk held an event about Starship development during which he further detailed the lower stage booster the upper stage s method of controlling its descent the heat shield orbital refueling capacity and potential destinations besides Mars 23 24 25 26 Over the years of design the proportion of sea level engines to vacuum engines on the second stage varied drastically 27 By 2019 the second stage design had settled on six Raptor engines three optimized for sea level and three optimized for vacuum 24 25 To decrease weight aft flaps on the second stage were reduced from three to two 26 Later in 2019 Musk stated that Starship was expected to have an mass of 120 000 kg 260 000 lb and be able to initially transport a payload of 100 000 kg 220 000 lb growing to 150 000 kg 330 000 lb over time Musk hinted at an expendable variant that could place 250 tonnes into low orbit 28 Low altitude flights 2019 2020 nbsp Starhopper under construction March 2019 nbsp A crane lifting Starship SN5 August 2020 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 23 Neither prototype flew Mk1 was destroyed in November 2019 during a pressure stress test and Mk2 s Florida facility was abandoned and deconstructed throughout 2020 29 30 After the Mk prototypes SpaceX began naming its new Starship upper stage prototypes with the prefix SN short for serial number 31 No prototypes between SN1 and SN4 flew either SN1 and SN3 collapsed during pressure stress tests and SN4 exploded after its fifth engine firing 32 In June 2020 SpaceX started constructing a launch pad for orbital Starship flights 33 The first flight capable Starship SN5 was cylindrical as it had no flaps or nose cone just one Raptor engine fuel tanks and a mass simulator On 5 August 2020 SN5 performed a 150 m 500 ft high flight and successfully landed on a nearby pad 34 On 3 September 2020 the similar looking Starship SN6 repeated the hop 35 later that month a Raptor Vacuum engine underwent it s first full duration firing at McGregor Texas 36 High altitude flights 2020 2021 Further information SpaceX Starship spacecraft High altitude test flights SN8 SN15 Starship SN8 was the first fully complete Starship upper stage prototype It underwent four preliminary static fire tests between October and November 2020 32 On 9 December 2020 SN8 flew slowly turning off its three engines one by one and reached an altitude of 12 5 km 7 8 mi After SN8 dove back to the ground its engines were hampered by low methane header tank pressure during the landing attempt which led to a hard impact with the landing pad 37 Because SpaceX had violated its launch license and ignored warnings of worsening shock wave damage the Federal Aviation Administration investigated the incident for two months 38 On 2 February 2021 Starship SN9 launched to 10 km 6 2 mi in a flight path similar to SN8 The prototype crashed upon landing because one engine did not ignite properly 39 A month later on 3 March Starship SN10 launched on the same flight path as SN9 40 The vehicle landed hard and crushed its landing legs leaning to one side 41 A fire was seen at the vehicle s base It exploded less than ten minutes later 42 potentially due to a propellant tank rupture 41 On 30 March Starship SN11 flew into thick fog along the same flight path 43 The vehicle exploded during descent 43 possibly due to excess propellant in a Raptor s methane turbopump 44 In March 2021 the company disclosed a public construction plan for two sub orbital launch pads two orbital launch pads two landing pads two test stands and a large propellant tank farm 45 The company soon proposed developing the surrounding Boca Chica Village Texas into a company town named Starbase 46 Locals raised concerns about SpaceX s authority power and a potential threat for eviction through eminent domain 47 In early April the orbital launch pad s fuel storage tanks began mounting 33 Starship prototypes SN12 SN13 and SN14 were scrapped before completion SN15 was selected to fly instead 48 SN15 had better avionics structure and upgraded engines 42 On 5 May 2021 SN15 launched completed the same maneuvers as older prototypes and landed safely 48 Even though SN15 like SN10 had a small fire in the engine area after landing it was extinguished completing the first successful high altitude test 42 According to a later report by SpaceX SN15 experienced several issues while landing including the loss of tank pressure and an engine 49 2 First attempted orbital test flight 2021 2023 Main article SpaceX Starship first integrated flight test nbsp Starship during the first orbital flight attempt Notice the multiple engine failures on the first stage In July 2021 Super Heavy BN3 conducted its first full duration static firing and lit three engines 50 Around this time SpaceX changed their naming scheme from SN to Ship for Starship crafts 51 and from BN to Booster for Super Heavy boosters 52 A month later using cranes Ship 20 was stacked atop Booster 4 to form the full launch vehicle for the first time Ship 20 was also the first craft to have a body tall heat shield 53 In October 2021 the catching mechanical arms also known as chopsticks were installed onto the integration tower and the first tank farm s construction was completed 33 Two weeks later NASA and SpaceX announced plans to construct Kennedy Space Center s Launch Complex 49 54 The public spotted the Raptor 2 engine at the start of 2022 55 In June 2022 the Federal Aviation Administration determined that Starbase did not need a full environmental impact assessment but that SpaceX must address more than 75 issues identified in the preliminary environmental assessment 56 In July Booster 7 tested the liquid oxygen turbopumps on all thirty three Raptor engines resulting in an explosion at the vehicle s base which destroyed a pressure pipe and causing minor damage to the launchpad 57 By the end of November Ship 24 had performed 2 and full 6 engine static test fires 58 20 while Booster 7 had performed static fires with 1 3 7 14 11 engines 59 58 20 and finally on February 9 2023 a static fire with 31 engines at 50 throttle 33 was attempted but one engine was disabled pre firing and another engine aborted citation needed In January 2023 Starship underwent a full wet dress rehearsal at Starbase where it was filled with more than 4 500 t 10 000 000 lb of propellant 60 After a canceled launch attempt on 17 April 2023 61 Booster 7 and Ship 24 lifted off on 20 April at 13 33 UTC in the first orbital flight test 62 Three engines were disabled during the launch sequence and several more failed during the flight 63 The spacecraft also lost thrust vectoring control of the Raptor engines later in the flight which led to the rocket starting an out of control tumbling motion 63 The vehicle reached a maximum altitude of 24 mi 39 km 64 At around 3 minutes following liftoff the rocket received a command to activate the automated flight termination system However the flight termination system failed to destroy the vehicle the vehicle tumbled for another 40 seconds and finally exploded 65 66 67 Had the launch proceeded as planned the spacecraft would have continued to fly with its ground track passing through the Straits of Florida and eastward around the globe with a hard splashdown in the Pacific Ocean around 100 km 60 mi northwest of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands having made nearly one full revolution around the Earth 68 69 2 4 Second attempted orbital test flight 2023 Main article SpaceX Starship second integrated flight test nbsp Starship during the second orbital flight attemptAfter the first test flight significant work was done on the launch mount to repair the damage it sustained during the test and to prevent future issues The foundation of the launch tower was reinforced and a steel water deluge flame deflector was built under the launch mount 70 Ship 25 was rolled to the suborbital launch site in May and underwent spin prime and static fire testing ahead of flight 71 Once that was completed Booster 9 was rolled to the launch site to undergo cryogenic proof testing spin primes and static fires of its set of engines 72 Following the failure of Starship s first flight the Federal Aviation Administration FAA required SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation in accordance with SpaceX s approved mishap plan under FAA oversight preventing Starship from being issued another launch license pending the outcome of SpaceX s investigation 73 74 In August SpaceX submitted to the FAA the 63 corrective actions they had to take before another launch could take place 73 75 Following SpaceX s final report the FAA closed the investigation on September 8 2023 76 77 The FAA emphasized that launches could resume once SpaceX had implemented all corrective actions that impact public safety and applied for a license modification from the FAA that addresses the FAA s safety and other environmental regulatory requirements 76 78 Although a launch license approval from the FAA was initially expected as early as October 79 80 delays in the approval led William Gerstenmaier SpaceX s Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability to call for the FAA to increase licensing staff 81 82 On October 19 the Fish and Wildlife Service FWS surveyed the area around Starbase 83 84 The FWS reviewed the changes to the launch pad especially the water deluge system 85 By October 31 2023 the FAA had concluded the safety review portion of the launch license 86 87 On November 11 2023 SpaceX announced a target launch date of November 17 pending regulatory approval 88 On November 14 the FWS concluded its environmental review 89 The FAA gave its approval for launch shortly after 90 SpaceX then announced the launch window was scheduled to open at 7 00 am CST 13 00 UTC 91 The launch attempt was delayed by one day to replace faulty actuators for the grid fins used to control the booster 92 On November 18 2023 Booster 9 and Ship 25 lifted off the pad 93 All 33 engines continued to function until staging where the second stage successfully separated by pushing itsef away from the first stage 94 Following separation the Super Heavy booster completed its flip maneuver and initiated the boostback burn before exploding 94 95 96 The vehicle breakup occurred more than three and a half minutes into the flight at an altitude of 90 km over the Gulf of Mexico 94 The second stage continued until it reached an altitude of 150 kilometres 93 mi after over eight minutes of flight prior to engine cutoff telemetry was lost on the second stage 94 SpaceX said that a safe command destroyed the second stage 94 prior to achieving its planned orbit or attempting re entry 97 It appeared to re enter a few hundred miles north of the Virgin Islands according to NOAA weather radar data 98 DesignWhen stacked and fully fueled Starship has a mass of approximately 5 000 t 11 000 000 lb c a diameter of 9 m 30 ft 101 and a height of 121 m 397 ft 102 The rocket has been designed with the goal of being fully reusable to reduce launch costs 103 In its fully reusable configuration Starship is designed to carry 150 t 330 000 lb to low Earth orbit while the expended configuration is projected to have a payload capacity of 250 t 550 000 lb 104 The rocket consists of the Super Heavy first stage or booster and the Starship second stage or spacecraft 105 powered by the Raptor and Raptor Vacuum engines 106 The bodies of both rocket stages are made from stainless steel as opposed to carbon fiber as the latter is far more expensive and less durable 107 According to Eric Berger of Ars Technica the manufacturing process starts with rolls of steel which are unrolled cut and welded along the cut edge to create a cylinder of 9 m 30 ft in diameter 2 m 7 ft in height and 4 mm 0 16 in thick and around 1 600 kg 4 000 lb in mass 108 These cylinders along with the nose cones are stacked and welded along their edges to form the outer layer of the rocket 108 Inside the methane and oxygen tanks are separated by the robot made domes 108 Also according to Berger Starship s reusability and stainless steel construction has influenced the Terran R rocket 109 and Project Jarvis the second stage of Blue Origin s New Glenn super heavy lift launch vehicle 110 Raptor engine Main article SpaceX Raptor nbsp Sea level optimized Raptor 1 engine May 2020Raptor is a family of rocket engines developed by SpaceX for use in Starship and Super Heavy vehicles It burns liquid oxygen and methane in an efficient and complex full flow staged combustion power cycle The Raptor engine uses methane rather than kerosene as fuel because methane gives higher performance and also prevents a build up of deposits in the engine 111 methane can be directly synthesized from carbon dioxide and water using the Sabatier reaction 112 The engines are designed to be reused many times with little maintenance 113 Raptor operates with an oxygen to methane mixture ratio of about 3 6 1 lower than the stoichiometric mixture ratio of 4 1 necessary for complete combustion Operation at the stoichiometric ratio provides better performance in theory but the higher temperatures reached would melt the engine 99 The propellants leave the pre burners and get injected into the main combustion chamber as hot gases instead of liquid droplets enabling much higher power density as propellants mix rapidly via diffusion 111 The methane and oxygen are at high enough temperatures and pressures that they ignite on contact eliminating the need for igniters in the main combustion chamber 114 The engine structure itself is mostly aluminum copper and steel oxidizer side turbopumps and manifolds subject to corrosive oxygen rich flames are made of an Inconel like SX500 superalloy 114 Some components are 3D printed 115 At sea level the standard Raptor engine produces 2 3 MN 520 000 lbf at a specific impulse of 327 seconds 3 21 km s increasing to 350 seconds 3 4 km s in a vacuum 114 Raptor Vacuum used on the Starship upper stage is modified with a regeneratively cooled nozzle extension made of brazed steel tubes increasing its expansion ratio to about 90 and its specific impulse in vacuum to 380 seconds 3 7 km s 99 The main combustion chamber operates at a pressure of 350 bar 5 100 psi which higher than any previous operational rocket engine 111 The Raptor s gimbaling range is 15 higher than the RS 25 s 12 5 and the Merlin s 5 When mass produced SpaceX aims to achieve a per unit cost of US 250 000 114 Super Heavy booster Main article SpaceX Super Heavy nbsp Underside of the Super Heavy booster prior to engine installationThe first stage booster named Super Heavy is 71 m 233 ft tall and 9 m 30 ft wide 101 and contains thirty three Raptor engines arranged in concentric rings 116 The outermost ring of 20 engines are of the Raptor Boost configuration which lack gimbal actuators to save weight and cost 117 At full power all engines combined produce 75 9 MN 17 100 000 lbf of thrust 118 The booster s tanks can hold 3 400 t 7 500 000 lb of propellant consisting of 2 650 t 5 840 000 lb of liquid oxygen and 750 t 1 650 000 lb of liquid methane d 119 In 2021 Elon Musk said that the final design will have a dry mass between 160 t 350 000 lb and 200 t 440 000 lb with the tanks weighing 80 t 180 000 lb and the interstage 20 t 44 000 lb 99 The booster uses four electrically actuated grid fins for control each with a mass of 3 t 6 600 lb 120 Adjacent pairs of grid fins are spaced sixty degrees apart instead of being orthogonal as is the case on Falcon 9 to provide more authority in the pitch axis 121 Also unlike Falcon 9 the grid fins do not retract and remain extended during ascent 99 The booster can be lifted through protruding hardpoints located between gridfins 33 Above the grid fins is the vented interstage used for hot staging 122 Hot staging is a type of rocket staging in which the upper stage fires its engines before breaking itself away from the first stage instead of after 123 Starship spacecraft Main article SpaceX Starship spacecraft nbsp Starship SN20 getting a tile inspectionThe Starship spacecraft is 50 m 160 ft tall and 9 m 30 ft in diameter It has 6 Raptor engines 3 of which are optimized for use in outer space 124 125 The vehicle s payload bay is planned to measure 17 m 56 ft tall and 8 m 26 ft in diameter with an internal volume of 1 000 m3 35 000 cu ft slightly larger than the ISS s pressurized volume 126 Starship has a total propellant capacity of 1 200 t 2 600 000 lb 127 across its main tanks and header tanks 128 According to Elon Musk in 2019 the header tanks are better insulated due to their position and are reserved for use to flip and land the spacecraft following reentry 129 A set of reaction control thrusters which use the pressure in the fuel tank control attitude while in space 130 The spacecraft has four body flaps to control the spacecraft s orientation and help dissipate energy during atmospheric entry 131 composed of two forward flaps and two aft flaps 132 According to SpaceX the flaps replace the need for wings or tailplane reduce the fuel needed for landing and allow landing at destinations in the Solar System where runways don t exist for example Mars 133 1 Under the forward flaps hardpoints are used for lifting and catching the spacecraft via mechanical arms 134 The flap s hinges are sealed in aero covers because they would be easily damaged during reentry 135 Starship s heat shield composed of eighteen thousand 136 137 hexagonal black tiles that can withstand temperatures of 1 400 C 2 600 F 138 139 is designed to protect the vehicle during atmospheric entry and be used multiple times with minimal maintenance between flights 140 The tiles are made of silica 141 and are attached with pins rather than glued 139 with small gaps in between to allow for heat expansion 135 nbsp Diagram of Starship s internal structure Not shown in this diagram are the flaps the aft flaps are placed at the bottom or left in this orientation and the forward flaps are placed at the top here right portion of the spaceship Variants For satellite launch Starship is planned to have a large cargo door that will open to release payloads similar to Nasa s space shuttles and close upon reentry instead of a jettisonable nose cone fairing Instead of a cleanroom payloads would be integrated directly into Starship s payload bay which requires purging the payload bay with temperature controlled ISO class 8 clean air 142 To deploy Starlink satellites the cargo door is to be replaced with a slot and dispenser rack whose mechanism has been compared to a Pez candy dispenser 143 Starship Human Landing System HLS is a crewed lunar lander variant of the Starship vehicle that is modified for landing operation and takeoff from the lunar surface 144 Its design features modified landing legs a body mounted solar array 145 a set of thrusters mounted mid body to assist with final landing and takeoff 145 two airlocks 144 and an elevator to lower crew and cargo onto the lunar surface 146 If fully fueled Starship HLS is designed to be able to land more than 100 t 220 000 lb of payload on the Moon per flight 144 Starship is planned to be able to be refueled by docking with separately launched Starship propellant tanker spacecraft in orbit Doing so would increase the spacecraft s mass capacity and allow it to reach higher energy targets e such as geosynchronous orbit the Moon and Mars 147 A Starship propellant depot could store methane and oxygen on orbit and will be used by Starship HLS to replenish its fuel tanks 148 In 2023 a NASA official estimated the number of Starship launches required for one lunar landing to be in the high teens 149 and in 2021 the Government Accountability Office said that SpaceX would require 16 launches overall 149 These launches will reportedly have to be in rapid succession in order to manage schedule constraints and cryogenic fuel boil off This number contrasts with Musk s statement in 2021 that between four and eight launches would be required 149 Planned mission profile source source Animation of Super Heavy s integration to the launch mount using mechanical armsThe payload will be integrated into Starship at a separate facility and then rolled out to the spaceport 119 After Super Heavy and Starship are stacked onto their launch mount they are loaded with fuel via the Starship quick disconnect SQD arm and booster quick disconnect BQD 33 Roughly four hundred truck deliveries are needed for one launch 119 Then the SQD retracts all thirty three engines of Super Heavy ignite and the rocket lifts off 33 source source A short animation of Super Heavy s landing on mechanical arms The actual landing speed is a few times slowerAfter 159 seconds 150 at an altitude of 65 km 40 mi Super Heavy cuts off 30 of its engines leaving only three center ones running at 50 thrust citation needed Then hot staging happens the ship ignites its engines while still attached to the booster and separates away 123 During hot staging the booster throttles down its engines 123 The booster then returns to the launch site in a controlled descent being caught by a pair of mechanical arms 151 After six minutes of flight about 20 t 44 000 lb of propellant remains inside the booster 150 99 Meanwhile the Starship spacecraft accelerates to orbital velocity Once in orbit the spacecraft may be refueled by one or more tanker variant Starships increasing the spacecraft s capacity 152 Musk estimated that 8 launches would be needed to completely refuel a Starship in low Earth orbit having extrapolated this by using Starship s payload to orbit and combining it with how much fuel a fully fueled Starship contains 153 To land on bodies without an atmosphere such as the Moon Starship will fire its engines to slow down 154 To land on bodies with an atmosphere such as the Earth and Mars Starship first slows by entering the atmosphere via a heat shield 103 The spacecraft would then perform a belly flop maneuver by diving back through the atmosphere body at a 60 angle to the ground 14 controlling its fall using four flaps at the front and aft sides of the spacecraft 37 Shortly before landing the Raptor engines fire 37 using fuel from the header tanks 155 causing the spacecraft to resume vertical orientation At this stage Raptor engines gimbaling throttle and reaction control system s firing help to maneuver the craft 37 A pseudospectral optimal control algorithm by the German Aerospace Center predicted that the landing flip would tilt up to 20 from the ground s perpendicular line and the angle would be reduced to zero on touchdown 156 Future Starships are envisioned to be caught by mechanical arms like the booster 33 If Starship s rocket stages land on a pad a mobile hydraulic lift will move them to a transporter vehicle If the rocket stages land on a floating platform they will be transported by a barge to a port and then transported by road The recovered Super Heavy and Starship will either be positioned on the launch mount for another launch or refurbished at a SpaceX facility 119 22 Cost and fundingAs part of the development of the Human Landing System for the Artemis program SpaceX was awarded in April 2021 a 2 89 billion contract from NASA to develop the Starship lunar lander for Artemis III 157 158 Blue Origin a bidding competitor to SpaceX disputed the decision and began a legal case against NASA and SpaceX in August 2021 causing NASA to suspend the contract for three months until the case was dismissed in the Court of Federal Claims 159 160 161 Two years later Blue Origin was awarded 3 4 billion for their lunar lander 162 In 2022 NASA awarded SpaceX 1 15 billion for a second lunar lander for Artemis 4 158 The same year SpaceX was awarded a 102 million five year contract to develop the Rocket Cargo program for the United States Space Force 163 SpaceX develops the Starship with private funding 164 165 166 SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen disclosed in court that SpaceX has invested more than 3 billion into the Starbase facility and Starship systems from July 2014 to May 2023 166 Elon Musk stated in April 2023 that SpaceX expected to spend about 2 billion on Starship development in 2023 167 168 Musk has predicted that a Starship orbital launch will eventually cost 1 million Eurospace s director of research Pierre Lionnet however stated that Starship s launch price would likely be higher because of the rocket s development cost estimated by Musk in 2023 to be roughly 10 billion USD with 3 5 billion having been spent as of 2023 169 170 Potential usesFurther information SpaceX Starship flight tests Future operational flights Starship s reusability is expected to reduce launch costs expanding space access to more payloads and entities 171 Crewed and cargo launches Starship also plans to launch the second generation of SpaceX s Starlink satellites which deliver global high speed internet 172 A space analyst at financial services company Morgan Stanley stated development of Starship and Starlink are intertwined with Starship launch capacity enabling cheaper Starlink launches and Starlink s profits financing Starship s development costs 173 In deficit from its inception until the end of 2022 174 Starlink was first reported slightly profitable in the first 3 months of 2023 175 176 and Elon Musk said that it continued to remain profitable through 2023 177 As of 19 August 2022 the Superbird 9 communication satellite is Starship s first and only known contract for externally made commercial satellites The satellite has a dry mass of 3 t 6 600 lb planned for 2024 launch to a geostationary orbit 178 In the future the spacecraft s crewed version could be used for space tourism for example for the DearMoon project 179 or the third flight of the Polaris program 180 Musk stated that SpaceX would complete hundreds of cargo flights before carrying human passengers 181 In January 2022 SpaceX was awarded a 102 million five year contract to develop the Rocket Cargo program for the United States Space Force 163 One possible future use of Starship that SpaceX has proposed is point to point flights called Earth to Earth flights by SpaceX traveling anywhere on Earth in under an hour 182 SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell said point to point travel could become cost competitive with conventional business class flights 183 John Logsdon an academic on space policy and history said point to point travel is unrealistic as the craft would switch between weightlessness to 5 g of acceleration 184 Space explorationStarship s lunar lander Starship HLS was initially chosen by NASA as the sole lunar Human Landing System for the planned Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 crewed missions as part of the Artemis program 185 186 The lander is to be launched into a low Earth orbit and refueled by multiple Starship tanker spacecraft 187 4 5 Once fueled it would perform a trans lunar injection burn and enter a near rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon 187 4 5 The Orion spacecraft launched with the Space Launch System then would dock with Starship HLS and its crew would transfer into the lander 187 4 5 The lander would then make a powered descent and land near the lunar south pole 187 4 5 After the crew performs the surface portion of their mission the HLS would ascend with the crew to rendezvous with the Orion spacecraft 187 4 5 The crew would transfer into the Orion spacecraft and perform a burn to return to Earth 187 4 5 nbsp Artemis 3 launch profile of a human landing on the Moon involving Starship HLS Starship tanker variants and Orion spacecraftOpinions differ on how Starship s planned low launch cost will affect the cost of space science According to Waleed Abdalati former NASA Chief Scientist the planned low launch cost would cheapen satellite replacement and enable more ambitious missions for budget limited programs 188 According to Lionnet low launch cost might not reduce the overall cost of a science mission significantly of the Rosetta space probe and Philae lander s mission cost of 1 7 billion the cost of launch by the expendable Ariane 5 only made up ten percent 188 Astronomers have called to consider Starship s larger mass to orbit and wider cargo bay for proposed space telescopes such as LUVOIR and to develop larger telescopes to take advantage of these capabilities 189 190 Starship s 9 meters fairing width could hold an 8 meters wide large space telescope mirror in a single piece 189 alleviating the need for complex origami deployments such as that of the JWST s 6 5m mirror which added cost and delays 190 The low launch cost could also allow probes to use heavier more common cheaper materials such as glass instead of beryllium for large telescope mirrors 190 169 At 5 tons the JWST represents only 10 of the mass deliverable by a Starship to the Sun Earth L2 point and therefore minimizing the weight of the telescope may not have been a dominant design consideration 190 A refueled Starship could launch 100 ton observatories to the Moon L2 Lagrange point or anywhere in the Solar System 190 Starship might also launch probes orbiting Neptune Jupiter s moon Io or large sample return missions 152 Astrophysicists have noted Starship could deploy multiple antennae up to 30 meters in length opening up radio astronomy to frequencies below 30MHz and wavelengths greater than 10m 190 This would give the ability to study the Universe s dark ages unfeasible on Earth due to the atmosphere and human radio background 190 Space colonization Further information SpaceX ambition of colonizing MarsStarship is intended to be able to land crews on Mars 191 120 The spacecraft is launched to low Earth orbit and is then refueled by around five tanker spacecraft before heading to Mars 192 After landing on Mars the Sabatier reaction is used to synthesize liquid methane and liquid oxygen Starship s fuel in a power to gas plant The plant s raw resources are Martian water and Martian carbon dioxide 112 On Earth similar technologies could be used to make carbon neutral propellant for the rocket 193 SpaceX and Musk have stated their goal of colonizing Mars to ensure the long term survival of humanity 169 194 with an ambition of sending a thousand Starship spacecraft to Mars during a Mars launch window in a very far future 195 Musk had maintained an interest in Mars colonization since 2001 when he joined the Mars Society and researched Mars related space experiments before founding SpaceX in 2002 196 99 100 102 112 Musk has made tentative estimates of Starship s Mars landing 197 in March 2022 he gave a date of 2029 for the first crewed Mars landing 198 SpaceX has not published technical plans about Starship s life support systems radiation protection 199 or in orbit refueling 192 FacilitiesFurther information SpaceX Starbase and SpaceX facilities Testing and manufacturing nbsp Ship 27 Ship 26 and Booster 10 forward section under construction in Starbase build site March 2023Starbase consists of a manufacturing facility and launch site 200 and is located at Boca Chica Texas Both facilities operate twenty four hours a day 108 A maximum of 450 full time employees may be onsite 119 28 The site is planned to consist of two launch sites one payload processing facility one seven acre solar farm and other facilities 119 34 36 As of April 2022 update the expansion plan s permit has been withdrawn by the United States Army Corps of Engineers citing lack of information provided 201 The company leases Starbase s land for the STARGATE research facility owned by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley It uses part of it for Starship development 202 At McGregor Texas the Rocket Development facility tests all Raptor engines The facility has two main test stands one horizontal stand for both engine types and one vertical stand for sea level optimized rocket engines citation needed Other test stands are used for checking Starship s reaction control thrusters and Falcon s Merlin engines The McGregor facility previously hosted test flights of landable first stages Grasshopper and F9R Dev1 citation needed In the future a nearby factory which as of September 2021 update was under construction will make the new generation of sea level Raptors while SpaceX s headquarters in California will continue building the Raptor Vacuum and test new designs 203 At Florida a facility at Cocoa purifies silica for Starship heat shield tiles producing a slurry that is then shipped to a facility at Cape Canaveral In the past workers constructed the Starship Mk2 prototype in competition with Starbase s crews 204 The Kennedy Space Center also in Florida is planned to host other Starship facilities such as Starship launch sites at Launch Complex 39A the planned Launch Complex 49 and a production facility at Roberts Road This production facility is being expanded from Hangar X the Falcon rocket boosters storage and maintenance facility It will include a 30 000 m2 320 000 sq ft building loading dock and a place for constructing integration tower sections 205 Launch sites nbsp The under construction orbital launch mount for Starship at Starbase launch site August 2021Starbase is planned to host two launch sites named Pad A and Pad B 119 34 A launch site at Starbase has large facilities such as a tank farm an orbital launch mount and an integration tower 119 Smaller facilities are present at the launch site tanks surrounding the area containing methane oxygen nitrogen helium hydraulic fluid etc 119 161 subcoolers near the tank farm cool propellant using liquid nitrogen and various pipes are installed at large facilities 33 Each tank farm consists of eight tanks enough to support one orbital launch citation needed The current launch mount on Pad A has a water sound suppression system twenty clamps holding the booster and a quick disconnect mount providing liquid fuel and electricity to the Super Heavy booster before it lifts off 33 The integration tower or launch tower consists of steel truss sections a lightning rod on top 206 and a pair of mechanical arms that can lift catch and recover the booster 33 The decision was made to enable flights and reduce the rocket s mass and part count 49 2 The mechanical arms are attached to a carriage and controlled by a pulley at the top of the tower citation needed The pulley is linked to a winch and spool at the base of the tower using a cable Using the winch the carriage and mechanical arms can move vertically with support from bearings attached at the sides of the carriage 207 A linear hydraulic actuator moves the arms horizontally citation needed Tracks are mounted on top of arms which are used to position the booster or spacecraft citation needed The tower is mounted with a quick disconnect arm extending to and contracting from the Starship spacecraft its functions are similar to the quick disconnect mount that powers the booster 33 Since 2021 208 the company is constructing a second Starship launch pad in Cape Canaveral Florida in Kennedy Space Center s Launch Complex 39A 205 which is currently used to launch Crew Dragon capsules to the International Space Station 208 SpaceX plans to make a separate pad at 39A s north named Launch Complex 49 205 Because of Launch Complex 39A s Crew Dragon launches the company is studying how to strengthen the pad against the possibility of a Starship explosion and proposed to retrofit Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 instead 208 The towers and mechanical arms at the Florida launch sites should be similar to the one at Starbase with improvements gained from the experience at Boca Chica 205 Phobos and Deimos were the names of two Starship offshore launch platforms both in renovation as of March 2022 209 Before being purchased from Valaris Limited in June 2020 210 they were nearly identical oil platforms named Valaris 8501 and Valaris 8500 However following further analysis from SpaceX it has been announced that the offshore platforms were not suitable for Starship launches 211 The platforms were sold in early 2023 211 Community reception nbsp Starship SN15 and SN16 juxtaposed with a local tiki barReception to Starship s development among nearby locales has been mixed especially from cities close to the Starbase spaceport Proponents of SpaceX s arrival said the company would provide money education and job opportunities to the country s poorest areas Fewer than one fifth of those 25 or older in the Rio Grande Valley have a bachelor s degree in comparison to the national average of one third 212 The local government has stated that the company boosted the local economy by hiring residents and investing aiding the three tenths of the population who live in poverty 213 Activist Elias Cantu of the League of United Latin American Citizens said the company encourages Brownsville s gentrification with an ever increasing property valuation 213 Even though Starbase had originally planned to launch Falcon rockets when the original environmental assessment was completed in 2014 214 the site in 2019 was subsequently used to develop Starship ultimately requiring a revised environmental assessment 215 Some of the tests have ended in large explosions causing major disruption to residents and wildlife reserves The Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe and environmental activists also accused SpaceX of overpolicing the area and disrupting indigenous ceremonies and local fishing 216 Starship s first integrated spaceflight attempt blasted large amounts of sand in the air reaching communities within a 10 km 6 mile radius 217 218 A small brushfire on nearby state parkland also occurred 219 There were concerns about the launch s impact on the health of both human residents and endangered species because of the sand blast which was rumored to be concrete and silt particulate matter before analyses ruled against it 217 218 The impact of the first launch led to a lawsuit against the FAA later joined by SpaceX from four environmental groups and the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe 220 221 222 The disruption to residents is compounded by SpaceX s frequent closures of the road to the beach for vehicle testing 215 Some residents have moved away or requested financial reparations from the company 213 Notes Source states cost is the amount invested by SpaceX and doesn t state whether it includes NASA investment See Comparison of orbital launch systems for more information Super Heavy dry mass 200 t 440 000 lb Starship dry mass lt 120 t 260 000 lb Super Heavy propellant mass 3 400 t 7 500 000 lb 99 Starship propellant mass 1 200 t 2 600 000 lb 100 The total of these masses is about 5 000 t 11 000 000 lb 78 of 3 400 t 7 500 000 lb 99 is 2 650 t 5 840 000 lb of liquid oxygen Synonymous with increasing the delta v budget of the spacecraftSee alsoComparison of orbital launch systems Comparison of orbital launcher families Long March 9 a super heavy lift launch vehicle developed by China designed to be reusable and close to Starship in tons 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areas Will Elon Musk bring prosperity USA Today Archived from the original on 10 March 2022 Retrieved 10 March 2022 a b c Sandoval Edgar Webner Richard 24 May 2021 A Serene Shore Resort Except for the SpaceX Ball of Fire The New York Times Archived from the original on 1 April 2022 Retrieved 31 March 2022 Klotz Irene 11 July 2014 FAA Ruling Clears Path for SpaceX Launch site in Texas SpaceNews Archived from the original on 17 July 2014 Retrieved 16 July 2014 a b Kramer Anna 7 September 2021 SpaceX s launch site may be a threat to the environment Protocol com Archived from the original on 1 December 2021 Retrieved 31 March 2022 Colonizing Our Community Elon Musk s SpaceX Rocket Explodes in Texas as Feds OK New LNG Projects Democracy Now 21 April 2023 Archived from the original on 21 April 2023 Retrieved 25 April 2023 a b Kolodny Lora 24 April 2023 SpaceX Starship explosion spread particulate matter for miles CNBC Archived from the original on 25 April 2023 Retrieved 25 April 2023 a b Leinfelder Andrea 2 August 2023 SpaceX Starship sprinkled South Texas with mystery material Here s what it was Houston Chronicle Retrieved 20 September 2023 Grush Loren Hull Dana 26 April 2023 SpaceX s Starship Launch Sparked Fire on State Park Land Bloomberg News Retrieved 28 April 2023 Center for Biological Diversity et al v Federal Aviation Administration D C Cir 2023 Text Gorman Steve 1 May 2023 Environmentalists sue FAA over SpaceX launch license for Texas Reuters Retrieved 3 May 2023 Killelea Eric 23 May 2023 SpaceX joins FAA as defendant in lawsuit over private space company s launch from South Texas San Antonio Express News Retrieved 29 June 2023 External links nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to SpaceX Starship Official website nbsp Programmatic Environmental Assessment by the Federal Aviation Administration Starship of SpaceX on eoPortal directory administered by the European Space Agency Tim Dodd s Starship interviews with Elon Musk on YouTube A conversation with Elon Musk about Starship 2019 Starbase and Starship tour 2021 part 1 part 2 and part 3 Launch tower and Raptor engine tour 2022 overview launch infrastructure Raptor engine Portals nbsp Outer space nbsp Rocketry nbsp Spaceflight nbsp Transport Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title SpaceX Starship amp oldid 1188630890 Launch sites, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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