SpaceX Starship

Starship is a rocket made by the American company SpaceX. The rocket is made out of stainless steel. The rocket is made of two stages: Super Heavy and Starship. Both of these stages can be used again. This is unusual for a rocket. The rocket is expected to lift of people and things to orbit. It is expected to travel to the Moon. It is expected to serve space tourists, and also help humans going to Mars.
In 2023, Starship became the tallest and the most powerful rocket ever flown.
In April 2023, a booster rocket and a spacecraft launched. 1 minute 25 seconds into the launch, the booster and the spacecraft could not be steered. The flight continued up to altitude of 39 kilometres (24 mi), then began to tumble.
Test flights and other testing
In September 2019, Starship Mk1 (Mark 1) was the first built Starship. The next vehicle, named Mk2, was built in Florida five months later. Mk1 failed [testing at cold temperature, or] the cryogenic proof test. It did not fly.
Mk2 was recycled. It did not fly.
Mk3's name changed to SN1 (serial number 1). On 28 February 2020, SN1 crushed itself during a cryogenic proof test. It is because of a leak in the bottom tank. On 8 March 2020, SN2's tank completed its only cryogenic proof test. On 3 April 2020, during the SN3 cryogenic proof test, a valve leaked liquid nitrogen inside its bottom tank. This causes the vehicle to lose pressure and crush itself. On 29 May 2020, SN4 had its fifth successful static fire test. But, after the test, the connected propellant pipe made SN4 explode.
On 4 August 2020, SN5 completed a flight with one Raptor. The rocket went to before coming down. It is the first Starship spacecraft to complete a flight intact. On 24 August 2020, SN6 repeated SN5's flight and did not explode.
High-altitude testing
SN8 was the first complete Starship. In October and November 2020, SN8 survived four static fire tests. The first, second, and fourth tests were successful, but the third test failed. In the third test, SN8's Raptors destroyed the mount. The concrete layer melted, splashed, and hit a Raptor.
On 9 December 2020, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) warned SN8 could explode if it was flown as planned. SpaceX ignored its warnings. SN8 then flew up, making it the first Starship to fly. It goes as high as , then comes back down. While landing, SN8's methane header tank did not pump enough methane to the Raptors. This causes one engine to burn itself. So, SN8 hit the ground fast and exploded.
On 2 February 2021, SN9 flew high. During the landing, a Raptor does not work. So, SN9 lands at an angle and exploded as well. On 3 March 2021, SN10 repeated SN9's flight. It then landed with all Raptors working. But, because SN10 was damaged, it blew up eight minutes later. On 8 March 2021, the first Super Heavy booster named BN1 (booster number 1) was finished.
On 30 March 2021, SN11 exploded in dense fog. No one knows why it exploded. A possible explanation is that a Raptor burned SN11's computer. This could let too much propellant flow into the engine's turbopump. When the engine is lit, the pressure inside the chamber is too much, making SN11 explode.
SpaceX did not finish SN12, SN13, SN14. Their improvements were added to SN15 instead. On 5 May 2021, SN15 flew the same flight and landed. It did not explode after launch. On 20 July 2021, BN3 static fired for the only time.
Around July 2021, SpaceX started using the word Ship instead of "SN" for Starship spacecrafts. Booster instead of "BN" is another name for the Super Heavy boosters.
Super Heavy and Starship must pass many tests before launch. Firstly, they are filled with nitrogen gas to check for leaks. Then, cold liquid nitrogen fills and drains from Starship and Super Heavy to check the tanks' strength. Finally, propellant fills their tanks, and the Raptor engines are fired.
Since 2005, SpaceX has been working on ideas similar to Starship. The company then checks the design with a series of tests: from flying high in July 2019, to flying high in May 2021.
Attempt at orbital flight (April 2023)
SpaceX tried to do an Orbital test flight in April 2023. The flight did not reach orbit.
"Three of the 33 engines on the" booster rocket "were shut down before the rocket even left the launchpad", according to media's paraphrasing of Elon Musk; Furthermore, "The system didn't think" that those 3 engines "were healthy enough to bring them to full thrust," "so they were shut down", according to Musk.
At about 27 seconds into the flight, SpaceX lost communications with another engine.
The flight passed max q.
1 minute 25 seconds into the launch, SpaceX lost thrust vector control and therefore the ability to steer the rocket.
The flight came up to altitude of 39 kilometres (24 mi), then began to tumble.
At 29 kilometres (18 mi), about four minutes after liftoff, the (onboard) Autonomous flight safety system destroyed the booster and the Starship. (One source says that "a self-destruct mechanism" was triggered.) The time from the triggering to disintegration (or destruction), was 40 seconds. That time is supposed to be much shorter.
Things that should happen before and during an orbital flight
Before launch, liquid oxygen and liquid methane fill the tanks of the booster rocket and the spaceship.
Engine chill begins on the booster, at 16 minutes 40 seconds before liftoff. This is to protect the engine's turbopumps from thermal shock.
The thirty-three engines startup-sequence begins, at eight seconds before liftoff.
33 Raptor engines fire and lift the rocket up. Super Heavy and Starship will then separate. After that, the Starship spacecraft boosts itself into orbit. The booster then descends and lands on the launch tower's arms. When Starship lands, the spacecraft will glide using its flaps. At the last few seconds, the spacecraft flips up and lands.
Parts of the Starship system (booster rocket and Starship spacecraft)
Starship has two parts: the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft. Both Super Heavy and Starship should be able to land and launch many times quickly. That is the reason why the Starship rocket is often called a fully-reusable rocket. As of November 2021, no other rockets except Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy's booster can do this. Most of the rocket is made from SAE 304 stainless steel, the most common type of all.
A Starship spacecraft lifts off (from Earth) on top of a booster. The spacecraft is supposed to carry of cargo to low Earth orbit. The Space Shuttle could only carry to the International Space Station, however.
In this example, the International Space Station has an even lower orbit than Starship.
{{Efn|The International Space Station orbits high at 51.64deg inclination. Starship in this case orbits high at 98.9deg inclination.
Booster rocket ("Super Heavy")
Below the spacecraft is a tall Super Heavy booster rocket. This booster can hold about of propellant. Super Heavy and Starship's propellants are liquid methane and liquid oxygen. The booster is made from stainless steel rings. These rings are thick, tall, and diameter.
At the bottom of the booster are 33 Raptor rocket engines. They can make of thrust, twice more than the Saturn V. The thrust speeds up the rocket to .
On top of the booster are four boxes containing fins in a grid pattern. These boxes are usually called grid fins, like those of the Falcon 9. Grid fins rotate to control and guide the booster while falling from the sky. When the booster comes back closer to Earth - just a few kilometers or miles above ground - the booster fires its engines and lands on the tower arms, which will 'catch' it.
SpaceX has two Super Heavy booster rockets, that have not been retired or scrapped (as of 2023's second quarter). They have not gone thru the static fire test.
Spacecraft
On top of the booster sits a tall Starship spacecraft. The spacecraft can hold about of propellant. Its propellant is the same as Super Heavy's, which are liquid methane and liquid oxygen. The Starship spacecraft is made from stainless steel rings, similar to Super Heavy.
At the bottom of the spacecraft are six rocket engines. Three of them are regular Raptor engines; three others are Raptor Vacuum engines. These regular Raptor engines work inside the air, while Raptor Vacuum engines work inside the vacuum.
There are two kinds of propellant tanks inside Starship: these are main tanks and header tanks. The main tanks store propellant for almost all functions of the spacecraft. The only exception here is when Starship lands when it uses its header tanks instead.
There are four flaps that connect to Starship's body. Two large flaps are at the bottom of the spacecraft, and two small flaps are at the top of the spacecraft. They are made from stainless steel sheets and bend to a trapezoid shape. The flaps can control Starship's falling speed and direction.
A black heat shield covers one side of the spacecraft. The heat shield is made from ceramic hexagon tiles and sheets of ceramic wool. They help to protect Starship from hot plasma, made when the spacecraft enters Earth's atmosphere. Starship's heat shield could be durable and used many times.
Types of Starship spacecraft
Starship HLS (Starship Human Landing System) is supposed to land astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis program. It can take propellant from other Starships to have more range. The spacecraft would not have a heat shield or body flaps. However, it will have solar panels and landing engines. Starship HLS can be fueled and connected to the Orion spacecraft.
Rocket engines
Both Super Heavy and Starship have SpaceX's Raptor rocket engines at the bottom. Each engine can make about of thrust. It has a full-flow staged combustion cycle design and burns liquid methane with liquid oxygen.
Also at the bottom of the Starship spacecraft are the Raptor Vacuum engines. They are Raptor engines with larger nozzles. The Raptor Vacuum only works in space and is more efficient than the normal Raptor engine. The Raptor 2 engine is the next generation of the Raptor and Raptor Vacuum engines. They will be used in Super Heavy and Starship sometime in the future.
This is how a full-flow staged combustion cycle engine works. First, liquid methane and oxygen flow into the engine's turbopumps. The turbopumps increase the liquids' pressure. Then, the methane and oxygen evaporate into hot gases in two preburners. One preburner gets more methane, and another gets more oxygen. The gas then turns the turbines and turbopumps by a shaft. These spinning turbines and turbopumps pump more propellant to the engine. This hot and mixed gas is then burned in a combustion chamber. Finally, the engine nozzle directs the ignited gas to make thrust.
Raptor engines will be made in a new factory at McGregor. Both the Raptor Vacuum and Raptor 2 are going to be made in another factory at Hawthorne.
Planned missions
On 16 April 2021, NASA (a government agency) selected Starship HLS as the Moon lander for the Artemis program. The other options were the Integrated Lander Vehicle by the National Team and Dynetics HLS by the Dynetics company. NASA then awarded SpaceX $2.89 billion to make Starship HLS. NASA wants Starship HLS to do a landing on the Moon without humans first. Then, Starship will send astronauts for the Artemis 3 mission.
The dearMoon project has no date for launch (as of 2022). In 2018, Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa announced that private space mission. Its crew are Maezawa himself and eight other people. The plan is to use Starship as the main spacecraft. The spacecraft is supposed to take them toward the Moon, circle around it, and then return back to Earth.
Possibilities for use (or potential uses)
Moving cargo or people between points on Earth
In January 2022, SpaceX got a $102 million five-year contract to develop the Rocket Cargo program for the United States Space Force.
Point-to-point flights (called "Earth to Earth" flights by SpaceX), is the idea of traveling anywhere on Earth in under an hour. John Logsdon, an academic on space policy and history, said point-to-point travel is unrealistic, as [the people on board and] the craft would switch between weightlessness to 5 g of acceleration.
Spaceships going to other planets
SpaceX wants to start Mars colonization and terraforming. It would do so by sending humans to Mars. Musk's life goal is to ensure that humans are still around after a mass extinction on Earth. He also talked about Starships going to Enceladus, Europa, Pluto, and the Oort cloud. The Starship rocket on those missions could launch from Mars.
SpaceX thinks sending humans to Mars needs many steps. First, some Starships might carry many important things to Mars' surface. Inside them are fertilizer factories, propellant factories, and building materials. The propellant factory takes in carbon dioxide from Mars's air and hydrogen from the ice below. Then, the factory uses the Sabatier reaction. Hydrogen reacts with carbon dioxide with hydrogen to create methane and oxygen. Methane and oxygen are Starship's propellants. Filled up with the factory's methane and oxygen, Starship can return from Mars back to Earth. Building materials are used to make domes. They protect farmland from Mars's weather and atmosphere.
Musk has guessed that a city with a million people on Mars is enough to keep itself running. It should be able to create everything that the people need. The city does not need shipments from Earth by then. He guessed that the city needs at least ten thousand Starships full of humans. Each Starship can carry 100 passengers on board. To give the colony enough equipment and food, a hundred thousand Starships carrying cargo might launch to Mars. This guess does not have population growth.
Other possibilities
Most Starships would carry satellites, cargo, and humans to Earth orbit. They would have a large door that rotates along a hinge. These Starships could catch space debris as well.
Some Starships would carry propellant instead of cargo. These spacecraft can fuel another spacecraft in orbit. Via fueling, these spacecraft would have more range and can go further.
Starships going to Mars also need fueling as well. That spacecraft might have forty rooms, a storage room, and a shelter. The shelter protects astronauts from the Sun's ionizing radiation.
SpaceX wants Starship to replace the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon 2. Musk guessed a Starship launch should cost $2 million (United States dollars) and the mission's propellant cost should be about $900,000. Starship could carry 400 Starlink satellites into orbit. A Falcon 9 can carry only 60 Starlink satellites.
In the past, the Starship spacecraft was planned to only bring cargo and astronauts to Mars. However, as of 2021, SpaceX is planning many kinds of Starships that do different tasks. They are different from each other by having parts added, removed, or changed.
The Starship spacecraft is supposed to carry cargo to higher Earth orbits, the Moon, and Mars.
Launch and landing places
Starbase is being used (as of 2023) for launches of prototypes. Rockets might also launch from boats, or LC-39A. Starbase at Texas is where SpaceX makes and tests most Super Heavy and Starship. The launch boats are named Phobos and Deimos after the moons of Mars. They were oil platforms owned by Valaris.
All Starship launch and landing places will have a tower. It has a large crane placed on top that can lift Super Heavy and Starship. That tower also has a pair of steel arms that rotate at a hinge similar to claws. The claws can catch Super Heavy as well.
Some people living near Starbase blamed SpaceX for harming wildlife, building and testing things without permission, and making too much noise. However, many people come to visit and stay there. When asked, they said that watching and imagining Starships sending humans to Mars made them love the place.
Timeline
Note: The start dates are when rocket stages were first seen, and the end dates are when they are destroyed or not used anymore.
A spaceship and its booster rocket were destroyed in flight, as late as April 2023. "Ship 24" (spacecraft) and Booster 7 were used during that flight.
Early ideas
In 2005, Elon Musk talked about a launch vehicle named BFR, later known as the Falcon XX. The Falcon XX was never built. Unlike Starship, it could only fly up once. Falcon XX was going to use Merlin 2 engine, a larger version of the Merlin engine. The engines burns kerosene and liquid oxygen.
In September 2016, at the 67th IAC (International Astronautical Congress), Elon Musk talked about the ITS (Interplanetary Transport System). It was going to be tall and wide. The booster was going to have 42 Raptors, and the spacecraft was going to have 9 Raptors. Both the booster and spacecraft are made from carbon composites, and could launch many times. The ITS can carry humans to Mars and other places inside the Solar System. When the spacecraft enters Mars's atmosphere, it cools by transpiration. Transpiration here means the spacecraft flows propellant to the front side and evaporates the heat.
At the next IAC in September 2017, Musk announced the Big Falcon Rocket. It is sometimes called Big Fucking Rocket. In that IAC, he talked about moving people around Earth quickly with a Big Falcon Rocket. He called it Earth to Earth.
In November 2018, Musk tweeted about a new spacecraft design. It had three bottom flaps and two top flaps. Around that time, the present names of Starship parts were first used:
the booster stage was named Super Heavy;
the spacecraft stage was named Starship; and
the whole rocket was named Starship system or Starship.
In January 2019, Musk tweeted that Starship will be made from stainless steel instead of carbon composite. He explained that a stainless steel Starship is stronger than a carbon composite Starship. In March 2019, Musk tweeted again that Starships will have a heat shield made of tiles. The heat shield replaces transpiration cooling.
On 27 August 2019, Starhopper'', the first vehicle to use the Raptor, flew high. In October 2019, Starship's design had three Raptors and three Raptor Vacuum engines. There are only two bottom flaps in the new design. They are close to the heat shield's edges.