Starship

SpaceX’s first integrated Starship vehicle lifted off from the Starbase test site at Boca Chica, Texas, on 2023-04-20 at 9:33 a.m. Eastern.

The 2023-04-20 test flight was a development test not designed to reach orbit and was intended to follow a long suborbital trajectory with Starship splashing down near Hawaii about 90 minutes after liftoff.

SpaceX aims to reach 90% thrust during the Starship launch, a thrust level equivalent to the force needed to propel almost 100 Concorde supersonic airliners during takeoff.

SpaceX scrubbed the 2023-04-17 launch attempt of its integrated Starship vehicle and Super Heavy booster from its Starbase test site at Boca Chica, Texas.

The June 2022 environmental review required SpaceX to carry out more than 75 mitigations related to Starship launches from Boca Chica.

The FAA concluded an environmental review of Starship launches from Boca Chica in June 2022.

The Starship vehicle was fully stacked on the pad at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, as of 2023-04-06.

SpaceX is planning a launch rehearsal for the Starship vehicle at its Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, the week following 2023-04-06, followed by a first integrated flight test about a week later pending regulatory approval.

SpaceX will use the Starship launch and landing system for the mission carrying Astrolab’s FLEX rover as soon as mid-2026.

Artemis 3 is scheduled to launch no earlier than December 2025 pending development of SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander and new lunar spacesuits by Axiom Space.

SpaceX is building a Starship launch pad at Launch Complex 39A and has constructed a launch tower that overshadows the existing Falcon pad.

SpaceX intends to launch the ultimate 2,000-kilogram V2 Starlink satellites on its Starship vehicle.

Artemis 4 will feature a lunar landing using SpaceX’s Starship, will use the lunar Gateway, and will be the first launch of the upgraded Block 1B version of SLS with additional payload capacity used to deliver the I-Hab habitation module to the Gateway.

SpaceX’s plans to deploy larger, more powerful Starlink satellites are tied to regulatory approval and successful tests of the Starship heavy launch vehicle being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

The NASA manifest in the fiscal year 2024 budget documents shows Artemis 3 launching in December 2025 and including the first human lunar landing of Artemis using SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander and spacesuits developed by Axiom Space.

NASA expects Artemis 3 to launch about a year after Artemis 2, contingent on progress with SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander and Axiom Space’s new spacesuits.

SpaceX acquired two oil rigs that it renamed Phobos and Deimos with the intent to convert them into offshore launch platforms for its Starship vehicle and later sold the rigs.

For NASA's moon program, SpaceX would launch a Starship to low Earth orbit to serve as a fuel depot for vehicles traveling to and from the lunar surface.