Starship

The Starship test flights are intended to improve development of a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo on long-duration interplanetary flights and to support return missions to the Moon and travel to Mars and beyond.

SpaceX Starship SN15 completed a brief suborbital flight on 2021-05-05.

NASA selected Starship for its Human Landing System competition on 2021-04-16 and awarded a $2,900,000,000 contract to fund development of the lander version of Starship and one crewed flight to the lunar surface.

Starship SN15 lifted off from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas test site at 6:24 p.m. Eastern on 2021-05-05.

SpaceX Starship serial number 15 (SN15) successfully completed a high-altitude flight test on 2021-05-05.

SpaceX intends to provide a consistent global connectivity business by late 2021 and to use its larger Starship rocket to carry people within five years.

SpaceX raised $850,000,000 on 2021-02-23, to support investments in its Starlink satellite broadband constellation and reusable launch vehicle Starship.

Starship SN10 appeared to land intact on 2021-03-03 but exploded less than 10 minutes later after helium bubbles in the header fuel tank were ingested by the engines, preventing sufficient thrust and causing a high-speed landing that led to subsequent damage and explosion.

Starship SN9 launched on 2021-02-02 and exploded upon landing after one Raptor engine failed to ignite for the landing, causing a high-speed, angled impact.

Starship SN11 lifted off from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, test site on 2021-03-30 and climbed to 10 km altitude before attempting a landing.

SpaceX launched the Starship SN11 prototype on 2021-03-30 from its Boca Chica, Texas test site.

All four Starship prototype flights to 10 km or more since early December 2020 were lost on landing or shortly thereafter.

The FAA’s revised license for the Starship test series dated 2021-03-12 requires an FAA inspector to be present at Boca Chica for the tests.

The 2021-03-30 Starship SN11 flight was the fourth Starship prototype flight to 10 km or more since early 2020-12-01.

SpaceX planned to launch the SN11 Starship vehicle on 2021-03-29 from its Boca Chica, Texas, test site.

Since the beginning of the 2021 fiscal year there have been six commercial launch mishaps, including three Starship test flights that ended in explosion upon or shortly after landing; a failed Falcon 9 landing at sea during a successful launch on 2021-02-15; Astra’s Rocket 3.2 launch in December that just missed reaching orbit; and an aborted December test flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo.

When launched with the Super Heavy booster, Starship will be able to place more than 100 metric tons into low Earth orbit.

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa purchased a flight of the Starship vehicle in September 2018 for a circumlunar mission called dearMoon scheduled for 2023.