Starship

SpaceX’s Starship SN3 prototype was destroyed at the company’s Boca Chica, Texas test site on 2020-04-03 during a cryogenic tanking test when the vehicle appeared to crumple about halfway up and the top part toppled.

SpaceX was preparing to perform a static-fire test with Starship SN3 had the 2020-04-03 tanking test been successful.

SpaceX plans Starship launches from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center and from its Boca Chica facility in Texas.

SpaceX published a six-page user’s guide for Starship that describes the baseline reusable design as able to place more than 100 metric tons into low Earth orbit and 21 metric tons into a geostationary transfer orbit.

Starship SN1 appeared to come apart near the bottom during the 2020-02-28 pressurization test, sending the top section flying and producing a second burst after that section hit the ground.

SpaceX decided not to fly the Starship 2020-03-01 test article and focused development on Mk3 builds designed for orbit.

SpaceX had not received a launch license or experimental permit from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation for a suborbital Starship test flight but had filed two Federal Communications Commission applications for telemetry and vehicle radar operations requesting six-month periods of operations starting in mid-March.

Photographs taken the day after 2020-02-28 showed that little of Starship SN1 survived the pressurization test.

SpaceX later renamed Starship 2020-03-03 to Starship SN1.

Elon Musk supports other companies building fully reusable vehicles like Starship to create a more competitive launch industry.

SpaceX has filed applications for Federal Communications Commission licenses for telemetry and radar operations related to suborbital test flights of Starship SN1 but has not obtained a Federal Aviation Administration launch license or experimental permit required for such flights.

SpaceX previously had an agreement with the Port of Los Angeles in 2018 to lease the same property to build a factory for its Big Falcon Rocket, now known as Starship and Super Heavy.

On 2020-02-20, Elon Musk posted video of a nearly completed high bay at Boca Chica that will be used for vertical stacking of Starship sections.

SpaceX argues that Starship is no riskier than the launch systems being developed by the LSA winners, which SpaceX describes as conceptual launch solutions that have not been built, tested, launched, or certified for any missions.

SpaceX performed a short, low-altitude test flight of a Starship prototype called Starhopper in August 2019 at Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX renamed its next Starship prototype SN1 rather than Starship 2020-03-03.

A separate SpaceX team in Florida was working on a Starship prototype called 2019-03-02 that appeared to be nearing completion based on site images.

SpaceX’s Starship 2019-03-01 prototype was damaged on 2019-11-20 during a tanking (pressurization) test at the Boca Chica, Texas, test site.