SpaceX Starship page

FAQ

  1. When (first) orbital flight? First integrated flight test occurred April 20, 2023. “The vehicle cleared the pad and beach as Starship climbed to an apogee of ~39 km over the Gulf of Mexico – the highest of any Starship to-date. The vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude, and began to tumble. The flight termination system was commanded on both the booster and ship.”
  2. Where can I find streams of the launch? SpaceX Full Livestream. NASASpaceFlight Channel. Lab Padre Channel. Everyday Astronaut Channel.
  3. What’s happening next? SpaceX has assessed damage to Stage 0 and is implementing fixes and changes including a water deluge/pad protection/“shower head” system. No major repairs to key structures appear to be necessary.
  4. When is the next flight test? Just after flight, Elon stated they “Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.” On April 29, he reiterated this estimate in a Twitter Spaces Q&A (summarized here), saying “I’m glad to report that the pad damage is actually quite small,” should “be repaired quickly,” and “From a pad standpoint, we are probably ready to launch in 6 to 8 weeks.” Requalifying the flight termination system (FTS) and the FAA post-incident review will likely require the longest time to complete. Musk reiterated the timeline on May 26, stating “Major launchpad upgrades should be complete in about a month, then another month of rocket testing on pad, then flight 2 of Starship.”
  5. Why no flame diverter/flame trench below the OLM? Musk tweeted on April 21: “3 months ago, we started building a massive water-cooled, steel plate to go under the launch mount. Wasn’t ready in time & we wrongly thought, based on static fire data, that Fondag would make it through 1 launch.” Regarding a trench, note that the Starship on the OLM sits 2.5x higher off the ground than the Saturn V sat above the base of its flame trench, and the OLM has 6 exits vs. 2 on the Saturn V trench.

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Quick Links

RAPTOR ROOST | LAB CAM | SAPPHIRE CAM | SENTINEL CAM | ROVER CAM | ROVER 2.0 CAM | PLEX CAM | NSF STARBASE

Starship Dev 46 | Starship Dev 45 | Starship Dev 44 | Starship Dev 43

Official Starship Update | r/SpaceX Update Thread

Status

Road Closures

Type Start (UTC) End (UTC) Status
Primary 2023-08-04 13:00:00 2023-08-05 01:00:00 Possible
Alternative 2023-08-06 13:00:00 2023-08-07 01:00:00 Possible
Alternative 2023-08-07 13:00:00 2023-08-08 01:00:00 Possible

Up to date as of 2023-08-04

Vehicle Status

As of July 28th 2023

Follow Ring Watchers on Twitter and Discord for more.

Ship Location Status Comment
S15 Rocket Garden Scrapped
S20 Rocket Garden Retired
S24 Gulf of Mexico Destroyed Destroyed on during Flight Test 1
S25 Launch Site Testing Spin Prime and Static Fire
S26 Rocket Garden Resting No fins or heat shield, plus other changes.
S27 Rocket Garden Scrapped Common dome imploded
S28 Rocket Garden Pending Raptor install Previously tested at Masseys
S29 High Bay 1 Under construction
S30 Build Site Under construction
S31 Build Site Parts under construction Assorted parts spotted through S34.

 

Booster Location Status Comment
Pre-B7 & B8 Scrapped or Retired B4 is in the Rocket Garden, the rest are scrapped.
B7 Gulf of Mexico Destroyed Destroyed April 20th in Flight Test 1
B9 Mega bay Pending raptor swap and hot-stage ring install Static fire (August 5th)
B10 Masseys Testing Cryo testing
B11 Rocket Garden Resting
B12 Megabay Raceways installed
B13 Build Site Parts under construction
B14 Build Site Parts under construction
B15 Build Site Parts under construction

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Resources

  • LettuceTurnipTheBeetEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

    Starbase live-

    12:36am- Lift goes up to the stabilizer arm again

    12:47am- Lift goes down

    1:26am- Lift back up at the draw works shed. Sparks flying

    2:02am- Lift go up to S25

    2:43am- Lift at S25 goes down

    3:47am- Lift at the draw works goes down. About half done.

    5:20am- Pump truck folds up. Pour done

    6:54am- Lift back up at the draw works shed

    8:08am- Lift goes back down. About 3/4 done.

    8:11am- New medium lift crane arrives at the right side of OLM

    8:18am- Lift back up at S25 and right back down after a few minutes

    8:53am- Piece of equipment lifted to the top of the OLM. (Blue, boxed shape, not quite sure what it was)

    9:06am- Lift goes back up to the draw works

    9:13am- Another piece of equipment is lifted to the bottom of the Cryo pipe leg.

    9:47am- 2 lifts go up to S25

    9:55am- Small rectangular piece of metal lifted to the top of the OLM

    10:14am- Piece of metal that was just lifted is removed

    10:21am- Lift at the draw works goes down

    10:31am- Lift goes back up

    10:32am- Piece of metal goes back up. Needed some fine tuning?

    10:41am- Similar shaped piece gets lifted up

    10:55am- 3rd piece of metal goes up

    11:15am- Piece of pipe lifted up to the new door

    11:34am- Another piece of pipe goes up

    11:42am- Lifts go down at S25

    11:58am- Lift at the draw works goes down

    12:16pm- Lift goes back up at S25

    1:16pm- Lift goes back up to the draw works shed

    3:30pm- Short piece of metal beam lifted to the top of the OLM.

    3:57pm- Basket goes up to the new door

    4:05pm- Basket goes down

    4:41pm- Lift at the draw works shed goes down. Looks like all of the damaged siding is now removed. (Took a total of 9 hours and 44 minutes to remove it)

    5:26pm- Forklift lowers sheet of metal into the deluge feed pipe pit

    7:24pm- Purge of the deluge pressure system

    8:03pm- Lifts at S25 have gone down

    8:04pm- Next mega bay section and booster stand are on the move

    8:19pm- Cop at the roadblock? Stopped traffic long enough for the booster stand to move down Hwy 4 and turn on Eichorn

    8:37pm- Booster stand went over for storage by the raptor install stand

    8:47pm- Lifts go back up to S25

    (This gets synced)