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Add explanation and reference for identifying failed engines in images again.
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| name = Starship Flight Test
| name = Starship Flight Test
| image = StarshipLaunch.jpg
| image = StarshipLaunch.jpg
| image_caption = Fully stacked Starship vehicle during its first flight.
| image_caption = Fully stacked Starship vehicle during its first flight.
<!-- Note to Foonix0, who wrote in https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SpaceX_Starship_orbital_test_flight&diff=prev&oldid=1155933655: "It's not that simple. Engines in different failure modes may or may not produce light.)" Yes, failure may not result in a missing dot, but a missing dot is definitely a failed engine. So please don't revert again. Thank you! -->
Multiple failed engines can be identified by missing white dots.<ref name="missingenginedots">{{cite web |title=Why Did STARSHIP EXPLODE?! SpaceX Launch Frame By Frame Analysis--With Scott Walter|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6oTFHVRHv4|access-date=May 20, 2023 |language=en}}</ref>
| mission_type = [[Flight test]]
| mission_type = [[Flight test]]
| operator = [[SpaceX]]
| operator = [[SpaceX]]
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=== April 20 attempt ===
=== April 20 attempt ===
[[File:Starship engines during first orbital test flight. Failed engines can be identified as missing white dots.jpg|thumb|Starship engines during first orbital test flight.]]
[[File:Starship engines during first orbital test flight. Failed engines can be identified as missing white dots.jpg|thumb|Starship engines during first orbital test flight.
<!-- Note to Foonix0, who wrote in https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SpaceX_Starship_orbital_test_flight&diff=prev&oldid=1155933655: "It's not that simple. Engines in different failure modes may or may not produce light.)" Yes, failure may not result in a missing dot, but a missing dot is definitely a failed engine. So please don't revert again. Thank you! -->
Multiple failed engines can be identified by missing white dots.<ref name="missingenginedots"></ref>]]
[[File:Brownsville TX NWS Radar of Starship Launch.gif|thumb|The [[National Weather Service]] radar in Brownsville, Texas briefly showed the plume from the rocket's explosion]]
[[File:Brownsville TX NWS Radar of Starship Launch.gif|thumb|The [[National Weather Service]] radar in Brownsville, Texas briefly showed the plume from the rocket's explosion]]
A 62-minute launch window opened at 8:28&nbsp;a.m. CDT (13:28 UTC) on April 20, 2023.<ref name="sfn-20230417">{{cite news |last=Clark |first=Stephen |date=April 17, 2023 |title=SpaceX's Starship test flight delayed until Thursday after valve problem |publisher=Spaceflight Now |url=https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/04/17/spacexs-starship-test-flight-delayed-until-thursday-after-valve-problem/ |url-status=live |access-date=April 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419032444/https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/04/17/spacexs-starship-test-flight-delayed-until-thursday-after-valve-problem/ |archive-date=April 19, 2023}}</ref>
A 62-minute launch window opened at 8:28&nbsp;a.m. CDT (13:28 UTC) on April 20, 2023.<ref name="sfn-20230417">{{cite news |last=Clark |first=Stephen |date=April 17, 2023 |title=SpaceX's Starship test flight delayed until Thursday after valve problem |publisher=Spaceflight Now |url=https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/04/17/spacexs-starship-test-flight-delayed-until-thursday-after-valve-problem/ |url-status=live |access-date=April 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419032444/https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/04/17/spacexs-starship-test-flight-delayed-until-thursday-after-valve-problem/ |archive-date=April 19, 2023}}</ref>

Revision as of 15:45, 20 May 2023

This article is about the first attempt at orbital flight. For other Starship flights, see List of SpaceX Starship flight tests.

Starship Flight Test
Fully stacked Starship vehicle during its first flight. Multiple failed engines can be identified by missing white dots.[1]
Mission typeFlight test
OperatorSpaceX
Mission duration3 minutes, 59 seconds (achieved)
90–100 minutes (planned)
Orbits completed<1 (intended)
Failed to reach space
Start of mission
Launch dateApril 20, 2023, 13:33 UTC (08:33 a.m. CDT)[2]
RocketStarship
Launch siteSpaceX Starbase
ContractorSpaceX
End of mission
DestroyedApril 20, 2023, 13:37 UTC (08:37 a.m. CDT)
Orbital parameters
RegimeTransatmospheric Earth orbit (intended)
Periapsis altitude50 km (31 mi) (planned)
Apoapsis altitude250 km (160 mi) (planned)

On April 20, 2023, a prototype of SpaceX Starship was launched on its first orbital test flight. The vehicle exploded without reaching orbit less than four minutes after liftoff from the SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.[3] The vehicle became the tallest and most powerful rocket ever flown, with twice the thrust of the Saturn V super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed in the 1960s for the NASA Apollo program.[4][5]

The launch was part of SpaceX's Starship development program, which follows an iterative and incremental approach involving frequent—and often destructive—test flights of prototype vehicles.[6] Before the launch, SpaceX officials said they would measure the mission's success "by how much we can learn" and that various planned mission events "are not required for a successful test".[7] The flight was generally regarded as having furthered Starship's development, and a variety of public officials congratulated SpaceX, including NASA administrator Bill Nelson and European Space Agency Director General Josef Aschbacher.[8][9]

It was planned for the Starship spacecraft to complete nearly one orbit around the Earth before reentering the atmosphere, performing a controlled landing and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.[10] The Super Heavy booster was to have performed a similar landing in the Gulf of Mexico, about 20 mi (30 km) off the Texas coast approximately 8 minutes after liftoff.[10]

The rocket lifted off at at 08:33 CDT (13:33 UTC) from SpaceX's private launch site, Boca Chica, Texas, causing damage to the launch pad[11] and its surrounding infrastructure,[12] which SpaceX said was unexpected,[13] and some debris spread into Boca Chica State Park. Three engines did not start or aborted before liftoff, and several others failed during the flight.[14] The vehicle passed max q and entered supersonic flight, but, due to a lack of thrust or thrust vector control, no attempt was made at stage separation.[14] Starship tumbled and the autonomous flight termination system (AFTS) was activated but did not destroy the vehicle, which exploded 40 seconds later, nearly 4 minutes into the flight.[15][14]

After the test, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded the launch program pending results of a standard “mishap investigation” overseen by the agency and performed by SpaceX.[16] The FAA said that a return to flight would depend on the agency's determination that future launches would not affect public safety.[17] Researchers are assessing potential health and environmental impacts of the launch, which scattered dust and particulate matter beyond the expected debris field.[16]

Background

Starship

Further information: SpaceX Starship § Design
File:השוואה פאלקון כבד, סטורן 5, BFR.png
Comparison of early designs of Starship to Falcon Heavy and Saturn V

Starship is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by SpaceX.[18] The launch vehicle is the largest and most powerful ever developed with a projected 150 t (330,000 lb) of payload capacity in a fully reusable configuration, and with a height of 120 m (390 ft). The first stage of Starship is the most powerful rocket ever launched, as its 33 Raptor engines nominally generate more than 16,000,000 lbf (71 MN) of thrust. This is roughly twice that of NASA's Saturn V (7,750,000 lbf (34.5 MN)[19]) which flew between 1967 and 1973; more than NASA's SLS, which produced 8,800,000 lbf (39 MN) of thrust at liftoff in 2022; and well above the 10,000,000 lbf (44 MN) of thrust from the 30 engines that powered the Soviet Union's N1 rocket between 1969 and 1972.[20]

Both stages are designed to perform controlled landings at the launch site and be reflown multiple times. SpaceX plans to use the launch vehicle for launching satellites, space tourism, and interplanetary spaceflight.[21][22]

Development

Further information: SpaceX Starship § History, and List of SpaceX Starship flight tests

Starting in 2019, SpaceX built several prototypes for the upper stage and launched them a total of nine times, culminating with the launch of Starship SN15 on May 5, 2021 that completed a successful high-altitude flight test of six minutes.[23] SpaceX continued to build new upper stages, completed several first stages, and performed ground tests while waiting for governmental launch clearances.

In 2021, SpaceX filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission in which it described the planned first flight test of the Starship-Super Heavy booster stack. The application said that, after liftoff from Starbase, the booster would separate and land about 20 miles (30 km) offshore while Starship would continue flying east and land about 62 miles (100 km) off the Hawaiian island of Kauai.[24]

In June 2022, the environmental review of the launch site concluded with a "mitigated FONSI" (Finding of No Significant Impact) ruling, requiring the company to implement various mitigations to local wildlife and historical sites but otherwise permitting a launch license to be issued.[18]

On February 9, 2023, SpaceX performed a final static fire of the Super Heavy booster.[25] A flight readiness review was completed on April 8, 2023.[21] An April 11 launch rehearsal was canceled.[26] The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an orbital launch license for the vehicle on April 14, 2023.[27]

Opinions before launch

Before the launch, 27 organizations including the Sierra Club, South Texas Environmental Justice Network, Another Gulf is Possible, Voces Unidas, and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe signed a letter expressing their concerns and opposition to it. They cited gentrification and overpolicing of the area, wildlife habitat and native ceremony disruption, and risk of methane-emitting accidents, among others.[28]

Test objectives

SpaceX said it would measure the mission's success "by how much [SpaceX] can learn" and that completion of mission milestones were "not required for a successful test".[7] Before the April 20 launch, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk estimated a 50% chance for a successful test, saying that if the rocket gets "far enough away from the launchpad before something goes wrong, then I think I would consider that to be a success. Just don't blow up the launchpad."[29]

Launch

Flight profile

The spacecraft flight plan was to lift off from SpaceX's Starbase facility along the south Texas coast, then conduct a powered flight until reaching the desired transatmospheric Earth orbit, estimated to be around 250 × 50 km (155 × 31 mi), which would have caused Starship to re-enter the atmosphere after roughly 1 hour, 17 minutes of flight, nearly completing a full orbit.[30] The projected flight path would have been suborbital.[31]

Though both of Starship's rocket stages are eventually intended to be reusable, SpaceX planned to discard both stages at the end of this flight.[32]

The test flight consisted of prototype vehicles Ship 24 and Booster 7. Both the booster and the spacecraft would have performed controlled touchdowns on the ocean surface.[30] According to filings with the FCC, the booster would have performed a boostback burn and sought to land about 20 mi (32 km) offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, while the Starship spacecraft would have sought to land in the Pacific Ocean about 62 mi (100 km) northwest of Kauai.[33]

Planned mission timeline[30]
Time Event April 17 April 20
−02:00:00 SpaceX Flight Director conducts a poll and verifies go for propellant loading Success Success
−01:39:00 Super Heavy (booster) propellant load (liquid oxygen and liquid methane) underway Success Success
−01:22:00 Starship fuel loading (liquid methane) underway Success Success
−01:17:00 Starship oxidizer loading (liquid oxygen) underway Success Success
−00:16:40 Booster engine chill Success Success
−00:00:40 Fluid interfaces begin the venting sequence Not passed Resumed after hold
−00:00:08 Booster ignition sequence begins — Success
−00:00:06 First-stage engine ignition — Three engines failed to ignite
00:00:00 Liftoff — Successful liftoff, but causing significant damage to launch pad and imparing nearby facilities [34][35][36]
00:00:55 Max q (moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket) — Later and lower Max q than planned[37]
00:02:49 Main engine cutoff (MECO) — Not attempted[38]
00:02:52 Stage separation — Not attempted[13]
00:02:57 Starship ignition — —
00:03:11 Booster boostback burn startup — —
00:04:06 Booster boostback burn shutdown — —
00:07:32 Booster is transonic — —
00:07:40 Booster landing burn startup — —
00:08:03 Booster splashdown — —
00:09:20 Starship engine cutoff (SECO) — —
01:17:21 Starship atmospheric re-entry interface — —
01:28:43 Starship is transonic — —
01:30:00 Starship Pacific impact — —

April 17 attempt

The Starship and Super Heavy stack was loaded with propellant at Starbase and was set to launch at 13:20 UTC (8:20 a.m. CDT). However, the launch was aborted at T-8:05 due to a frozen pressurization valve on the Super Heavy booster that raised concerns about the pressurization of Booster 7. Before the abort, SpaceX launch control worked to fix the problem, aiming to proceed with a launch the same day. But the valve exhibited low responsiveness, therefore SpaceX changed the scheduled flight to a wet dress rehearsal that ended at T-40 seconds. SpaceX said it would need at least 48 hours to prepare for a second attempt.[39][40]

April 20 attempt

Starship engines during first orbital test flight. Multiple failed engines can be identified by missing white dots.[1]
The National Weather Service radar in Brownsville, Texas briefly showed the plume from the rocket's explosion

A 62-minute launch window opened at 8:28 a.m. CDT (13:28 UTC) on April 20, 2023.[41] At 08:33 CDT (13:33 UTC), the vehicle successfully lifted off, albeit while causing damage to the launch pad. Starship slid laterally off the launchpad, as three engines failed to ignite upon liftoff.[42]

Multiple Raptor engines failed during flight.[43][44] At about 27 seconds into the flight, SpaceX lost communications with another engine because of "some kind of energetic event".[42]

Eighty-five seconds into the launch, SpaceX lost thrust vector control of the 13 central engines and thus the ability to steer the rocket.[42] The vehicle rose to about 39 km (24 mi) before losing altitude and entering a spin,[45] after which its AFTS (autonomous flight termination system) was activated.[42] The AFTS was intended to immediately destroy the vehicle,[14] but the Starship did not disintegrate, with the booster engines continuing to fire, until 40 seconds after the AFTS was triggered,[42] about four minutes into the flight[9] at a height of 29 km (18 mi).[15] No injuries or public property damage were reported by the Federal Aviation Administration.[29]

Aftermath

Technical assessments

The launch was generally regarded as an important step in Starship's iterative and incremental developmental progress.[8][46][47] A variety of public officials and figures congratulated SpaceX on the outcome of the test flight, including NASA administrator Bill Nelson,[8] European Space Agency Director General Josef Aschbacher,[9] retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield,[37] and executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Dan Dumbacher.[44]

University of Chicago space historian Jordan Brimm said that "it fell somewhere between a small step and their hoped-for giant leap, but it still represents significant progress toward a reusable super-heavy lift rocket".[46] Bloomberg News space reporter Loren Grush said the explosion "highlights the challenges ahead for Musk's grandiose plan for Starship to open up space to human travel", and that beyond the engineering work required for Starship to successfully land, SpaceX will still need to work on Starship's life support systems and ability to refuel in outer space. Grush also described the booster's first takeoff as a "win", and noted that commercial rockets' first launches are rarely successful.[47] Ars Technica editor Eric Berger reported that launch industry officials believed that "getting the Super Heavy rocket and Starship upper stage off the launch pad was a huge success".[43]

According to Elon Musk, requalification of the flight termination system will be the main delay to the next launch, as despite the system activating and setting off the explosives, it "took way too long to rupture the tanks".[14]

Launch site

The launch pad was built without flame diverters, water deluge systems or sound suppression systems,[48] systems commonly used to prevent damage during liftoff. SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk tweeted in 2020, "Aspiring to have no flame diverter in Boca, but this could turn out to be a mistake."[49]

After the launch, photos showed damage to the concrete under the launch pad and to infrastructure at the launch site.[50] SpaceX video of the launch showed debris shooting into the ocean nearly half a mile away.[51] The rocket exhaust scattered debris for hundreds of yards, leaving a crater under its launch mount, and dented inert storage tanks near the launch pad.[51] Musk said large chunks of concrete hit the launch tower but caused no meaningful damage.[42]

On April 21, 2023—the day after the launch—Musk tweeted that SpaceX workers had planned three months earlier to add a "massive water-cooled steel plate" to the pad but that the team had "wrongly thought, based on static fire data, that [the concrete in use on the pad] would make it through the launch".[52]

SpaceX told NASA administrator Bill Nelson in April that it would take at least two months to rebuild the launchpad.[53] For the next launch, the company plans to put water-cooled steel plates under the launch mount.[42]

Impact on surrounding environment

Residents and researchers were "scrambling" after the launch to assess the launch's potential impact on local communities' health and wildlife.[54] Soon after the launch, residents of Port Isabel, Texas, a town roughly 6.5 miles (10.5 km) from the launch site, reported particulate matter falling from the sky.[55] A Port Isabel spokesperson called the debris a "thick, granular, sand grain that just landed on everything", adding that the debris posed no "immediate concern" to resident health.[48] Several Port Isabel residents reported shaking and shattered windows.[48][56] Representatives of the Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity expressed concerns regarding the particulate matter's possible effects on Port Isabel residents and endangered species' health; the representatives also said the blast caused road damage that blocked wildlife biologists from investigating the launch site until April 22, two days after the launch.[54]

GOES-16 satellite image of South Texas taken at the time of Starship flight

The US Fish and Wildlife Service's Texas Division reported that the launch scattered debris across 385 acres (156 ha) on SpaceX property and Boca Chica State Park, deposited pulverized concrete dust up to 6.5 miles (10.5 km) northwest, and started a wildfire that burned 3.5 acres (1.4 ha) of state parkland to the south of the pad.[57] Olivier de Weck, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets and a MIT professor, said that much of the dust and debris could have been better contained by flame trenches diverting the engine blast underground or a "pipeline ... bring[ing] seawater" to the launch site.[58] (de Weck nevertheless called the event "more of a success than a failure".[11]) Similarly, Eric Roesch, an expert in environmental compliance and risk assessment, criticized SpaceX for not disclosing the launch's potential risks and for failing to use a trench or water system to dampen the launch's impact.[48] Roesch said that a chemical analysis would be required to determine whether the dust and debris would be harmful to health.[48] A pre-launch FAA assessment stated there would be "no significant impact" on the region.[48] After the launch, SpaceX activated the FAA required "anomaly response plan", but otherwise refused to comment on the situation.[59][48]

The US Fish and Wildlife Service's Texas division said it had not found evidence of dead birds or wildlife,[57] though Texas Public Radio reported finding a charred quail's nest.[60] Biologist David Newstead suggested that the delay in conducting a survey may have skewed the result, noting, for example, that predators would be likely to consume "[a] dead bird on the flats ... [within] an hour".[61] Justin LeClaire, a biologist who was allowed into the area 54 hours after launch, said that SpaceX has "altered a habitat on a wildlife refuge", and that it would take time to understand the effects.[61]

On May 1, 2023, ten days after the launch, four environmental groups—the Center for Biological Diversity, Surfrider Foundation, American Bird Conservancy, and Save Rio Grande Valley (Save RGV)—and the Carrizo Comecrudo Nation of Texas jointly sued the FAA for having granted SpaceX a launch license.[62][63]

FAA investigation

After the flight test, the FAA reported that it would oversee SpaceX's own investigation into the mishap, a standard practice when a vehicle was lost in flight.[64] The agency grounded Starship flights pending conclusion of the investigation, also a standard practice,[54][65] and said that "a return to flight of the Starship/Super Heavy vehicle is based on the FAA determining that any system, process or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety" and that there were no reports of injuries or public property damage.[29][17] The FAA also announced that it would monitor the clean up, which included the standard removal of launch debris from "sensitive habitats".[66]

See also

References

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25°59′46″N 97°09′16″W / 25.99611°N 97.15444°W / 25.99611; -97.15444

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