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Wikipedia dicit:

Starship is a super heavy-lift space vehicle under development by SpaceX. At 120 metres (394 feet) in height and with a liftoff mass of 5,000 metric tons (11,023,000 pounds), Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown, surpassing the Saturn V rocket of the 1960s Apollo Program.

The space vehicle consists of the first-stage Super Heavy booster and the second-stage spacecraft also named Starship. Both stages are powered by Raptor rocket engines, which burn liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellants in a full-flow staged combustion power cycle. Both are designed to be fully reusable, performing controlled landings on the launch tower and reflown within hours. Starship is designed to have a payload capacity of 150 tonnes (330,000 lb) to low Earth orbit in a fully reusable configuration and 250 t (550,000 lb) when expended. Starship vehicles in low Earth orbit are planned to be refilled with propellant launched in tanker Starships to enable transit to higher energy destinations such as geosynchronous orbit, the Moon, and Mars.

Plans for a heavy-lift vehicle at SpaceX date to 2005, with the earliest concept resembling the modern vehicle announced in 2016. SpaceX’s Starship development follows an iterative and incremental approach involving frequent, and often destructive, test flights of prototype vehicles. The first orbital test flight was attempted on 20 April 2023, when an anomaly caused the vehicle to tumble out of control four minutes after launch. SpaceX activated the flight termination system, which fired the explosive charges but did not destroy the vehicle. Approximately 40 seconds later both stages were destroyed due to increased aerodynamic forces. After the test, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded the launch program pending results of a standard “mishap investigation.”

SpaceX intends Starship to become its primary space vehicle, superseding the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles as well as the Dragon spacecraft currently used as part of NASA’s commercial crew program to the International Space Station. Starship is often coupled with the company’s Mars ambitions. Planned Starship flights include the development of SpaceX’s Starlink internet constellation, crewed flights under the Polaris and dearMoon programs, and a crewed lunar landing with a modified Starship spacecraft under the Artemis program.

Video credit: SpaceX

Wikipedia dicit:

Starship is a fully-reusable and super heavy-lift launch vehicle in development by SpaceX. Both of its stages – Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft – use liquid oxygen and liquid methane as propellant. Starship’s main features are its very high payload mass capability and low potential operating cost. A tanker variant spacecraft is planned that will refuel other Starships in orbit, increasing the 100 t (220,000 lb) transport range to higher energy orbits and destinations, including the Moon and Mars. The earliest Starship variant will deploy satellites, while later variants will also serve space tourists, or be optimised for lunar landings. Starship’s potentially low cost is key in enabling SpaceX’s Mars ambitions as well as making point-to-point rocket travel on Earth possible.

Starship will launch at Starbase, Kennedy Space Center, and two offshore launch platforms. It would launch upright, with the booster’s thirty-three Raptor engines operating in parallel. After Super Heavy separates, the spacecraft fires its three Raptor Vacuum and three sea-level engines, inserting itself into orbit. The booster then controls its descent via its four grid fins, targeting the launch tower’s arms. At the end of the mission, the Starship spacecraft de-orbits and enters the atmosphere, protected by a series of hexagonal heat shield tiles. The spacecraft then glides towards the landing site using its flaps for control and flips to land.

The rocket was first outlined by SpaceX as early as 2005, with frequent design and name changes as the concept matured. In July 2019, Starhopper, a prototype vehicle with extended fins acting as fixed landing legs, performed a 150 m (490 ft) low altitude test flight under the power of a single Raptor engine. In May 2021, Starship SN15 successfully flew to 10 km (6 mi), transitioning to horizontal free-fall before successfully landing for the first time after four failed attempts by previous prototypes. As of February 2022, the BN4 booster and SN20 spacecraft are scheduled for the first full-stack flight in early 2022, though this schedule is subject to change.

Video credit: SpaceX

SpaceX dicit:

On March 3, Starship serial number 10 (SN10) completed SpaceX’s third high-altitude flight test of a Starship prototype as it successfully ascended, transitioned propellant, and reoriented itself for reentry and an active aerodynamic controlled descent. SN10’s Raptor engines reignited to perform the vehicle’s landing flip maneuver immediately before successfully touching down on the landing pad.

Test flights such as SN10’s are about improving our understanding and development of a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo on long-duration interplanetary flights, and help humanity return to the Moon, and travel to Mars and beyond.

Video credit: SpaceX

Wikipedia dicit:

The SpaceX Starship system is a fully-reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX since 2012, as a self-funded private spaceflight project.

The second stage—which is also referred to as “Starship”—is being designed as a long-duration cargo, and eventually, passenger-carrying spacecraft. It is being used initially without any booster stage at all, as part of an extensive development program to prove out launch-and-landing and iterate on a variety of design details, particularly with respect to the vehicle’s atmospheric reentry. While the spacecraft is currently being tested on its own at suborbital altitudes during 2019–20, it will later be used on orbital launches with an additional booster stage, the Super Heavy, where the spacecraft will serve as both the second stage on the two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle and the in-space long-duration orbital spaceship.

Integrated system testing of a proof of concept for Starship began in March 2019, with the addition of a single Raptor rocket engine to a reduced-height prototype, nicknamed Starhopper – similar to Grasshopper, an equivalent prototype of the Falcon 9 reusable booster. Starhopper was used from April through August 2019 for static testing and low-altitude, low-velocity flight testing of vertical launches and landings in July and August 2019. More prototype Starships have been built and more are under construction as the iterative design goes through several iterations. All test articles have a 9-meter (30 ft)-diameter stainless steel hull.

SpaceX is planning to launch commercial payloads using Starship no earlier than 2021. In April 2020, NASA selected a modified human-rated Starship system as one of three potential lunar landing system design concepts to receive funding for a 10-month long initial design phase for the NASA Artemis program.

Video credit: SpaceX

Wikipedia dicit:

The SpaceX Starship is a fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX since 2012, as a self-funded private spaceflight project.

The second stage of the Starship — is designed as a long-duration cargo and passenger-carrying spacecraft. It is expected to be initially used without any booster stage at all, as part of an extensive development program to prove out launch-and-landing and iterate on a variety of design details, particularly with respect to the vehicle’s atmospheric reentry.

While the spacecraft will be tested on its own at suborbital altitudes, it will be used on orbital launches with an additional booster stage, the Super Heavy, where the spacecraft will serve as the second stage on a two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle.

Integrated system testing of a proof of concept for Starship began in March 2019, with the addition of a single Raptor rocket engine to a reduced-height prototype, nicknamed Starhopper — similar to Grasshopper, an equivalent prototype of the Falcon 9 reusable booster. Starhopper was used from April through August 2019 for static testing and low-altitude, low-velocity flight testing of vertical launches and landings in July and August 2019. More prototype Starships are under construction and are expected to go through several iterations. All test articles have a 9 metres (30 ft) of diameter stainless steel hull.

SpaceX is planning to launch commercial payloads using Starship no earlier than 2021. In April 2020, NASA selected a modified human rated Starship system as one of three lunar landing systems to receive funding for a 10-month long initial design phase for the Artemis program.

Video credit: SpaceX

Wikipedia dicit:

The SpaceX Starship is a fully reusable second stage and space vehicle being privately developed by SpaceX. It is being designed to be a long-duration cargo- and passenger-carrying spacecraft. While currently it is tested on its own, it will be used on orbital launches with an additional booster stage, the Super Heavy, where Starship would serve as the second stage on a two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle. The combination of spacecraft and booster is called Starship as well. Beginning in mid-2019, prototype versions are being flown with Starship as an independent rocket in its own right—without any launch vehicle booster stage at all—as part of an extensive suborbital flight testing program to get launch and landing working and iterate on a variety of design details, particularly with respect to atmospheric reentry of the vehicle.

Integrated system testing of Starship began in March 2019 with the addition of a single Raptor rocket engine to the first flight-capable propellant structure, Starhopper. Starhopper was used through August 2019 for static testing and low-altitude, low-velocity flight testing of vertical launches and landings in July/August. Two additional test articles, Starship orbital prototypes, are being built by competing teams in Texas and in Florida. They are planned to be used for high-altitude, high-velocity testing beginning in late 2019. All test articles have a 9-meter (30 ft)-diameter stainless steel hull.

Video Credit: SpaceX