Starship ORBITAL prototype

Starship ORBITAL prototype is a progressive build, test and modify design Philosophy by SpaceX to produce a fully reusable system based on a Stainless Steel design, the main 'Super Heavy' booster 1st stage will use no less than 33(was35) Raptor 2 engines at its base.

The first Starship to achieve almost orbit(was achievable but was suborbital for safety reasons) was Starship 'Integrated Flight Test 3' (IFT3) using Booster 10 and Starship 28 on the 14th March 2024, this test was sucfull despite both booster 10 and Starship 28 failing to land.

Booster 11 and Starship 30 'IFT4'' will also be suborbital with Starship 30 planning to land in the Indian Ocean in May 2024.

15 Starship prototypes from Starhopper, MK1 through to SN21 each progressively more capable between 2019/2022.

PLEASE NOTE: The rapid design, build and Test reiteration philosophy of SpaceX means that often design features and specifications for the Starship System also rapidly change so this and other Starship pages are a snapshot of what is current at the time of writing.

Starship SN20 and B4 stacked on launch mount (6th Aug 2021)

Starship SN20 Raptor engines

The three large engines are optimised for vacuum use in space only.

From Texas to Hawaii: SpaceX plans first orbital Starship test

SpaceX plans to have its first Starship test flight to orbit launch from Texas and splash down off the coast of an island in Hawaii before the end of 2024.

The orbital flight test would mark the first time SpaceX stacks both elements of its massive Starship system together.

A Super heavy booster stage B4 will launch Starship SN20 from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, facilities and separate in midair nearly three minutes into flight. About five minutes later, that booster stage will return back to Earth and splash down in the Gulf of Mexico — or as SpaceX puts it: it will “perform a partial return and land in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 20 miles from the shore.”

Starship (the top half of the entire rocket system) will continue into orbit, nearly completing a full trip around Earth before plunging back through the atmosphere over Hawaii roughly 90 minutes after launching from Texas. Starship will aim to nail a “powered, targeted landing” on the ocean about 62 miles off the northwest coast of Kauai, the state’s northernmost island.

Work is continuing on what will hopefully become the first orbit-capable Starship prototype is being assembled allong with the Launch Support Tower at SpaceX's new launch site at Starbase Boca Chica Beach in South Texas also where the StarHopper was constructed.

Starship ORBITAL prototype will have 6 Raptor engines. (MK1 and MK2 will have just 3 Raptors)

Starship Prototype (with three Raptor Engine)

The maiden Starship ORBITAL prototype Test launch was aiming for the last few months of 2019 going towards a 21Km level from SpaceX private Boca Chica Beach launch site. Starship SN15 finally successful hop test flight was on 5th May 2021.

The Full first Orbital test flight hopefully in 2020(Now July 2021)

History

MK1 Starchip was scrapped with out flying likewise the MK2 Starship ORBITAL prototype that was in construction in Cocoa Florida as well as what appears to be the first SuperHeavy booster test vehicle and a Starship Launchpad is being added to KSC 39A in preparation for the Starship flights.

MK3, MK4(SN4) and MK5(SN5) Starship prototypes had just 1 Raptor engine.

Mk3 was started from Oct 2019 at Boca Chica with a Raptor engine using a much faster design production than MK1 and MK2 using lighter thickness Stainless Steel with a single weld per ring.

Full Elon Musk 28 September 2019 Starship update

Progress so far

MK1 at Boca Chica in Texas

MK2 at Cocoa Florida

StarShip ORBITAL prototype 9 May 2019 (Boca Chica)

Built using Stainless steel the Starship ORBITAL prototype will be the first test article may use SpaceX's porous heat shielding know as a transpiration heat shield or currently some new ceramic heat shield tile technology being tested in space on CRS-18 Cargo Dragon(July 2019).

It is targeted for its first test NET Sept 2019.

part of Starship ORBITAL prototype 8 April 2019

Transpiration cooling is a thermodynamic process where cooling is achieved by a process of moving a liquid or a gas through the wall of a structure to absorb some portion of the heat energy from the structure while simultaneously actively reducing the convective heat flux going into a body, to serve as a part of the thermal protection system of the re-entering spacecraft.