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To Orbit, the Moon, and Beyond: The Status of Starship

To Orbit, the Moon, and Beyond: The Status of Starship
12 min read
#Technology
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The Starship is the largest rocket ever to have been launched in the history of mankind, and its primary purpose is to one day shuttle humans to the lunar and Martian colonies that it established. We are, of course, a long way to that dream, but with every passing day and new experiment, we bring ourselves closer and closer to the dream of human exploration beyond orbit. After the lunar landings during the height of the Cold War, humans have never returned, but the Starship program hopes to change that.

The Development Timeline

The rocket was developed by SpaceX, founded by billionaire Elon Musk, whose company was the first private operation to launch payloads and humans to orbit and back. In November 2005, sometime before the launch of the Falcon 1 (SpaceX’s first rocket), Elon Musk floated several concepts for a massive spaceship capable of launching large payloads at minimal cost. They decided that the most promising way of launching cargo into space at a reduced cost was via economies of scale, where rocket stages were reused, shortening the time between launch and recovery, upping the total tonnage sent to space, amongst others. Between 2005 and 2021 (the initial launch of Starship), technologies and techniques to operate at a large scale were thoroughly developed through the Falcon 9 program. In 2019, the design was officially given the name of Starship at its official presentation at Boca Chica Texas-where the ships are now launched. The initial tests of the Starship officially began when the Starhopper, a miniaturized version of what was to become the upper stage, performed several test fires of its main engines. The Starhopper tests culminated in 2019 when the ship was launched to an altitude of ~500 feet and landed shortly after as a proof-of-concept flight for its proclaimed ability to autonomously land. After the first series of prototypes, the company began building full-scale models of the upper stage with each configuration and iteration being named with the prefix “SN” to differentiate between models. Below is a series of each prototype and the tests conducted on them.

  • SN-1. The prototype of Starship. It was designed purely for suborbital test flights that necessitated the removal of the forward pair of fins. The craft was destroyed on November 20, 2019, during a pressure test.
  • SN-2. It was built around the same timeframe as the SN-1 but was never completed.
  • SN-3. The first Starship model designed for high-altitude flight testing was destroyed on April 3 2020 due to a fault in the setup for the text.
  • SN-4. Subjected to cryogenic pressure tests and made it out unscathed along with two stationary ignitions of the main engines. Was ultimately wrecked by a methane fuel pump leak igniting and causing a tremendous explosion on May 29, 2020
  • SN-5/6. The first models to lift off the ground and both reached an altitude of 150 meters on separate flights. Both ships were subsequently scrapped.
  • SN-8. First in a series of high-altitude flights. SN-8 was able to take off on December 9 2020 but crashed and exploded due to low pressure in the fuel tanks preventing the thrust needed to land properly.
  • SN-9. Underwent several test fires within a short period without significant damage. On February 2, 2021, the ship conducted a 10km high flight which ended with a crash due to engine failure.
  • SN-10. Carried out pressure tests, simulated launches, and further test fires. On March 3 of the same year, the ship came in at a speed of 10m/s, resulting in a hard landing that crushed the landing legs. After eight minutes the ship detonated due to helium ingestion into the rocket.
  • SN-11. Accomplished the standard pressure tests and several test fires. Like its predecessor it underwent a 10km flight test including engine cutoffs, flipping it around several times, and control of its flaps. Disintegrated upon contact with the ground due to a faulty engine igniting too late into the landing burn
  • SN-12/13/14. NONE OF THE THREE WERE EVER LAUNCHED.
  • SN-15. THE PROTOTYPE CAME WITH UPGRADED COMPUTERS AND A NEW ENGINE CONFIGURATION. MORE TESTS FOLLOWED, ENDING WITH ANOTHER 10KM FLIGHT ON MAY 5, 2021, WHICH LANDED WITHOUT DIFFICULTY. NOTABLE FOR BEING THE FIRST STARSHIP TO ACHIEVE A SUCCESSFUL FLIGHT AND RECOVERY. IT WAS SCRAPPED IN 2023.

After the preliminary tests of the upper stage were completed, the company took the next step with real-time testing with the Integrated Flight Tests (IFTs). The IFTs were designed to test every aspect of the Starship that will be necessary in future operations. The tests were a part of the company’s unique approach to experimenting with new technologies; they launched fast, often, and used an incremental approach to ensure that the end result will be of maximum quality. As a consequence, on April 20, 2023, the first official test of the Starship was begun with IFT-1. The goal of the mission was simple: See how far the ship can go on its first attempt, and then improve from there.

The very first IFT was originally set to launch on April 17, but was canceled due to a pressure valve that was discovered to be frozen. The second attempt three days later however, was able to initiate launch procedures without any issues. Immediately after engine start though, is when things began to go awry. Three of the 33 engines failed to ignite, resulting in the ship sliding slightly before taking off due to the imbalance of thrust. Even more worryingly was the failure of multiple engines during flight, presumably they were knocked out due to an assumed hydraulic explosion within the engine area. Despite the loss of what was now eight engines within two minutes of liftoff, the Starship managed to climb to an altitude of 24 miles (39km) where another five engines were lost, bringing the total down to only 20 controllable engines to work with. Shortly after the ship started losing altitude and entered a tailspin the AFTS (Automatic Flight Termination System) was triggered to explode the ship, but the vehicle continued falling until around 18 miles up when it finally disintegrated four minutes after launch.

In the aftermath of the launch, the launch pad, built predominantly out of concrete and without a flame trench, water suppression systems, and other critical components, was destroyed, with pieces of concrete scattered throughout a milewide radius. Overall, it is generally agreed that the flight in and of itself was a success, given the expectations placed upon the first-ever test. As expected the second IFT had higher expectations placed upon it, as several corrective measures were taken to ensure that similar events were not going to happen again. Several of the many modifications included the aforementioned launch pad upgrades and the introduction of a new flight regime with the addition of the “Hot Staging” step (where the engines for the upper stage are lit before separation) amongst others.

IFT-2 began on November 18, 2023, at 13:02 UTC when the huge rocket lifted off once more. Immediately there were several notable changes from the first launch; All of the 33 engines were lit and fully functioning, and the launchpad suffered only minor damage and was refurbished quickly afterward. The Starship soared past Max-q (point of maximum stress on the airframe) and all eyes were turned to the rocket when the Starship and its booster successfully separated two minutes and 41 seconds after liftoff.

The next stage of the flight was with the separated booster performing a boost-back ignition to turn around and fall to earth. Things began to go wrong however when several engines in the booster failed to re-ignite, starting a chain reaction of engine failures that led to the Superheavy booster exploding three minutes and 21 seconds into the flight. The Starship itself was able to keep all engines running passed the Karman line (boundary between Earth and space) and became the first Starship to reach past the atmosphere.

The preliminary success was then overshadowed by the loss of communication at around eight minutes past launch and the subsequent detection of a debris cloud falling at its designated re-entry point.

A post-launch analysis by SpaceX concluded that a planned vent of extra liquid oxygen (to simulate a payload) led to a series of explosions and shutdowns of engines and computers that triggered the AFTS to destroy the craft. Like its predecessor, IFT-2 was generally regarded as a success in that they were able to separate the stages without an explosion, push the ship past the boundary of space, and relit most engines before inevitable failure could happen. To address the issues faced by the IFT-2 the company introduced 17 new modifications that included an electric thrust vectoring system in place of the hydraulic one used previously and delaying fuel dumping until after the second stage engine cutoff (SECO).

This set the stage for IFT-3, the most recent test flight, on March 14, 2024, when it launched at 8:25 EST. Between the modifications, launch applications, and investigation that followed the explosion of the second Starship lots of excitement had built up, and the mission goal was certainly ambitious. As with the previous two attempts, the objective was to reach orbital velocity and safely splash down in the ocean. So, at 8:25 AM the rocket once again roared to life, with all 33 engines running, and rose from its launchpad in Texas. This time around, the ship passed all the milestones laid by its forerunners flawlessly. As the ship passed stage separation, the booster started its planned descent into the Indian Ocean when upon the supposed reignition of the booster, only three of the 13 engines that were supposed to be lit were activated. The loss of thrust resulted in the vessel plunging to the ground at supersonic speeds, resulting in the termination system destroying the ship a few hundred meters off the ground. The Starship carried on however, and reached a speed that permitted an orbital trajectory (it was never intended to do an orbit due to concerns that it could be stranded), where it then opened its payload doors.

The opening of the doors is contested by some due to an apparent issue with the doors on the live stream of the test; SpaceX claims that the door tests were a success. Once all in-flight tests were completed, the Starship was to be brought down for a water landing after the reentry process was completed. But once the procedure for atmospheric entry was started, spectators of the launch could not ignore one huge issue with the Starship, it was rolling without control. The Starship is covered with heat-resistant tiles that can withstand the heat of re-entry, but it only covers the underside of the ship, leaving only the stainless steel in other areas should they be exposed to the plasma. Eventually, 49:05 minutes after takeoff, all communications were lost with the ship, and the IFT-3 was lost, likely due to disintegration due to hot gas penetrating the bowels of the ship.

The Next Attempt

At this moment in time, IFT-4 is scheduled to launch in May, representing the ever-increasing turnaround for the Starship program. The proposed objectives are for the Booster to “land” upright in the ocean, and the Starship to survive atmospheric reentry as it nearly did in the previous attempt. If the Superheavy manages to successfully accomplish a landing, the next IFT could involve the booster flying back to the launchpad to be “caught” and reused. Whatever the results of tests may be, the future is certain; Starship will be at the forefront of humanity’s attempt to push the boundaries of mankind’s frontiers, it is now just a matter of time.

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