Starship | Integrated Flight Test

Launch Failure

After liftoff, the vehicle sustained fires from leaking propellant in the aft end of the Super Heavy booster, severing connection with the vehicle’s primary flight computer. This led to a loss of communications to most of the booster engines and eventually control of the vehicle. After the second stage failed to separate from the first stage, the vehicle reached an apogee of ~39km before tumbling downwards until the flight termination system was activated. Unexpected severe damage was also imparted on the launch pad.

L - -- : -- : -- : --


Launch Window

April 20, 2023, 1:28 p.m. - April 20, 2023, 2:30 p.m.

Get it on Google Play Get it on App Store

Watch the Launch

Additional Media

Starship Flight Test

SpaceX is targeting as soon as Monday, April 17 for the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Starbase in Texas. The 1...

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.

Integrated Flight Test

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Suborbital
Mission: Test Flight

Suborbital Orbital Launch Mount A SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA
Booster 7 - Gulf of Mexico

Maiden flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle. The booster was supposed to separate 170 seconds into flight and return to land approximately 32 km off the shore in the Gulf of Mexico. The second stage would have followed a suborbital trajectory and performed an unpowered splashdown approximately 100 km off the northwest coast of Kauai (Hawaii). A launch failure was experienced before stage separation.

Telemetry

Launch trajectory and telemetry simulations provided by Flight Club - a rocket launch simulator and orbital trajectory visualiser for all things space!

View in Flightclub

Updates
Nosu • April 20, 2023, 1:43 p.m.

Launch failure

Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1wcilQ58hI
Nosu • April 20, 2023, 1:33 p.m.

Liftoff

Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1wcilQ58hI
Nosu • April 20, 2023, 1:32 p.m.

Resuming countdown

Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1wcilQ58hI
Load More

Starship

Family:
Configuration:

Fully reusable two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle.

See Details
Specifications
  • Stages
    2
  • Length
    120.0 m
  • Diameter
    9.0 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    ―
  • Launch Mass
    5000 T
  • Thrust
    72000 kN
Family
  • Name
    Starship
  • Family
    ―
  • Variant
    ―
  • Alias
    ―
  • Full Name
    Starship
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    ―
  • Low Earth Orbit
    100000 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    21000 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
    ―
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity
    ―

Booster Info

Booster 7

Type: Core
Flight Proven: No
First Flight: April 20, 2023
Last Flight: April 20, 2023
Flights: 1

Landing Information

Booster 7 was expected to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico following the maiden flight of Starship, but was lost in a launch failure during ascent.

Core will be expended.

Ship 24

Active Cargo Unmanned Payload Capacity: 100000 kg
Destination: Pacific Ocean
Serial Number: S24

Ship 24 (S24) used for the first integrated flight test. Lost in a launch failure.

Starship Details

SpaceX

SpaceX

(SpX)

CEO: Elon Musk Founded: 2002 Successes: 370 Failures: 11 Pending: 129

Agency Type:

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

INFO WIKI

Related News

NASASpaceflight

Starship’s 2023: after a year filled with milestones, Starship looks ahead to an exciting future

The Starship Program had its biggest year to date in 2023, with two full stack flights, massive changes to the launch pad and surrounding systems, extending testing at Masseys, and massive changes to the production site.

SpaceNews

FAA seeks to wrap up Starship safety review in October

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration’s commercial space transportation office says he believes that the FAA can wrap up safety reviews needed to update the SpaceX Starship launch license by the end of October, but than a concurr…

SpacePolicyOnline.com

FAA: Starship Mishap Investigation Complete, But No Flight Approval Yet

The FAA announced today that its investigation into what went wrong on the first flight of SpaceX’s Starship rocket in April is done. SpaceX is ready to try again, but […]

SpaceNews

FAA closes Starship mishap investigation, directs 63 corrective actions for SpaceX

The Federal Aviation Administration has completed the mishap investigation in SpaceX’s first integrated Starship launch in April but is not ready yet to approve a second launch of the vehicle.

The Launch Pad

FAA Completes SpaceX Starship IFT-1 Investigation, 63 Corrective Actions Required

The FAA has closed the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy mishap investigation.The final report cites multiple root causes of the April 20, 2023, mishap and 63 corrective actions SpaceX must take to prevent mishap reoccurrence.

SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA

Orbital Launch Mount A

Recent Launches
Long March 6A
Success
1 day, 2 hours ago
Tianhui 5 Group 02
Launch Complex 9A - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

A pair of satellites officially described as for cartographic surveying purposes, details TBD.

Firefly Alpha
Success
1 day, 21 hours ago
FLTA005 (Noise of Summer)
Space Launch Complex 2W - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Fifth flight of the Firefly Alpha small sat launcher, carrying eight cubesats for NASA's ELaNa 43 (Educational Launch of a Nanosatellite) mission.

Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 16 hours ago
Starlink Group 8-9
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

A batch of 20 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

H3-22
Success
4 days, 22 hours ago
Advanced Land Observing Satellite-4 (ALOS-4)
Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2 - Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite-4 (ALOS-4) is a Japanese satellite designed to observe the Earth's surface using a phased array type L-band syn…

Long March 7A
Success
6 days, 13 hours ago
ChinaSat 3A
201 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

Chinese communication geostationary satellite for unknown purposes.

Falcon 9
Success
6 days, 22 hours ago
NROL-186
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Second batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office t…

Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
Starlink Group 10-3
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

Falcon Heavy
Success
1 week, 3 days ago
GOES-U
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-U (GOES-U) is the fourth of the next generation of geostationary weather satellites, known as t…

Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
Starlink Group 9-2
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 20 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 5 days ago
Starlink Group 10-2
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

A batch of 22 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

Get it on Google Play
Get it on the App Store