SpaceX Starship integrated flight test 1
First integrated test launch of SpaceX Starship / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SpaceX Starship integrated flight test 1 (IFT-1) was the first integrated flight test of the SpaceX Starship launch vehicle. SpaceX performed the flight test on April 20, 2023.[3] The prototype vehicle was destroyed less than four minutes after lifting off from the SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.[4] The vehicle became the most powerful rocket ever flown, breaking the half-century-old record held by the Soviet Union's N1 rocket.[5]
Mission type | Flight test |
---|---|
Operator | SpaceX |
Mission duration | 3 minutes, 57 seconds (achieved) 90 minutes (planned) |
Orbits completed | Failed to reach space <1 (planned) |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | Starship S24, Super Heavy B7 |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | April 20, 2023; 13 months ago (April 20, 2023), 13:33 UTC[1] |
Rocket | Starship |
Launch site | Starbase |
Contractor | SpaceX |
End of mission | |
Destroyed | April 20, 2023, 13:37 UTC |
Orbital parameters | |
Regime | Transatmospheric Earth orbit (planned) |
Periapsis altitude | <6,340 km (3,940 mi) (achieved)[2] 50 km (31 mi) (planned) |
Apoapsis altitude | 39 km (24 mi) (achieved) 250 km (160 mi) (planned) |
Inclination | 26.4°[2] |
SpaceX Starship flights |
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 about 8 minutes after liftoff.[10]
The rocket lifted off at 08:33 CDT (13:33 UTC) from SpaceX's private launch site, Boca Chica, Texas. The liftoff damaged the launch pad[11] and its surrounding infrastructure,[12] which SpaceX said was unexpected.[13] 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 immediately, as was intended. The vehicle disintegrated 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] In August 2023, SpaceX submitted to the FAA the 63 "corrective actions" that it would need to take before another Starship launch would be allowed.[18][19][20] Dust scattered by the launch initially caused some health concerns, but was later found by a laboratory to be ordinary beach sand, not posing a health hazard.[16][21]
A second flight test of the Starship vehicle occurred on November 18, 2023.[22] The launch did not repeat issues encountered on the first flight and the vehicle successfully performed stage separation, but both vehicles were lost thereafter.[23]