SpaceX Starship progress | funkystuff.org

SpaceX Starship progress (oldest first)

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2018

00-12-2018 Starhopper. First static fire: 03-04-2019. Maiden flight: 25-07-2019.
00-12-2018 MK1.

2019

00-05-2019 MK2.
27-08-2019 Starhopper, 150 meter hop test.
- - - - 1 minute flight.
00-09-2019 MK4.
00-10-2019 MK3/SN1 (SN Serial Number).

2020

00-03-2020 SN3.
00-04-2020 SN4. First static fire: 05-05-2020. No maiden flight.
00-04-2020 SN5. First static fire: 27-07-2020. Maiden flight: 04-08-2020.
00-05-2020 SN6. First static fire: 23-08-2020. Maiden flight: 03-09-2020.
00-05-2020 SN7. Not seen.
00-07-2020 SN8. First static fire: 20-10-2020. Maiden flight: 09-12-2020.
04-08-2020 SN5, 150 meter hop test.
00-08-2020 SN9. First static fire: 06-01-2021. Maiden flight: 02-02-2021.
03-09-2020 SN6, 150 meter hop test.
00-09-2020 SN10. First static fire: 23-02-2021. Maiden flight: 03-03-2021.
00-09-2020 SN11. First static fire: 22-03-2021. Maiden flight: 30-03-2021.
00-11-2020 SN15. First static fire: 26-04-2021. Maiden flight: 05-05-2021.
09-12-2020 SN8, high-altitude flight test, landing attempt No. 1.
- - - - 1 st engine cutoff.
        2nd engine cutoff.
        Liqued oxygen release (dump).
        3rd engine cutoff.
        Vehicle reorientation.
        Flip maneuver.
        Landing burn.
        Landing failure No. 1.

2021

SN16/Starship.
02-02-2021 SN9, high-altitude flight test, landing attempt No. 2.
- - - - Landing failure No. 2.
SN17.
SN18.
03-03-2021 SN10, high-altitude flight test, landing attempt No. 3.
- - - - Exploded eight minutes later on the landing pad after touching down harder than expected.
        Landing failure No. 3.
30-03-2021 SN11, high-altitude flight test, landing attempt No. 4.
- - - - Rapid unscheduled disassembly occured after losing telemetry data with Starship.
        Failure No. 4.
SN17.
SN19.
05-05-2021 SN15, high-altitude flight test, landing attempt No. 5.
- - - - 6 minutes flight.
        Soft landing achieved.
SN20/Starship. First static fire: 21-10-2021.
SN21.
SN22.
SN23.
00-11-2021 SN24. First static fire: 09-08-2022. Maiden flight: Not yet.

2022

00-03-2022 S25. First static fire: Not yet. Maiden flight: Not yet.
00-05-2022 S26. First static fire: Not yet. Maiden flight: Not yet.
00-06-2022 S27. First static fire: Not yet. Maiden flight: Not yet.
00-07-2022 S28. First static fire: Not yet. Maiden flight: Not yet.
11-07-2022 High-energy test event.
25-08-2022 First lift of a booster on the OLM with Mechazilla grabbing arms (chopsticks). Mechazilla is about ensuring a soft landing to protect the invaluable technology within the booster.
00-10-2022 De-stacking.
11-10-2022 First time full stack of
- - - - SpaceX Super Heavy Booster (SH, Booster 7, B7)
        SpaceX Starship HLS (Starship 24, Ship 24, S24)
13-10-2022 First full stack test. Poor results.
16-10-2022 De-stacking.
20-10-2022 Re-stacking.
24-10-2022 Stacked vehicle: Conduct LOX and LCH4 single species prop system test.
00-11-2022 B7: Complete 1-engine static fire test.
00-11-2022 B7: Complete 3-engine static fire test.
00-11-2022 B7: Complete 7-engine static fire test.
28-11-2022 Fire suppression test.
29-11-20222 B7: Complete 11-engine static fire test.
00-12-2022 S24: Complete 2-engine static fire test.
00-12-2022 S24: Complete 6-engine static fire test.
00-12-2022 B7 and S24: Re-stacking.
00-12-2022 Additional single-species prop system testing.
00-12-2022 Additional de-stacked static fire tests.
31-12-2022 The production site produced 4 Super Heavys, 5 Starships and 200 Raptors.

2023

09-01-2023 Stacking B7 and S24. Lift onto OLM.
12-01-2023 Ground Support Equipment (GSE) Tank testing.
13-01-2023 Propelland Load Test.
18-01-2023 Propellant Load Test.
20-01-2023 B8 and S22: Dismantled.
20-01-2023 Hydraulic Pressure Unit (HPU) removed from B7. The battery still remains.
20-01-2023 Orbital Launch Mount (OLM) platform lowered from under the full stack.
23-01-2023 B7 and S24 First full-stack Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR).
- - Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR) Brownsville (Boca Chica): 14,000 ft.
  - Marine Safety Information Bulletin (MSIB).
  - B7
    - - 800 MT CH4
        2800 MT LOX
  - S24
    - - 260 MT CH4
        1000 MT LOX
25-01-2023 Examination of the WDR results.
29-01-2023 Status update
- - Starship:
    - - S24 Preparing for OTF (Orbital Test Flight).
        S25 Awaiting tests.
        S26 Assembled, awaiting tests.
        S27 Preparing for large assembly.
        S28 – S31 Parts production.
  - Super Heavy/Booster (SH/B)
    - - SH7 Preparing firing test with 33 engines.
        SH9 Engine installation, awaiting tests.
        SH10 Mass assembly.
        SH11, SH12, SH13, SH14 Parts production.
02-02-2023 De-stacking SH7 for static fire
09-02-2023 B7 Static fire. Target: All 33 Raptor engines of Booster 7 run simultaneously. Results: Team turned off one Raptor just before start and one Raptor stopped itself, so 31 Raptor engines fired overall. Still enough engines to reach orbit.
- - - - Duration of this static fire test was seven seconds.
        At 50% thrust (7.9 million lbf of thrust (3,600 metric tons).
        Despite losing two Raptors, SpaceX still broke the all-time record for the number of rocket engines ignited simultaneously. That record was held by N1 rocket, which launched four times with 30 NK-15 engines in the late 1960s and early 1970s. None of its test flights were successful.
        Neither SpaceX nor CEO Elon Musk has confirmed it, reducing the odds that Super Heavy Booster 7 broke that historic thrust record. But it certainly could have. Each Raptor 2 engine can generate up to 230 tons (507,000 lbf) of thrust at sea level. Raptor is theoretically designed to throttle as low as 40%, or 92 tons (~200,000 lbf) of thrust. With 33 engines operating nominally at their minimum throttle setting, Super Heavy would have produced 3036 tons (~6.7M lbf) of thrust during today’s static fire – not a record.
19-02-2023 Crew-6 Dragon arrives at LC-39A ahead of flight.
20-02-2023 S26 on suborbital Pad A.
01-04-2023 SpaceX is opening a facility in Bastrop (TX, near Austin) that will be used to manufacture Starlink equipment.
01-04-2023 Work on isolating the Orbital Launch Mount (OLM) finished.
03-04-2023 Propellant loading test.
10-04-2023 Nine static fires in all for Starship.
14-04-2023 FAA License. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has issued a launch license to SpaceX for the Starship orbital flight test.
15-04-2023 The production site produced 5 Super Heavys, 8 Starships and x Raptors.
17-04-2023 A 150-minute test window will open 17-4-2023 at 7:00 a.m. local time (CDT).
17-04-2023 This will mark the first time that the Super Heavy booster and the second stage (also called Starship) fly together. Assuming lift-off is nominal, the plan is for stage separation to occur roughly three minutes into the mission, with the booster and second stage splashing down into the Gulf and the Pacific Ocean, respectively. SpaceX will not attempt to recover these components. On its website, SpaceX makes no promises for how the test will go, or even if it will complete milestones like Max Q (the point of maximum pressure on the vehicle) or Starship ignition. Instead, its likely that the company is looking to simply gather as much flight data as it can as the company continues to iterate the 394-foot-tall Starship system.
17-04-2023 First orbital flight of Starship. Scrubbed. At T minus 17 minutes an issue arises with loading the Super Heavy’s fuel. Exceeding a parameter of the pressure system. It is decided to proceed with fuel loading as a WDR to T minus 40 seconds. Flight Termination System (FTS) has not been armed. Scrub takes at least 48 hours (minimum recycle time). Probably a frozen pressure valve was the cause. Moisture in velve.
20-04-2023 SpaceX Starship I sequence of events (IFT-1). B7 and S24 Liftoff. First flight of Starship. Second launch attempt. Flight ended after 4 minutes.
01-05-2023 FAA faces lawsuit over SpaceX’s damage to local environment. The suit alleges that the FAA failed to adequately assess the environmental fallout from launches at SpaceX’s Starbase.
12-05-2023 Start water spray construction under Orbital Launch Mount (OLM).
13-05-2023 Successful static fire of the new Raptor 3 engine to 350 bar chamber pressure (5,100 psi) for 45 seconds, producing 269 tons of thrust. Raptor 3 reached 18% more thrust than a Raptor 2.
14-05-2023 SpaceX reduced the weight of the Raptor engine. Turnaround time should be about an hour. The cost per launch is currently USD 2 million.
19-05-2023 Steal plates placed under the Orbital Launch Mount (OLM) and tested.
03-06-2023 Spaceship’s second test flight will be made with S25 and B9.
04-06-2023 B10 in rocket garden, B11 in Mega bay and B12 construction started. Low bay demolished.
15-06-2023 Engine testing S25 aborted (spin prime).
22-06-2023 Flight-like chill and spin of the S25 Raptor engine pumps, stopping just before engine ignition. As a result of the test, cryogenic liquid oxygen formed a visible cloud beneath the ship. This checked out vital systems in advance if the upcoming static fire.
24-06-2023 SpaceX is changing the approach for separating the two stages of its Starship vehicle to increase payload performance before its next test flight. SpaceX recently decided to switch to a “Hot-staging” approach where the Starship upper stage will ignite its engines while still attached to the Super Heavy booster. Thereis a meaningful payload-to-orbit advantage with hot-staging that is conservatively about a 10% increase. Hot-staging, which has been used on Russian launch vehicles for decades, involves igniting the engines on one stage while still attached to its lower stage. Musk said that, for Starship, most of the 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster would be turned off, but a few still firing, when the engines on the Starship upper stage are ignited. Doing so, he said, avoids the loss of thrust during traditional stage separation, where the lower stage shuts down first. Musk said SpaceX is working on an extension to the top of the booster “that is almost all vents” to allow the exhaust from the upper stage to escape while still attached to the booster. SpaceX will also add shielding to the top of the booster to protect it from the exhaust. The Raptors on the new vehicles include changes to the hot gas manifold in the engine to reduce fuel leakage.
26-06-2023 B11 moved to Rocket Garden. Concrete pouring under the OLM has begun.
27-06-2023 S25 Static fire. All six Raptor engines for the first time:
- - - - 15:02 Road closed
        15:38 Pad clear
        17:35 Soft venting
        17:56 Cryo loading
        19:01 Siren
        19:04 Engine chill
        19:27 S25 Static fire
        21:45 Cars to pad
        21:47 Road open
01-07-2023 Water sprays from below against the rocket engines to reduce acoustic vibrations and convert energy into steam. This is a different approach than NASA, where a large amount of water is dumped. Deluge system.
02-07-2023 Hot staging was also applied in Soyuz. The two stages must be separated by a kind of fence. Hot stageing prevents unnecessary loss of speed when transitioning from the first to the second stage. The challenge is to keep the first stage intact and to allow it to land independently after separation. This method would be 10% more efficient. Permission from the FAA is also required for this.
13-07-2023 Ship Quick Disconnect (SQD) test.
17-07-2023 Water cooled steel plate test.
19-07-2023 The ship test stand that was previously at the cryo station at Masseys has been moved to the build site.
21-07-2023 Boca Chica update:
- - - - B9 roll-out on SPMT (Self Propelled Modular Transporter).
        B9 chopsticks released and opened, SQD arm swung back in. New FTS on B9.
        B10 returned to the Rocket Garden.
        S27 cut in half.
        S28 arrived at Massey´s.
        S30 nosecone stacked on payload section inside HB (High Bay). Now 2 of 6 sections tall.
22-07-2023 Plans to add 3 more Raptor Vac to the Ships (starting with S25, S28 or S30?).
22-07-2023 B9 Cryo testing:
- - - - 07:30 Road closed (CDT)
        08:35 Pad clear
        08:47 OTF (Orbital Test Flight) venting
        09:07 OLM venting
        10:25 Cryo loading
        14:00 Completed
28-07-2023 Full pressure test of deluge system.
31-07-2023 Hot-staging test assembly rolled to Massey’s.
04-08-2023 B9 Spin Prime Test (SPT). Spin prime engine test. During the spin up test, the fuel passes through the engine systems, but is not ignited in the gas generators. Instead of hot gases, the turbine spins cold gas supplied from the outside. It spins the turbine up to operating speeds, and the pumps pump fuel at norminal pressure. Roughly speaking, this is a spill test without ignition. Each engine has two turbopumps, one for the LOX and the CH4 side each. During a Spin Prime Test, either side alone or both toghether can be tested.
06-08-2023 B9 Static fire. SpaceX fired up Booster 9 for a static test of its liquid methane-fueled Raptor rocket engines. The test was advertised to last “just under five seconds” but appeared to be cut short at 2.74 seconds. Four of the 33 Raptor engines were reported to have shut down prematurely. It was the first engine test using a new water deluge system.
- - - - 08:00:00 Road closed
        08:00:00 Pad clear
        01:08:00 Propellant load start
        01:11:00 Frost visible bottom B9
        01:33:00 Frost visible middle B9
        In T-hh:mm:ss:
        00:02:51 LOX load completed (big vent), OP, Over pressure
        00:00:22 Deluge system start-up sequence started
        00:00:07 Deluge system at max power
        00:00:00 Static fire (short, 3 seconds)
09-08-2023 2nd tracking dish dismantled.
10-08-2023 New deluge tank arrived at the launch site.
12-08-2023 RBQD (Raptor Boost Quick Disconnect) test
15-05-2023 3th and final deluge tank installed.
16-08-2023 RQD (Raptor Quick Disconnect) test purges on the OLM. 4 RQD’s.
16-08-2023 Ship 29 and Ship 30 construction continues.
17-08-2023 Hot staging ring is being installed on Booster 9.
21-09-2023 Booster 10 moved back to mega bay 1 and placed on engine install stand.
08-09-2023 FAA Closes SpaceX Starship Mishap Investigation.
21-09-2023 SpaceX completed and documented the 57 items needed for the Integrated Flight Test-2 (IFT-2). B9/S25
21-09-2023 New 2 point ship lifting jig moved to the HB.
30-09-2023 Ship 25 stacked on Booster 9.
05-10-2023 Ship 25 destacked from Booster 9.
09-10-2023 Hot stage ring removed.
09-10-2023 Ship 26 completed tanking test:
- - - - 08:25 Road closed
        09:43 Pad clear
        12:21 SOTF active (Tank Farm venting started)
        12:34 Cryo loading
        14:00 Detanking
        15:37 Road open
22-10-2023 B9 and S25 First full-stack Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) (including FireX and Water System Test)
- - - - 08:08 Road closed
        08:24 Pad clear
        10:37 FireX. System used to push away gas bubbles below the OLM. Fire suppression system.
        11:30 Farm venting
        01:02 Ship venting
        13:33 Booster load
        13:59 Ship load
        15:23 FireX
        15:38 Detanking
18-11-2023 SpaceX Starship II sequence of events (IFT-2)
13-12-2023 Sub-orbital test stand A demolished.
14-12-2023 S28 moved to launch pad.
14-12-2023 S28 placed on test stand B.
16-12-2023 S28 Spin Prime Test (SPT).
20-12-2023 S28 Static fire. 6 engines, full-duration.
21-12-2023 B10 Static fire aborted.
23-12-2023 SpaceX sign installed over gate D1 at KSC.
24-12-2023 Starship HLS sub-scale mockup elevator has been tested by NASA.
27-12-2023 During return to Port Canaveral booster B1058 toppled over and broke in half. Made 19 flights. Lost.
28-12-2023 Falcon Heavy launch of X-37B Space plane.
30-12-2023 S28 Static fire. 1 engine. And 90 minutes later
30-12-2023 B10 Static fire.
31-12-2023 B10 removed from OLM, B12 and S30 moved to Massey. S29 moved to MB2 (Mega Bay 2).

2024

16-01-2024 In IFT-2 there was LOX left in de tanks because there was no payload weight. Venting this LOX might have caused the RUD.
16-01-2024 Building a second Starship tower in Texas. Enables SpaceX to launch from one tower while upgrading the other.
16-01-2024 Argon hall-effect thrusters: SpaceX developed a new thruster that used argon as propellant for their Starlink V2 mini. The new thruster had 2.4 times the thrust and 1.5 times the specific impulse as SpaceX’s previous thruster that used krypton. Argon is approximately 100 times less expensive than Krypton and 1000 times less expensive than Xenon.
16-01-2024 RRR is Rapidly Reusable Rocket.
16-02-2024 WDR aborted.
03-03-2024 WDR B10 and S28.
12-03-2024 Plans to create a rotating section in a next Starship to provide astronauts with some gravity.
14-03-2024 SpaceX Starship III sequence of events (IFT-3)
17-03-2024 Working om the hexagonal heat shield tiles. Made of sintered silica fibre tiles with a Borosilicate RCG surface layer. 18.000 bricks. Tiles and pins. S29 upgrade nose cone tiles. Smaller tiles.
05-04-2024 S29 has left the high bay and was parked outside.
07-04-2024 New Raptor 4 announced (aiming 303 tF, trust Force). Less than a year after testing Raptor 3 (280 tF).
- - - - Raptor 1 2000 kg
        Raptor 2 1600 kg
        Raptor 3 280tF
        Raptor 4 1500 kg, 303 tF is a TWR 202 (Trust to Weight Ratio)
07-04-2024 B11 moved back to Mega Bay 2.
09-04-2024 B11 and S29 at the production site.
09-04-2024 S29 tiles replaced.
09-04-2024 Launch site preparations continue.
13-04-2024 Replacement swing actuator installed on the left chopstick.
16-04-2024 B11 and S29 still at the build site.
00-00-2024 SpaceX Starship IV sequence of events (IFT-4)