SpaceX Starship flight tests include 10 launches of prototypes of the Starship spacecraft on suborbital and low-altitude tests, and one orbital trajectory flight of the entire Starship launch vehicle with the Starship prototype atop the Super Heavy first-stage booster. Designed and operated by private manufacturer SpaceX, the flown prototypes of Starship so far are Starhopper, SN5, SN6, SN8, SN9, SN10, SN11, SN15 and Ship 24 stacked with Booster 7.
Starship is planned to be a fully-reusable two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle. Unusual for previous launch vehicle and spacecraft designs, the upper stage of Starship is intended to function both as a second stage to reach orbital velocity on launches from Earth, and also eventually be used in outer space as an on-orbit long-duration spacecraft. It is being designed to take people to Mars and beyond into the Solar System.
Starship test flights
Starship prototype tests can generally be classified into three main types. In proof pressure tests, the vehicle's tanks are pressurized with either gases or liquids to test their strength—sometimes deliberately until they burst. The vehicle then performs mission rehearsals, with or without fuel, to check the vehicle and ground infrastructure. Before a test flight, SpaceX loads the vehicle prototype with propellant and briefly fires its engines in a static fire test. Alternatively, the engines' turbopump spinning can be tested without firing the engines, referred to as a spin prime test.
Following successful testing, uncrewed flight tests and launches may take place. During a suborbital launch, Starship prototypes fly to a high altitude and then descend, landing either near the launch site or in the sea. During an orbital launch, Starship performs procedures as described in its mission profile. The tests, flights, and launches of the Starship rocket have received significant media coverage due to SpaceX's relatively open approach to allowing outsiders to view the facilities.
Suborbital campaign (2019–2021)
Orbital campaign (2023–) The first orbital flight test of Starship took place 20 April 2023 and ended in the destruction of the vehicle 4 minutes into the flight over the designated hazard area in the Gulf of Mexico.
Planned flights
Future operational flights
SpaceX has on various occasions made a few public statements about preliminary ideas for future operational orbital flights using the Starship system. All dates for future flights are speculative, and therefore approximate and "no earlier than" (NET) dates. Moreover, it is difficult to compare the dates in the tables since they have come from different sources and at different times over the past three years.
Elon Musk has stated that Starship would fly hundreds of times before launching with humans. A likely use of some of these flights would be to launch Starlink satellites.
Orbital launch statistics
Launch outcomes
Launch sites
Other flights
The HLS variant of Starship was selected by NASA in April 2021 to be the lander for the Artemis missions to the Moon. Artemis 3 is intended to be the first human mission to the Moon to use Starship for long-duration crewed lunar landings as part of the Artemis program.
According to space journalist Mike Wall in 2020, and as part of SpaceX's Mars ambitions, Musk is said to envision that eventually more than 1,000 Starships could be needed to depart for Mars every 26 months, which could lead to the development of a sustainable Martian city in 50–100 years.