SpaceX Starship integrated flight test 1

Starship integrated flight test 1

Starship vehicle during its first flight
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; 12 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 IFT-2 →

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]

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]