Details emerge of first orbital Starship test flight

Not long after the complete success of SN15’s high altitude test flight, SpaceX’s plans for their first orbital Starship test flight have been revealed through a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC application reads as follows:

“The Starship orbital test flight will originate from Starbase, TX. The booster stage will separate approximately 170 seconds into flight. The booster will then perform a partial return and land in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 20 miles from the shore. The orbital Starship will continue on flying between the Florida Straits. It will achieve orbit until performing a powered, targeted landing approximately 100km (~62 miles) off the northwest coast of Kauai in a soft ocean landing.”

Starship and its Super Heavy booster (artist’s illustration) Credit: SpaceX

It’s unclear at this point if the Super Heavy booster (BN3), after separation nearly three minutes into the flight, will splashdown in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico or attempt to touchdown on an as yet unspecified floating platform (similar to how the Falcon 9 first-stage boosters land on the drone ships Of Course I Still Love You and Just Read the Instructions). Most probably, this first orbital test flight will simply be to gather the all-important data, with the prototype being expendable. Certainly, the wording of the application makes clear that Starship (SN20) will attempt a soft landing on the surface of the sea to the northwest of the Hawaiian island Kauai - assuming the flight to orbit, reentry, and descent all go well.

Earlier this year, Elon Musk expressed SpaceX’s intention to launch Starship into orbit by July - but “Elon time” is well-known to be a best-case scenario ambition, rather than a realistic target. Whereas the test flight could happen sometime this summer, it might just as easily slip to the latter months of 2021 - or not until 2022. Whenever a fully-stacked Starship and Super Heavy actually does take off, it will mark the beginning of another episode in this exciting space adventure story of how we’ll get humans to Mars.

Written by Iain Scott, 16th May 2021