Spaceflight Insider
Nicholas D Alessandro
May 17th, 2021
Starship SN15 is placed back on the pad for a potential second flight. Credit: Louis Balderas Jr. / @LabPadre
SpaceX remains as committed as ever to its breakneck pace of testing at its Boca Chica, Texas, launch facilities. Starship SN15, which conducted the first fully successful 10-kilometer test flight of the program with a clean, intact landing, was moved back to the launch pad on May 11, 2021, just under a week after that successful May 5 flight.
Observers of the program initially speculated it might be rolled back up Highway 4 to the build facility for inspections and refurbishment, but on May 14, after a few days of high wind delays, SpaceX has put it on launch pad B in a move toward a potential second flight.
Spaceflight Insider
Nicholas D Alessandro
April 28th, 2021
Starship SN15 performs a static fire in advance of its 10-kilometer hop and landing flip maneuver. Credit: Louis Balderas Jr. / @LabPadre
SpaceX’s latest and improved version of Starship, SN15, has entered the static fire phase of its testing campaign with two recent firings of its Raptor engines in the last 24 hours.
Monday saw the much-awaited first test go off without a hitch, with Elon Musk stating on Twitter that the static fire was completed and the company is preparing for a flight later this week.
The April 2021 super Moon rises over Starship SN15 and the max-q nosecone testing structure at SpaceX’s South Texas rocket facility. Credit: Nicholas D’Alessandro / Spaceflight Insider
Spaceflight Insider
Nicholas D Alessandro
Starship SN15 finishes its cryo proofing test on April 12. Credit: Louis Balderas Jr. / @LabPadre
SpaceX is already well underway with testing of its first majorly-upgraded version of Starship, known as Starship SN15.
The company elected to forego SN12-SN14 after successful testing of SN7.2, a test tank made from the new and lighter steel that Starships will be made from starting with SN15 onward.
The remains of SN11, which exploded midair after a major anomaly caused a hard start on the landing burn, were still being cleaned from the surrounding Boca Chica, Texas, area while SN15 quickly finished stacking in the High Bay and was rolled to suborbital Pad A on April 8, 2021.
Spaceflight Insider
Nicholas D Alessandro
April 7th, 2021
Ignition and liftoff of Starship test articles are normally clearly visible from this LabPadre live feed, but for the Starship SN11 flight, the dense morning fog presented only an eerie glow. Credit: Louis Balderas Jr. / @LabPadre
The latest SpaceX Starship prototype, Starship SN11, met a fiery demise last week, like the three iterations before it. However, hopes were high it would’ve been the one to survive a landing attempt long enough for eventual reuse after SN10 very nearly did so, if not for a slightly hard landing.
Starship SN11’s flight ended up making what seemed like backward progress as it was the first one of the entire program to explode mid-air, immediately after beginning to relight its three Raptor engines for the landing-flip procedure.