Watch the Launch

Additional Media

Starship | SN9 | High-Altitude Flight Test

On Tuesday, February 2, Starship serial number 9 (SN9) completed SpaceX’s second high-altitude flight test of a Starship prototype from our site in Cameron County, Texas. Similar to the high-altitude...

Starship SN9 Flight Test

SpaceX is set to launch the Starship SN9 prototype to an altitude of approximately 10 kilometers. A launch attempt is possible between 9 am and 6 pm Central time on Tuesday. However, as with testing, ...

10 km Flight

Overview

Destination: Suborbital
Mission: Test Flight

Suborbital Suborbital Pad B SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA
SN9 - SpaceX Starship Landing Pad

The SN9 Starship performed a first flight similar to the one of SN8. It launched up to an altitude of 10 km or 33,000 ft, did a belly flop maneuver and a controlled descent to the landing pad where the landing flip maneuver was unsuccessful and resulted in the destruction of the prototype on impact.

Updates

Nosu • Feb. 2, 2021, 7:01 a.m.

SpaceX has received clearance to launch from the FAA and Boca Chica Village residents have been asked to evacuate. Launch is GO for today's window, but the T-0 is not known precisely.


Nosu • Jan. 29, 2021, 2:51 p.m.

No flight today. Next attempt TBD


Nosu • Jan. 28, 2021, 5:39 p.m.

No flight today. Next attempt tomorrow.


SwGustav • Jan. 28, 2021, 3:55 a.m.

Changing to 10 km, setting GO for now


Nosu • Jan. 25, 2021, 8:07 p.m.

No flight today


Starship Prototype

Family:
Configuration: Prototype

Prototype of SpaceX's Starship, a fully reusable second stage and space vehicle.

See Details
Specifications
  • Stages
    1
  • Length
    50.0 m
  • Diameter
    9.0 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    9.0 m
  • Launch Mass
    45.0 T
  • Thrust
Family
  • Name
    Starship Prototype
  • Family
  • Variant
    Prototype
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Starship Prototype
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Booster Info


SN9


Type: Core
Flight Proven: No
First Flight: February 2, 2021
Last Flight: February 2, 2021
Flights: 1
Landings Attempted: 1

Landing Information

SN9 was destroyed on landing.

Result: SN9 did not land successfully.

SpaceX

SpaceX

(SpX)

CEO: Elon Musk Founded: 2002 Successes: 697 Failures: 15 Pending: 126

Agency Type:

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

INFO WIKI

Related News

Teslarati

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk talks Starship explosion: “We were too dumb”

Two days after a last-second failure caused Starship SN9 to smash into the ground and explode, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has returned...

Spaceflight Now

SpaceX Starship prototype lost in test flight landing mishap

SpaceX launched a prototype Starship rocket Tuesday from its Boca Chica, Texas, flight facility, successfully sending the silver booster up to an altitude of about six miles as planned. But the unpiloted test flight ended with a spectacula…

SpaceNews

SpaceX Starship crashes after suborbital flight

A second prototype of SpaceX’s Starship reusable launch vehicle performed a suborbital flight Feb. 2, only to crash while landing.

Teslarati

SpaceX Starship prototype aces test flight but explodes again

SpaceX Starship prototype serial number 9 (SN9) has suffered a fate almost identical to its successor, SN8, acing an almost six-and-a-half-minute launch,...

Spaceflight Now

Second high-altitude Starship test flight ends in landing explosion

Starship completed a successful climb to approximately 10 kilometers altitude and then descended horizontally toward the landing site. It appeared to lose control as it was in the process of flipping back to a vertical position and explode…

SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA

Suborbital Pad B


Smart Dragon 3
Success
5 hours, 3 minutes ago
OSE HS-01 & 02
Haiyang offshore launch location - Haiyang Oriental Spaceport

2 hyper-spectral Earth observation satellites from Chinese company STAR.VISION. Both satellites are built in corporation with foreign customers: *…


Falcon 9
Success
14 hours, 36 minutes ago
Starlink Group 17-53
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Long March 8A
Success
22 hours, 49 minutes ago
SatNet LEO Group 23
Commercial LC-1 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…


Falcon 9
Success
4 days, 4 hours ago
Starlink Group 17-52
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Falcon 9
Success
6 days ago
NROL-95
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Classified payload for the US National Reconnaissance Office.


Long March 6A
Success
6 days, 6 hours ago
TJSW-27A & B
Launch Complex 9A - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

2 Chinese classified satellites claimed to be for communication technology test purposes. Actual mission not known.


Long March 7A
Success
6 days, 19 hours ago
Tianlian 3-01
201 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

Tianlian is a Chinese data tracking and relay communications geostationary satellite series. The TL-3 (Tian Lian 3) satellites are the 3rd generation…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 3 days ago
Starlink Group 17-51
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Starship
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
Flight 13
Orbital Launch Pad 2 - SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA

13th test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle. Second flight of Starship V3. For the first time, Starship will carry 20 V3 Starlink sa…


Kinetica 1
Success
1 week, 5 days ago
5 satellites
Launch Area 130 - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Share-ride of 5 commercial Earth observation and technology demonstration satellites to SSO, including SpaceTY's TY-48. Details TBD.