SpaceX starts operational Starship launches

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TL;DR

SpaceX plans to launch flight 14 no earlier than September 22. It will enter a circular orbit and deploy Starlink satellites.

Based on air traffic coordination
Edit: Also as FAA advisory now

SpaceX should release a flight plan soon but we can expect a ~250-350 km circular orbit with a booster splashdown near the launch site. It will then deploy Starlink v3 satellites which were made specifically for Starship. Some of them were already tested briefly on the previous suborbital flight.
After some yet unknown time, but almost certainly under 24 hours, it will do a deorbit burn and reenter for a splashdown. Potential target sites are the Indian Ocean as before, the Pacific near Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico near the launch site (overflying the US and potentially Mexico), and some strips in the northern and southern Pacific.

It is unknown whether SpaceX will try to keep this ship intact on splashdown, intentionally crash it harder, or just leave it up to chance. We don't know why flight 14 is not trying to catch the ship, there must be something SpaceX needs to work on. We can expect ship catch attempts once they are happy with everything. More reentries will help.
Personally I don't expect a return to the Gulf until they go for a catch attempt. You have all the additional risk from a reentry over populated places without the benefit of a catch attempt. The ship would be much closer to the engineers for inspection, of course.

Assuming nothing goes wrong, flight 15 could follow in under a month. The ship and booster are already assembled and being tested. We might see about one flight per month until ship reuse increases that.

Edit: Moved to no earlier than September 22.

 

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SpaceX posted it on their website
Still planned for September 22.

275 km orbit for about 10 hours, with a splashdown in the southern Pacific. It will deploy 26 Starlink satellites (~45 tonnes).
The flight will reuse two heat shield tiles from the previous mission.

SpaceX has been gradually increasing the payload they carry as they get better data on ship performance. The most efficient trajectory would do an orbit insertion after half an orbit (~45 min) instead of 25 min. The steeper ascent with an earlier orbit insertion burn is likely a safety measure, staying away from orbit and controlling the reentry corridor if the orbit insertion doesn't work for whatever reason.

Edit: Some more explanation by SpaceX (this link will stop working eventually, but it should work for a few weeks)
The initial ascent trajectory matches what they have flown so far. They'll have three earlier reentry options: Directly (no orbit circularization) in the Indian ocean, after a bit under one revolution (north Pacific), and one orbit before the planned deorbit burn (south Pacific).

 

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No earlier than September 28
It's not clear what caused the delay.

Meanwhile we got the next half-hour documentation: Critical Path

 

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Booster and ship are stacked for a Monday launch.

 

[WWGD]

Not sure if it's just me, but I keep hearing " Space Sex". Intriguing.

 

[AlexB23]

Not sure if it's just me, but I keep hearing " Space Sex". Intriguing.

I think I knew what Musk was doing when he named that company. Weird guy. Who knows what his intentions were when he named SpaceX. I hear the same when the name is pronounced. Never liked the guy. At least reusable rockets are a thing now.

 

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Launch license is granted (PDF)
Most of the modifications are linked to the flights now going to orbit.

Still everything on track for a Monday launch.

 

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3 hours and 15 minutes until the launch window opens.

SpaceX coverage will start here in ~2:40
NASASpaceflight coverage is running

Every orbital flight in history had at least one stage or tank that was discarded in flight - left to crash into the ocean, burn up on reentry, or remain in space. This one will be the first exception, with both booster and ship being controlled until splashdown (or at least that's the plan).

 

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Good splashdown of the booster, even though it lost one or two engines in the middle ring.
The upper stage lost a vacuum engine towards the end of the burn. This means they spent a bit more propellant on ascent to compensate. Not clear yet if they still go to orbit that way.

Edit: No circularization burn. Too unclear what went wrong with that engine and if it could affect other engines. This mission will be another suborbital flight going to the Indian Ocean.
They made progress on the booster, so maybe that will be caught next flight. Some chance they go for a ship capture on flight 15, too, assuming reentry will be smooth.

 

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Starship is in a circular orbit!
They identified the issue with the vacuum engine and determined that it won't affect the rest of the mission.

Edit: Payload deployment is underway.
Edit: Payload deployment completed.

 

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Starship will return after 3 hours
Not clear why. They spent a bit more propellant on ascent, deorbiting earlier reduces boiloff in orbit, maybe that is linked. Deorbit burn should be in ~30 minutes from now.

They have contact with all 26 satellites.

Should be the heaviest object ever to reach orbit in a single mission. It's even heavier than Mir and Tiangong. Only the ISS is a heavier man-made object in space and that was assembled with many flights.

 

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Reentry has started.

 

[berkeman]

What happened when it landed in the water just now? It looked like an explosion...

 

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Yeah, that's the normal outcome. The ship is designed to be caught by the launch tower. For testing they simulate that landing by hovering over the ocean. The ship then cuts its engine, hits the water and falls over. Usually that leads to an explosion. The previous flight had the ship survive, which was unexpected.

 

[willyengland]

Starship will return after 3 hours
Not clear why.

Wasn't a 10-hour mission with six orbits of the Earth planned?

 

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That was the default plan, but with options to return earlier. They chose one of these options. We don't know why, but some link to the upper stage engine failure is plausible.
It still did all the interesting parts. Staying in orbit for 8 hours vs. 2 hours isn't that different in terms of what you can learn from it.

 

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full resolution of first image

Starlink satellite looking back at Starship after deployment:


Booster landing (look for the shockwave!):


The early reentries had tons of particles falling off the vehicle - you can see them as bright sparks racing across the screen. Step by step they have reduced that rate. This reentry looked like the smoothest one so far. You just have the glow of the compressed and heated atmosphere, and that's it. This looks great for reusability.

The deployed Starlink satellites have the bandwidth equivalent of 10 Starlink launches on Falcon 9. Increasing the payload to 100 tonnes will grow that to a factor 20. That means just one Starship launch per month can easily outperform the effective deployment rate Falcon 9 reached from Florida.


Edit: Starship in front of the Sun. You can see the sound: