One Year after SN8: Starship Development from SN8 to S20

History

SN8

One year ago today, SpaceX launched the first high-altitude flight test of a Starship prototype. It flew to 12.5 km and was the first Starship prototype since Mk1 to have both flaps and a nosecone. The flight followed over a month of testing, which started with a cryo test and ended with a static fire. The flight was extremely succesful except that SN8 had a RUD (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly), (in other words an explosion), due to low pressure in the LOX Header Tank. You can learn more about SN8's test campaign in NASASpaceflight's new video (below).

Other Starships

After SN8, SpaceX moved forward with SN9, which flew up to 10 km before having a RUD due to an engine failure after testing in February 2021. A month later, SN10 became the first Starship to land, though it exploded around six minutes after landing due to a landing leg failure. SN11 flew later that month but exploded due to a fuel leak during the landing burn. In April, SN15 became the first Starship to not explode. It also included "hundreds" of upgrades over previous prototypes. You can watch my full history of Starship in my presentation video (below).

Orbital Flight Preparations

After SN15's success SpaceX decided to move their focus to getting to the first orbital launch attempt. They canceled the flight of the already-constructed SN16 to not interfere with construction and built Booster 4 which was tested in July 2021. Construction started to speed up in Summer 2021 with the orbital launch pad constructed, launch tower construction starting, and the first GSE tanks (fuel tanks) arriving. In August, the launch tower sections were completed and the now fully stacked Booster 4 and Ship 20 rolled out to the launch site. They were stacked together on top of the Orbital Launch Pad for a fit check on August 6, 2021.

Credit: SpaceX Girls

After this fit check, Booster 4 and Ship 20 were rolled back to the production site for "plumbing" work. After this was completed Ship 20 was placed on Suborbital Pad B for testing. Booster 4 was later put back on the OLP but was later removed for launch tower completion. The Orbital Launch Site was completed around Thanksgiving 2021 (end of November in the US) with the addition of the final GSE tank and the Mechazilla QD Arm for Starships. Ship 20 had a six-engine static fire test on November 12, 2021. This was the first time all six engines fired on a Starship. Booster 4 is currently being prepared for testing on the orbital launch pad which could start potentialy next week, per road closures.

Future Plans

Recently, Elon Musk tweeted that construction had started on the Starship launch pad at LC-39A in Florida. SpaceX plans to have 2 launch pads at Starbase, two oil rig launch platforms (Phobos and Deimos) and at least one launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

Erc X has done a brilliant job rendering these launch pads. Check it out:

In the above image, a full stack Starship is shown with a Falcon Heavy next to the under-construction Mobile Service Structure.