Starship Epoch Ecosystem Tweet History - UPDATES

[FutureSpaceTourist]

February 9th 2025 Updates:  Flight 8 Booster 15 static fire

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1888691903551655973
Tweet contents:  Full duration static fire test of Super Heavy

[FutureSpaceTourist]

February 12th 2025 Updates:  Flight 8 Starship static fire

https://x.com/spacex/status/1889799254472098080
Tweet contents:  Starship long-duration static fire ahead of the eighth flight test[/quote]

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1889799440652763145
Tweet contents:  The extended firing tested new hardware and cycled the six Raptor engines through multiple thrust levels to recreate different conditions seen within the propulsion system during flight. Data from the test will inform upgrades to the ship’s hardware and flight profile ahead of the next launch[/quote]

[FutureSpaceTourist]

February 24th 2025 Updates:  Flight 7 investigation

https://www.spacex.com/updates/#flight-7-report
Webpage contents:  February 24, 2025
NEW YEAR. NEW SHIP. NEW LESSONS.

The seventh flight test of Starship and Super Heavy flew with ambitious goals, aiming to successfully repeat the core capability of returning and catching a booster while launching an upgraded design of the upper stage. While not every test objective was completed, the lessons learned will roll directly into future vehicles to make them more capable as Starship advances toward full and rapid reuse.

On January 16, 2025, Starship successfully lifted off at 4:37 p.m. CT from Starbase in Texas. At launch, all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster started up successfully and completed a full duration burn during ascent. After powering down all but the three center engines on Super Heavy, Starship ignited all six of its Raptor engines to separate in a hot-staging maneuver and continue its ascent to space.

Following stage separation, Super Heavy initiated its boostback burn to propel the rocket toward its intended landing location. It successfully lit 12 of the 13 engines commanded to start, with a single Raptor on the middle ring safely aborting on startup due to a low-power condition in the igniter system. Raptor engines on upcoming flights have a pre-planned igniter upgrade to mitigate this issue. The boostback burn was completed successfully and sent Super Heavy back to the launch site for catch.

The booster successfully relit all 13 planned middle ring and center Raptor engines for its landing burn, including the engine that did not relight for boostback burn. The landing burn slowed the booster down and maneuvered it to the launch and catch tower arms at Starbase, resulting in the second ever successful catch of Super Heavy.

After vehicle separation, Starship's six second stage Raptor engines powered the vehicle along its expected trajectory. Approximately two minutes into its burn, a flash was observed in the aft section of the vehicle near one of the Raptor vacuum engines. This aft section, commonly referred to as the attic, is an unpressurized area between the bottom of the liquid oxygen tank and the aft heatshield. Sensors in the attic detected a pressure rise indicative of a leak after the flash was seen.

Roughly two minutes later, another flash was observed followed by sustained fires in the attic. These eventually caused all but one of Starship’s engines to execute controlled shut down sequences and ultimately led to a loss of communication with the ship. Telemetry from the vehicle was last received just over eight minutes and 20 seconds into flight.

Contact with Starship was lost prior to triggering any destruct rules for its Autonomous Flight Safety System, which was fully healthy when communication was lost. The vehicle was observed to break apart approximately three minutes after loss of contact during descent. Post-flight analysis indicates that the safety system did trigger autonomously, and breakup occurred within Flight Termination System expectations.

The most probable root cause for the loss of ship was identified as a harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing, which led to increased stress on hardware in the propulsion system. The subsequent propellant leaks exceeded the venting capability of the ship’s attic area and resulted in sustained fires.

Immediately following the anomaly, the pre-coordinated response plan developed by SpaceX, the FAA, and ATO (air traffic control) went into effect. All debris came down within the pre-planned Debris Response Area, and there were no hazardous materials present in the debris and no significant impacts expected to occur to marine species or water quality. SpaceX reached out immediately to the government of Turks and Caicos and the United Kingdom to coordinate recovery and cleanup efforts. While an early end to the flight test is never a desired outcome, the measures put in place ahead of launch demonstrated their ability to keep the public safe.

SpaceX led the investigation efforts with oversight from the FAA and participation from NASA, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the U.S. Space Force. SpaceX is working with the FAA to either close the mishap investigation or receive a flight safety determination, along with working on a license authorization to enable its next flight of Starship.

As part of the investigation, an extended duration static fire was completed with the Starship flying on the eighth flight test. The 60-second firing was used to test multiple engine thrust levels and three separate hardware configurations in the Raptor vacuum engine feedlines to recreate and address the harmonic response seen during Flight 7. Findings from the static fire informed hardware changes to the fuel feedlines to vacuum engines, adjustments to propellant temperatures, and a new operating thrust target that will be used on the upcoming flight test.

To address flammability potential in the attic section on Starship, additional vents and a new purge system utilizing gaseous nitrogen are being added to the current generation of ships to make the area more robust to propellant leakage. Future upgrades to Starship will introduce the Raptor 3 engine, reducing the attic volume and eliminating the majority of joints that can leak into this volume.

Starship’s seventh flight test was a reminder that developmental progress is not always linear, and putting flight hardware in a flight environment is the fastest way to demonstrate how thousands of distinct parts come together to reach space. Upcoming flights will continue to target ambitious goals in the pursuit of full and rapid reusability.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

February 25th 2025 Updates:  Flight 8 preparations

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1894426859695128954
Tweet contents:  Super Heavy on the launch pad at Starbase ahead of Starship's eighth flight test

[FutureSpaceTourist]

March 2nd 2025 Updates:  Flight 8 readiness

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1896292043120603324
Tweet contents:  Starship moved to the pad at Starbase ahead of its eighth flight test

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1896294569958105421
Tweet contents:  Starship flight test 8 tomorrow evening

[FutureSpaceTourist]

March 6th 2025 Updates:  Starship flight 8

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1897841723851645064
Tweet contents:  With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability. We will conduct a thorough investigation, in coordination with the FAA, and implement corrective actions to make improvements on future Starship flight tests →

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-8
Webpage contents:  MARCH 6, 2025
STARSHIP'S EIGHTH FLIGHT TEST
Starship’s eighth flight test lifted off from Starbase in Texas at 5:30 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 6. The Super Heavy booster successfully lit its 33 Raptor engines and propelled Starship through a nominal first-stage ascent.

Approximately two and a half minutes into flight, the Super Heavy booster shutdown all but three of its Raptor engines as planned for hot-staging separation. Starship then successfully lit its six Raptor engines and separated from the Super Heavy booster to continue its ascent to space.

The Super Heavy booster then relit 11 of 13 planned Raptor engines and performed a boostback burn to return itself to the launch site. As Super Heavy approached the launch site, it relit 12 of the planned 13 engines at the start of its landing burn to successfully slow the booster down. The three center engines continued running to maneuver the booster to the launch and catch tower arms, resulting in the third successful catch of a Super Heavy booster.

Starship continued its ascent to its planned trajectory. Prior to the end of the ascent burn, an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines. This in turn led to a loss of attitude control and ultimately a loss of communications with Starship. Final contact with Starship came approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff.

Starship flew within a designated launch corridor to safeguard the public both on the ground, on water, and in the air. Following the anomaly, SpaceX teams immediately began coordination with the FAA, ATO (air traffic control) and other safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses.

Any surviving debris would have fallen within the pre-planned Debris Response Area. There are no toxic materials present in the debris and no significant impacts expected to occur to marine species or water quality. If you believe you have identified a piece of debris, please contact your local authorities or the SpaceX Debris Hotline at 1-866-623-0234 or at [email protected].

With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability. We will conduct a thorough investigation, in coordination with the FAA, and implement corrective actions to make improvements on future Starship flight tests.

[waveney]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1900774290682683612

Starship departs for Mars at the end of next year, carrying Optimus.

If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely.

[Oersted]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1903481526794203189

[FutureSpaceTourist]

April 3rd 2025 Updates:  Booster 14 to re-fly for flight 9

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1907876664274473132
Tweet contents: Static fire of the Super Heavy preparing to launch Starship's ninth flight test. This booster previously launched and returned on Flight 7 and 29 of its 33 Raptor engines are flight proven
The first Super Heavy reuse will be a step towards our goal of zero-touch reflight

[catdlr]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1927034638679093338

Starship will get taller. It’s a little short rn.
9:10 AM · May 26, 2025

[catdlr]

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1927086562287779984

Watch an update from @elonmusk  on SpaceX’s plan to make life multiplanetary

[CMac]

https://x.com/spacesudoer/status/1927971968772341770

Elon says the update presentation will be posted today/tomorrow, in reply to this question

[catdlr]

https://x.com/spacesudoer/status/1927971968772341770

Elon says the update presentation will be posted today/tomorrow, in reply to this question

Here it is: (Twitter post and link to website provided at the bottom of this post)

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1928187792531628322

https://www.spacex.com/humanspaceflight/mars/

[catdlr]

Here is the video from SpaceX for that post above (YouTube copy provided below - 42 minutes)

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1928185351933239641

[Oersted]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1975252043385479671

[Oersted]

Did Elon tweet any acknowledgement of New Glenn's booster landing? - If not should that be considered petty or just par for the course between him and Bezos?

[StraumliBlight]

Did Elon tweet any acknowledgement of New Glenn's booster landing? - If not should that be considered petty or just par for the course between him and Bezos?

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1989096465898303600

[Changing X to twitter from comment]

[Oersted]

Ah, thanks. I missed that one in his daily avalanche of tweets...

[catdlr]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2003894829424824683

Elon Musk

@elonmusk
·
Dec 24
The goal of @SpaceX is expansion of consciousness to the stars so that we may understand what questions to ask about the answer that is the Universe

Edward
@somefoundersalt
·
Dec 23
Remember SpaceX was publicly clear that its goal was Mars even before the first Falcon 9 even flew

There should be even more companies driven by civilization-scale visions

[catdlr]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2006645159703072889

Elon Musk

@elonmusk

Happy New Year!

2026 will be a banger