Starship S20

Starship S20 [Deven Perez]

Starship-S20 was the first orbital prototype for SpaceX' reusable Starship space transportation system.

For the maiden orbital flight, Starship-S20 is fitted with the propulsion, attitude control systems and themal protection systems. The Starship Orbital test flight will originate from Starbase, TX. The Booster stage will separate approximately 170 seconds into flight. The Booster will then perform a partial return and land in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 32 km from the shore. The orbital Starship will continue on flying between the Florida Straits. It will achieve a low transatmospheric orbit, which will lead to reentry after less than one complete orbit. After reentry, it will performing a powered, targeted landing approximately 100 km off the northwest coast of Kauai in a soft ocean landing. Recovery of both stages is not planned.

SpaceX intends to collect as much data as possible during flight to quantify entry dynamics and better understand what the vehicle experiences in a flight regime that is extremely difficult to accurately predict or replicate computationally. This data will anchor any changes in vehicle design or CONOPs after the first flight and build better models to use in internal simulations.

SpaceX decided not to fly the S20 prototype and use the improved Starship S24 for the maiden flight.