On March 28 NASA announced that it signed a contract to add the SpaceX Starship to its fleet of launch vehicles despite the lack of a single successful test flight. There are now 10 privately built launch vehicles in the NASA fleet, giving the space agency more flexibility (and price competition) to match a payload’s restraints of size, weight, cost parameters, risk tolerance, and priority with the most appropriate launch system. The Starship is not yet “mission ready,” but it is the world’s most powerful, and the world’s tallest rocket standing at 403 feet (123 meters).
Since April 2023 there have been eight unmanned test flights of the Starship, but not a single payload has been delivered. Three Starship test flights exploded in midair, another went into an uncontrollable spin prompting launch controllers to intentionally detonate the vehicle during flight, and four have crashed into the Indian Ocean.
