New study reveals Starship’s true sound levels; shows differences between SLS and Falcon 9
When SpaceX launched Starship and Super Heavy for its first flight test in April 2023, the rocket became the most powerful ever flown, mostly due in part to Super Heavy’s 33 Raptor engines. As such, Starship is loud — extremely loud, and scientists and government agencies have long discussed the potential environmental impacts from a launch cadence that sees Starship launch hundreds of times in one year.
With Starship approaching its sixth flight test just barely over a month after its fifth flight test, it is apparent that SpaceX intends to launch it as regularly and rapidly as possible in 2025. As such, a team of scientists from Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, traveled to Starbase for Starship’s fifth flight test to collect sound data from launch and booster landing. The team is back at Starbase for Flight 6, collecting data from NSF sites.
Their results show that some sound metrics agree with those presented in the FAA’s most recent Environmental Assessment (EA) from 2024, while some predictions made by the EA are off. Moreover, the team compared Starship’s launch and landing noise levels to those of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rockets.
