Solomon Starbuck

"I may not be a very good artist, but at least I know how to draw a person!"
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Solomon Starbuck

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Solomon Starbuck V · T · F
Occupation	Astronaut at the Cosmos Space Center
Biological information
Reckoned birth year(s) (this is for age comparison purposes, and so may look odd; click on the question mark for details)?	1994
Documented age range (as recorded in court record profiles & case files)	33* (The Cosmic Turnabout)
Last known status	Alive (Dec. 2027)
Eye color	Gray
Hair color	Brown* (hair dyed bright red)
Height (the metric (cm) values are sourced from official guidebooks and may not reflect the relative sizes of characters as depicted in-game or in other official media)	5'8"; 173 cm
Associates
Family	None mentioned
Friends	Clay Terran (fellow astronaut and colleague; deceased) Apollo Justice (defense attorney and Clay Terran's childhood friend)
Affiliates	Yuri Cosmos (superior) Metis Cykes (former colleague; deceased) Aura Blackquill (former colleague; incarcerated) Ponco (Cosmos Space Center robot) Clonco (Cosmos Space Center robot) Phoenix Wright (defense attorney)
Aliases/nicknames
Space Boy* (by Simon Blackquill)
Names in other languages
Japanese (romanization written with the given name first)	星成 太陽 (Taiyou Hoshinari)
Miscellaneous
Debut episode	The Cosmic Turnabout

Solomon Starbuck

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaangh... Umm... Mind if I take this suit off? It's getting really heavy...

— The Cosmic Turnabout

Solomon "Sol" Starbuck is an astronaut at the Cosmos Space Center famous for surviving the so-called "HAT-1 Miracle". He was accused of murdering fellow astronaut Clay Terran.

The HAT-1 Miracle

Main article: HAT-1 Miracle

Advertisement for a documentary about the "HAT-1 Miracle".

During his time at the Space Center, Starbuck befriended a young Clay Terran, who harbored dreams of becoming an astronaut himself. Terran would often visit the Center with his friend Apollo Justice.

Starbuck was the lead astronaut on the HAT-1 rocket, which was launched in order to deploy the Hope probe to retrieve asteroid samples. However, the HAT-1 rocket ended up sabotaged and suffered various problems, including loss of radio contact. While Starbuck was able to somehow make a return to Earth safely, he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder as a result, and developed a crippling fear of space. Over time, he was encouraged by Justice and Terran to not give up, and eventually expressed a desire to return to space.

Terran's murder

Main article: The Cosmic Turnabout

Sabotage of the HAT-2 launch

Being carried by Terran.

Terran would go on to become an astronaut himself, and was due to join Starbuck on the HAT-2 rocket until Yuri Cosmos, director of the space center, received a threatening phone call which claimed that a repeat of the HAT-1 sabotage would occur again. Fearing for the safety of his astronauts, Cosmos planned a countermeasure to prevent casualties; Starbuck was left out of the loop for his own safety due to his anxiety.

Before the launch, Starbuck was drugged with his own anti-anxiety medicine by Terran. Cosmos had swapped the launch pad with the Space Museum, which held a replica of the original HAT-1 rocket. After the bombs detonated in the Center, the unconscious Starbuck was evacuated from the museum back to Boarding Lounge 1 by Terran.

Unfortunately, Terran was murdered upon arrival. With no one at the scene of the murder, Starbuck was arrested as the prime suspect.

Starbuck on trial

Starbuck eventually got Justice, now an attorney, to take his case. Shortly after the details of the case were ironed out, the prosecutor, Simon Blackquill, called Starbuck to give his account. With no memory of what happened however, Starbuck's testimony in court proved completely inconsistent.

Unable to prove what had really happened, Starbuck was miserably resigned to the fact that he would go to prison, only worsened by Blackquill telling him that his prison cell was going to be his new spaceship. It took encouragement from Justice and Athena Cykes to rekindle his passion for going into space.

The trial continued with Detective Candice Arme, one of the first to the scene of the murder, due to take the stand. However, the trial was put on hold because a third bomb that Arme had disarmed at the scene had reactivated, blowing up the courtroom. Soon after Arme's murder was solved, Starbuck's trial continued with Phoenix Wright taking the reins as defense team leader while Justice recuperated from the injuries he sustained during the bombing and the investigation into Arme's murder.

When the trial continued, testimony from Cosmos opened up the possibility of a third party escaping from the crime scene undetected. This, along with decisive evidence Detective Bobby Fulbright brought to the court, was enough to clear Starbuck of all charges. Unfortunately, the same evidence pointed to Cykes being the true culprit, so she was subsequently arrested in his place.

Aftermath

Main article: Turnabout for Tomorrow

Although glad to be free, Starbuck remained depressed over Cykes's arrest and the fact that the HAT-2 rocket launch was never going to take place. He regained his confidence after more encouragement and wished Wright the best of luck in proving Cykes's innocence, which the latter eventually managed (as well as catching the true culprit for the Space Center bombings and Terran's murder).

Starbuck would once again be chosen as the lead astronaut for the HAT-3 launch, which was headed for the moon. While he was enthusiastic, his anxiety caused him to continue to be troubled about his upcoming trip. At the HAT-3 launch, Starbuck muttered "I'll be fine" over and over to himself. As the rocket flew into space, he received encouragement from Wright, Justice, and Cykes, and he gave them his heartfelt thanks.

Personality

Solomon Starbuck

Raaaaaaaaahhhh! You've ignited the booster rockets of my soooouuuul! I'm on fiiiiiiiiiiire!!! I am Solomon Starbuck, astronaut! A cosmic hero chosen by the universe itself!

— The Cosmic Turnabout

Mugshot.

Starbuck has a somewhat bipolar personality, as he tends to swing between extremely depressed and enthusiastic in a very short space of time. He also has severe anxiety issues relating to space after the traumatic "HAT-1 Miracle", which often causes him to act as if he was on board a spacecraft or in space. These issues only worsened with his arrest over Terran's murder. Eventually, he was able to get over all of this due to encouragement from Wright, Justice, and Cykes.

Name

• His Japanese family name "Hoshinari" comes from the phrase "hoshi ni naru" (星になる), which means "to become a star".
• "Taiyou", his Japanese given name, is the Japanese word for "sun".
• His full Japanese name could also be derived from the phrase "hoshinaritai yo-" (星になりたいよー), which means "I want to become a star".
• "Solomon" was likely chosen so that he could have the nickname "Sol", which is the Latin word for the Sun. This not only links back to his given name in the Japanese version, but also follows the space theme that most of the Cosmos Space Center's staff names have. "Solomon" may also be a play on "solo man", referencing his role as the sole person responsible for the safe return of the HAT-1 rocket.
• His English surname, "Starbuck", consists of "star" (again referring to space) and "buck" (a term used for an adventurous, impetuous, dashing, or high-spirited young man). The latter part is somewhat suitable for the character, but only when he's not depressed. The surname may also be a reference to the science fiction franchise Battlestar Galactica, which featured a fighter spacecraft pilot character called "Starbuck" in both the original television series (Lieutenant Starbuck) and the later re-imagined version (Kara "Starbuck" Thrace). Of note is that Battlestar Galactica also included spacecraft pilot characters whose callsigns were "Apollo" and "Athena."

Development

• Starbuck's hair has been styled into the shape of a rocket, although his bright red hair seems to be dyed that color since his facial hair is brown. During the events of the HAT-1 Miracle, his hair was still red, but not in its later rocket-shape.