From there, Starship goes on to complete its mission, wherever that may be, as Super Heavy finds its way back to Earth’s surface, and gently touches down smack dab in the middle of a SpaceX landing pad.Īfter discussing Starship’s specs, as well as the details behind the physics that make the massive reusable rocket work, Musk said, with a bit of consternation on his face, that “As far as we know, we’re the only consciousness, or the only life, that’s out there….” adding later in the speech that “I think we should really do our very best to become a multi-planet species, to extend consciousness beyond Earth, and we should do it now. The vision, as visualized in the inspirational clip above, is to have Starship take off from its landing pad, be thrusted into orbit around Earth by Super Heavy, and then go on to refuel by attaching itself to an orbital “tanker” ship already in orbit. Although Musk does say unequivocally in his presentation that SpaceX’s mission at this point is “to find the fastest path to a self-sustaining city on Mars.” He added that “This is the fundamental thing.”Īnd while Musk doesn’t explicitly mention SpaceX’s interstellar aspirations in this presentation, he did note in a 2012 interview with New Scientist that “having a base on Mars, where there is a lot of travel to and from Earth, will create a powerful incentive for developing technology that will enable us to travel to other star systems.” And of course the first step to a base on Mars is having a rocket big enough to bring a lot of people there. After Starship is refueled in orbit, it will then be able to go on to deliver its cargo and passengers to the Moon or Mars, and hopefully one day, other star systems. Starship will ultimately be able to transport roughly 300,000 pounds into orbit, which will be made up of both passengers and cargo. The rocket engines, powered by a mix of cryogenic methane and liquid oxygen, will produce roughly 16,000,000 pounds of force, which is 160 times more than the world’s most powerful jet engine.Ī vision of what a Mars base/early city could look like according to SpaceX.īut while the specs for Starship are mind-bendingly large, it’s the ship’s missions that’ll really matter.
The Herculean task of lifting Starship into orbit will be shouldered by a circular array of 37 Raptor rocket engines on the bottom of Super Heavy (there are another six that power Starship itself). On Thursday evening, the personal area company has carried out the SN20 Starship prototype’s first static fire test as a part of its preparation for the spacecraft’s launch. That’s nearly eight 747s, all getting blasted off into orbit simultaneously. SpaceX has taken a significant step in the direction of sending the Starship to orbit.
For reference, a Boeing 747 aircraft is roughly 850,000 pounds.
Starship prototype plus#
Starship plus its booster, dubbed Super Heavy, will have a gross weight of roughly - wait for it - 6,613,867 pounds. A lightning strike in May this year was extremely close to Starships SN4 prototype that was also earthed, and it showed the risks of operating in a facility without lightning arresters installed.
On top of being monumentally tall, Starship will also be monumentally heavy.