SpaceX has been flying the Falcon 9 rocket since 2010, turning it into one of the most dominant launch vehicles in the global space industry. However, this could soon change as the company develops a new giant spacecraft that could revolutionize space exploration and travel.
Dubbed by the company’s CEO Elon Musk as the “holy grail of space technology,” the Starship spacecraft is SpaceX’s most ambitious project to date. But what is Elon Musk’s Starship, and why is it one of the world’s most closely watched engineering marvels? Keep reading to find out.
Starship at a Glance
The collective name for the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy rocket is Starship. Together, they make a fully reusable transportation system to carry cargo and crew out of the Earth’s orbit and beyond.
Since the idea of Starship was born, it has taken many forms. In addition, this spacecraft has gone through its fair share of name changes:
- Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) in 2014
- The Interplanetary Transport System (ITS) in 2016
- Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) in 2017
- Starship in 2018
Starship will be the most powerful spacecraft ever developed if all goes well. When fully stacked together, Starship is taller than the Statue of Liberty and Saturn 5, the launch vehicle that carried American astronauts to the Moon.
This spacecraft is also designed to be twice as powerful as Saturn 5. Finally, its diameter is wider than any other orbital spacecraft, enabling it to accommodate vast amounts of cargo and potential passengers.
The cargo and the passengers will go into the payload section of the Starship capsule. This eponymous capsule is the second stage of the Starship system.
If we’re talking numbers, here are some specs you should know:
- Height: 164 feet
- Diameter: 30 feet
- Propellant capacity: 2.6 millipounds
- Thrust: 3.2 millipounds-force
- Payload capacity: 220-330 kilopounds, depending on the orbit
This launcher is designed to have the largest usable payload volume in terms of cargo and crew.
- Payload volume height: 59 feet
- Payload fairing diameter: 30 feet
- Payload volume: 38,800 cubic feet
When it comes to the Super Heavy rocket, the numbers are equally impressive:
- Height: 230 feet
- Diameter: 30 feet
- Propellant capacity: 6.8 millipounds
- Thrust: 17 millipounds-force
Now that you have an idea of why all eyes are on this technological titan let’s dive into the ins and outs of the Starship system.
What Is Starship’s Goal?
The Starship system is built to meet several purposes. Once the spacecraft is fully developed and successfully tested, it could create a lucrative portfolio of missions.
Delivering Satellites
One of the Starship’s intended uses is delivering satellites for SpaceX’s satellite constellation project, Starlink. This spacecraft is designed to deliver satellites further into space at a much lower cost than current launch vehicles. More importantly, this spacecraft can deliver hundreds of satellites at a single launch.
Since the Starlink constellation is missing thousands of satellites, Starship will become the centerpiece of this lucrative project.
Enabling Humanity to Become a Multi-Planetary Species
It’s no secret that Elon Musk’s ultimate goal for SpaceX is sending a crewed flight to Mars. However, Starlink aims to go even further, helping humans not just reach Mars but eventually colonize the planet.
Musk has repeatedly stressed that it’s vital for humans to become multi-planetary species due to the probability of extinction. He believes that the Starship transportation system can bring a Mars settlement within reach.
Starship will require a heat shield to withstand multiple entries into Mars’ atmosphere. This part is essential as Musk plans to establish a million-person city on Mars within 100 years. This feat will only be possible if the launch vehicle can be reused extensively. Of course, the vehicle will only be one part of the planned fleet of spaceships.
Quantity is critical, as Earth and Mars are only aligned favorably for these interplanetary missions once every 26 months. For that reason, Musk plans to send at least 1,000 passengers per trip.
If everything goes according to plan, those passengers won’t all have to be super-rich. Musk hopes to eventually reduce the price of a Mars trip to below $100,000 per seat. While this six-figure price point is still out of reach for many people, it’s far more promising than the million-dollar figures being thrown around at the moment.
Getting Humans Back to the Moon
Only 24 humans in history have been to the Moon, the last of them in 1972. So in a mission to get humans back to our closest habitable neighbor, NASA launched their Artemis program. In 2021, NASA entrusted SpaceX and its Starship technological wonder with this mission, awarding the company a 2.9-billion-dollar contract.
The first Starship journey to the Moon will be a test flight and carry no crew. This flight should demonstrate the spacecraft’s ability to land on the Moon and return safely. The next mission, planned for 2025, will carry NASA astronauts.
The plan is to safely transport the crew and a large amount of cargo to the lunar surface. The cargo will contain all the necessary supplies for extensive surface exploration. When it comes to the crew, it will land the first person of color and the first woman on the Moon.
Another key goal of this mission is to make the Moon’s surface a proving ground for future missions to Mars.
Ferrying Cargo and Crews
While Starship is primarily built to break down barriers, the spaceship-rocket duo will also be used for SpaceX’s “regular” spaceflight needs. These missions entail carrying cargo and crews to the International Space Station (ISS) and beyond. As a result, the company’s current launch vehicles – Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon – will be eventually phased out and replaced with Starship.
What Is Starship Made Of?
SpaceX initially intended to build the Starship launch vehicle out of carbon fiber. However, in 2019, the company decided to switch to stainless steel. Although stainless steel is heavier than carbon fiber, it’s significantly cheaper and has better thermal properties.
The Starship system consists of three parts:
- The Super Heavy rocket booster
- The Starship capsule
- A massive land tower equipped with mechanical arms
The tower alone took 13 months to build. It will be used to intercept the descending rocket in an attempt to land it softly.
The rocket booster uses sub-cooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen propellants. It has a gross liftoff mass of over 6 million pounds.
The vehicle will be powered by SpaceX’s Raptor, the most powerful engine the company has ever created. Raptor is also the first methane-fueled, full-flow, staged-combustion engine ever flown. There are 33 Raptor engines on the rocket booster and nine on the Starship capsule.
How Much Does Starship Cost?
The earliest estimations put the Starship development cost anywhere between $2 billion and $10 billion. However, as development progressed, Musk assured us that the price tag would be toward the lower end of this range.
As for the launching costs, SpaceX’s CEO suggested that Starship flights will cost around $2 million per launch but offered no further explanation or a price breakdown. However, an explanation might be necessary, considering that launching the company’s much less powerful and smaller Falcon 9 rocket costs over $60 million.
How Does Starship Operate?
To reach orbit, the Starship capsule sits atop a gigantic rocket booster. These two rocket stages separate once they go through the Earth’s atmosphere, and the rocket will return to Earth in a vertical landing. However, as mentioned, the tower at the launch pad will attempt to intercept and soften its landing.
The capsule, however, will make its way through the orbit and onward to its final destination. Then, it will touch down without needing an additional landing craft. Similarly, the Starship craft can take off again with no ascent vehicle.
Upon its return, Starship will plunge through the Earth’s atmosphere on its side. This part of the craft is designed to withstand the tremendous heat of the re-entry. Before landing, the craft will reignite its engines, allowing it to flip vertically and achieve a soft landing.
Is Starship Reusable?
Reusability is one of the significant factors in reducing spaceflight costs. SpaceX has been at the forefront of this innovative rocket technology by launching the world’s first partially reusable rockets.
Partially reusable means that the first stages of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets are discarded after launch, while the boosters can be recovered and reused.
The Starship transportation system will be fully reusable. The goal is to recover both rocket stages within 24 hours after the launch. Another even more ambitious goal is to reuse the rocket only a few hours after retrieving it. The rocket must successfully land on the mechanical arms of the land tower to achieve this.
Musk refers to the tower and its launch system as “stage zero,” deeming it equally as crucial as stages one and two.
Has Starship Done Test Flights?
SpaceX has launched nine prototypes of the Starship’s upper stage so far. Only the last flight test was successful, with its predecessors mostly resulting in fiery failures. Before embarking on high-altitude flights, SpaceX used a low-altitude Starship prototype called Starhopper.
The low-altitude flight tests were as follows:
- Starhopper in April 2019, reaching one foot and lasting for three seconds
- Starhopper in April 2019 again, reaching over three feet and lasting for five seconds
- Starhopper in July 2019 with a 65-foot flight apogee and 22-second duration
- Starship SN5, hopping to 492 feet and lasting almost a minute
In 2020, SpaceX transitioned to high-altitude flights, completing five to date.
- Starship SN8 in December 2020, ascending to 41,000 feet in almost seven minutes
- Starship SN9 in February 2021, reaching 32,800 feet and lasting for six and a half minutes
- Starship SN10 in March 2021, with a nearly identical flight apogee and duration
- Starship SN11 in March 2021 again, reaching identical height but lasting under six minutes
- Starship SN15 in May 2021, ascending to 32,800 feet and landing successfully in six minutes
These test flights improve the company’s understanding and subsequent development of the Starship system. This system’s first orbital test flight is scheduled for July 2022 and is planned to last 90 minutes.
When Will Starship Launch for the First Time?
Only the final of the five test-launched prototypes has managed to avoid exploding on the ground or in flight. As a result, there’s been a delay in beginning the next phase of orbital flights.
To safely launch Starship into space, the company must first debut its Super Heavy rocket booster. After all, the real deal contains far more Raptor engines than the previously tested Starship prototypes.
Moreover, before launching Starship, SpaceX has to pass a government review of the launch vehicle’s environmental impact on the surrounding area. The review will be carried out by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The FAA’s primary concern is the surrounding Brownsville township and the populated Boca Chica beach community near the SpaceX Starbase in Texas. The Starbase area consists of open-air facilities in Boca Chica, located mere miles from the Mexican border.
Depending on how this environmental assessment goes, the launch might have to move operations to NASA’s launch complex in Florida. This move would undoubtedly delay the launch for months.
For now, the target launch date is in 2023, and the passengers have already been determined. In 2018, Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire, booked all the seats on a round-the-Moon trip on Starship. He plans to select artists from all over the world to join him in this mission, which he named “dearMoon.” If all goes well, Maezawa and his crew will become the first civilian passengers on a Starship mission. The journey is intended to last for a week.
Reach for the Stars … and the Solar System
With many remote cameras placed near SpaceX’s open-air facilities in Boca Chica, all eyes are, quite literally, on the Starship development and construction. Global scientists are ecstatic about what this transportation system could make possible in the future. From visiting other planets in our Solar system, reaching neighboring star systems, and even potentially preventing asteroids from hitting Earth, no goal seems too big for Starship.