Starship prototype in launch configuration: Starship spacecraft sits on top of Super Heavy.
Function
General-purpose and mass-produced launch vehicle
Manufacturer
SpaceX
Country of origin
United States
Project cost
At least US$5 billion[1]
Size
Height
121.3 m (398 ft)
Diameter
9 m (30 ft)
Mass
5,000 t (11,000,000 lb)
Capacity
Payload to LEO
Mass
Reusable: 100–150 t (220,000–331,000 lb)
Volume
1,000 m3 (35,000 cu ft)
Associated rockets
Derivative work
Starship HLS
Comparable
N1
Saturn V
Space Shuttle
Falcon Heavy
Space Launch System
Long March 9
Launch history
Status
In development
Launch sites
SpaceX Starbase Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A (planned) Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, SLC-37 (planned)
Total launches
3
Success(es)
1[a]
Failure(s)
2 (IFT-1, IFT-2)
First flight
April 20, 2023; 12 months ago (April 20, 2023)
Last flight
March 14, 2024
First stage – Super Heavy
Height
71 m (233 ft)
Diameter
9 m (30 ft)
Empty mass
200 t (441,000 lb)
Gross mass
3,600 t (7,937,000 lb)
Propellant mass
3,400 t (7,496,000 lb)
Powered by
33 Raptor engines
Maximum thrust
7,590 tf (74,400 kN; 16,700,000 lbf)
Specific impulse
327 s (3.21 km/s) (sea-level)
Propellant
Liquid oxygen / Methane
Second stage – Starship
Height
50.3 m (165 ft)
Diameter
9 m (30 ft)
Empty mass
~100 t (220,000 lb)[2]
Gross mass
1,300 t (2,866,000 lb)[b]
Propellant mass
1,200 t (2,646,000 lb)
Powered by
3 Raptor engines 3 Raptor vacuum engines
Maximum thrust
1,250 tf (12,300 kN; 2,760,000 lbf)
Specific impulse
327 s (3.21 km/s) (sea-level) 380 s (3.7 km/s) (vacuum)
Propellant
Liquid oxygen / Methane
[edit on Wikidata]
Starship is a two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX. As of April 2024, it is the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown. Starship's primary objective is to lower launch costs significantly via economies of scale.[3] This is achieved by reusing both rocket stages, increasing payload mass to orbit, increasing launch frequency, creating a mass-manufacturing pipeline, and adapting it to a wide range of space missions.[4] Starship is the latest project in SpaceX's decades-long reusable launch system development program and ambition of colonizing Mars.
Starship launch vehicle has two stages: the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft. Both stages are equipped with Raptor engines, the first production full flow staged combustion cycle engines, which burn liquid methane and liquid oxygen. Their main structure is made from stainless steel. After boosting the spacecraft, the Super Heavy booster uses its engines to slow down before being caught by a pair of mechanical arms attached to the launch tower. Once in orbit and completing the mission, the Starship spacecraft reenters the atmosphere, and propulsively lands. Lunar and depot variants do not need to reenter the atmosphere and thus do not have a thermal protection system. Following a 'belly flop' maneuver, where the spacecraft turns from a horizontal to a vertical orientation, the spacecraft touches down via thrust power.
As of 2024, Starship is in development with an iterative and incremental approach, involving test flights of prototype vehicles, which often end in the destruction of the test vehicle. As a successor to SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, Starship will perform a wide range of space missions. For missions to further destinations, such as geosynchronous orbit, the Moon, and Mars, Starship will rely on orbital refueling from the tanker variants, a ship-to-ship propellant transfer demonstration is expected to occur in 2025 to prove out this critical capability.[5][6]Starship will deploy SpaceX's second-generation Starlink satellite constellation, and the Starship HLS variant will land astronauts on the Moon as part of the Artemis program, starting with Artemis 3 in 2026.
^Cite error: The named reference :19 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Sesnic-2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Dans, Enrique. "Elon Musk's Economies Of Scale Won SpaceX The NASA Moonshot". Forbes. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
^Wattles, Jackie (29 September 2019). "Elon Musk says SpaceX's Mars rocket will be cheaper than he once thought. Here's why". CNN Business. Archived from the original on 26 June 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
^Zafar, Ramish (26 April 2024). "SpaceX's Fourth Starship IFT-4 Test Is On Track For May Reveals NASA Official". Wccftech. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
^Clark, Stephen (30 April 2024). "NASA lays out how SpaceX will refuel Starships in low-Earth orbit". Ars Technica. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
Starship is a two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX. As of April 2024, it is the largest and most powerful rocket ever...
SpaceXStarship flight tests include 14 launches of prototype rockets during 2019–2024 for the SpaceXStarship launch vehicle development program. Eleven...
SpaceXStarship integrated flight test 3 (IFT-3) was the third integrated flight test of the SpaceXStarship launch vehicle. SpaceX performed the flight...
SpaceXStarship Integrated Flight Test 2 (IFT-2) was the second integrated flight test of SpaceXStarship launch vehicle. SpaceX performed the flight test...
Before settling on the 2018 Starship design, SpaceX successively presented a number of reusable super-heavy lift vehicle proposals. These preliminary...
HLS procurement process NASA awarded SpaceX a contract in April 2021 to develop, produce, and demonstrate Starship HLS. An uncrewed test flight is planned...
SpaceXStarship integrated flight test 1 (IFT-1) was the first integrated flight test of the SpaceXStarship launch vehicle. SpaceX performed the flight...
complex for Starship rockets, located at Brownsville, Texas, United States. It has been under construction since the late 2010s by SpaceX, an American...
SpaceX. The engine is a full-flow staged combustion cycle (FFSC) engine powered by cryogenic liquid methane and liquid oxygen ("methalox"). SpaceX's Starship...
of developing Starship, however, SpaceX developed reusable payload fairings for the Falcon 9. The program was announced in 2011. SpaceX first achieved...
is the first stage of the SpaceXStarship super heavy-lift launch vehicle, which it composes in combination with the Starship second-stage. As of 2024...
SpaceX has stated its ambition to facilitate the colonization of Mars via the development of the Starship launch vehicle. The company states that this...
Assessment for the SpaceXStarship and Super Heavy Launch Vehicle at Kennedy Space Center (KSC)" (PDF). NASA Public NEPA Documents. SpaceX. Archived (PDF)...
2023[update], SpaceX operates four launch facilities: Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), Vandenberg Space Force Base Space Launch Complex...
financed by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. It will make use of a SpaceXStarship spacecraft on a private spaceflight flying a single circumlunar trajectory...
program, and also to support the needs of other NASA and SpaceX programs. The SpaceXStarship is also qualified to be bid for Commercial Lunar Payload...
press". spacex.com. SpaceX. Archived from the original on 23 June 2013. Retrieved 15 Dec 2012. "Elon Musk — Senate Testimony, 5 May 2004". SpaceX. 2004-05-04...
org/NORAD/elements/supplemental/table.php?FILE=starlink-g6-1" (Tweet) – via Twitter. SpaceX [@spacex] (26 February 2023). "We call them 'V2 Mini'. They represent a step...
launch vehicles List of SpaceXStarship flight tests This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title List of SpaceX launches. If an internal...
original on 15 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023. "SpaceX - Starshield". www.spacex.com. Archived from the original on 14 December 2022. Retrieved...
SpaceX Merlin engines and employ VTVL technologies to reuse the first stage. As of 2024, the company is also developing the fully reusable Starship launch...
Archived from the original on 2023-09-02. Retrieved 2023-09-02. "SpaceX Tests Starship Water Deluge System That It Should've Built in the First Place"...
to be the first crewed Starship flight. Polaris Dawn, the first flight, will attempt the first private spacewalk. NASA and SpaceX signed in September 2022...
February 2018. "SpaceX - Starship". SpaceX. Retrieved 29 November 2023. Starship is the fully reusable spacecraft and second stage of the Starship system. "Musk...
configurations, including the Delta IV Heavy. Plans are being proposed for SpaceXStarship operations from LC-37 in near future, as the Delta family's last rocket...
Global Information