SpaceX Starship
Reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Starship is a two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX. It is the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown. Starship's primary objective is to lower launch costs significantly via economies of scale. 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.[3] Starship is the latest project in SpaceX's decades-long reusable launch system development program and ambition of colonizing Mars.
Function | General-purpose and mass-produced launch vehicle |
---|---|
Manufacturer | |
Country of origin |
|
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 | |
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 (IFT-3)[lower-alpha 1] |
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)[lower-alpha 2] |
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 |
Starship launch vehicle has two stages: the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft. Both stages are equipped with Raptor 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. 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.