SpaceX Starship

Starship

Starship ignition during launch on its fifth flight
Function	Super-heavy lift launch vehicle
Manufacturer	SpaceX
Country of origin	United States
Project cost	At least US$5 billion[1]
Cost per launch	$100 million (expendable)[2]
Size
Height	121.3 m (398 ft)
Diameter	9 m (30 ft)
Mass	5,000,000 kg (11,000,000 lb)
Capacity
Payload to LEO
Mass	100,000–150,000 kg (220,000–330,000 lb)
Volume	1,000 m3 (35,000 cu ft)
Associated rockets
Derivative work	Starship HLS
Comparable	N1 Energia Saturn V Space Launch System Long March 9 Long March 10
Launch history
Status	In development
Launch sites	Starbase, OLP-A Starbase, OLP-B (under construction) Kennedy, LC-39A (under construction) Cape Canaveral, SLC-37 (planned)
Total launches	5
Success(es)	3
Failure(s)	2 (IFT-1, IFT-2)
First flight	20 April 2023; 18 months ago (2023-04-20)
Last flight	13 October 2024; 35 days ago (2024-10-13)
First stage – Super Heavy
Height	71 m (233 ft)
Diameter	9 m (30 ft)
Empty mass	250,000 kg (550,000 lb)
Gross mass	3,675,000 kg (8,102,000 lb)
Propellant mass	3,400,000 kg (7,500,000 lb)
Powered by	33 × Raptor engines
Maximum thrust	69.9 MN (15,700,000 lbf)
Specific impulse	SL: 327 s (3.21 km/s)
Propellant	CH4 / LOX
Second stage – Starship
Height	50.3 m (165 ft)
Diameter	9 m (30 ft)
Empty mass	~100,000 kg (220,000 lb)[3]
Gross mass	~1,300,000 kg (2,900,000 lb)[a]
Propellant mass	~1,200,000 kg (2,600,000 lb)
Powered by	3 × Raptor engines 3 × Raptor vacuum engines
Maximum thrust	12,300 kN (2,800,000 lbf)
Specific impulse	SL: 327 s (3.21 km/s) vac: 380 s (3.7 km/s)
Propellant	CH4 / LOX
[edit on Wikidata]

Starship is a two-stage fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by American aerospace company SpaceX. On April 20, 2023, with the first Integrated Flight Test, Starship became the most massive and most powerful vehicle ever to fly.^[4] SpaceX has developed Starship with the intention of lowering launch costs using economies of scale,^[5] aiming to achieve this by reusing both rocket stages by "catching" them with the launch tower's systems, increasing payload mass to orbit, increasing launch frequency, mass-manufacturing the rockets and adapting it to a wide range of space missions.^[6][7] Starship is the latest project in SpaceX's reusable launch system development program and plan to colonize Mars.

Starship's two stages are the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft. Both stages are equipped with Raptor engines, the first flown and mass-produced full-flow staged combustion cycle engines, which burn liquid methane (natural gas) and liquid oxygen. The main structure is made from a special stainless steel alloy that SpaceX has dubbed "30X".^[8]

As of 2024,^[update] Starship is in development with an iterative and incremental approach, involving test flights of prototype vehicles. As a successor to SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, Starship is intended to 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; a ship-to-ship propellant transfer demonstration is expected to occur in 2025.^[9][10] SpaceX also plans other versions of the Starship spacecraft, such as: cargo (deploying SpaceX's second-generation Starlink satellite constellation), and human spaceflight (the Human Landing System variant will land astronauts on the Moon as part of the Artemis program, starting in 2026).

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