Elon Musk’s SpaceX is making waves in the space industry once again with its ambitious plans for the Starship rocket system. Musk envisions a fleet of Starships carrying settlers to Mars in the coming years, and to achieve this goal, the Starship has to be big – really big.
Standing at a towering 397 feet tall, the Starship is the tallest rocket ever built, surpassing even the iconic Statue of Liberty in height. What’s more, the Super Heavy booster that will propel the Starship into space boasts a record-breaking 33 powerful Raptor engines, generating a staggering 16 million pounds of thrust at full throttle.
In comparison, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which made its debut flight in November 2022, pales in comparison with a maximum thrust of 8.8 million pounds. Even the legendary Saturn V rocket that took astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program falls short with a maximum thrust of 7.6 million pounds.
But perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of the Starship is its reusability. Both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship itself are designed to be entirely reusable, significantly cutting down on the cost of space travel. Musk predicts that it could cost less than $10 million to send 100 tons into space using the Starship system.
Constructed out of stainless steel, the Starship and Super Heavy are not only cost-effective but also durable. The spacecraft is coated in black tiles on one side to protect it from the extreme heat it will encounter during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
With its groundbreaking design and ambitious goals, the Starship rocket system is poised to revolutionize space travel and pave the way for humanity’s future on Mars. Elon Musk’s vision of a Mars ship may soon become a reality thanks to the innovative technology being developed by SpaceX.
