SpaceX Starship images
Starship
Booster
Starship and booster stack
Starship: Trajectory
Starship is a fully-reusable, super-heavy-lift launch vehicle being developed by American aerospace company SpaceX. If successful, Starship will be the most powerful launch vehicle ever built and is expected to be the first to demonstrate total reusability.
The Starship system consists of the Super Heavy first-stage booster and the Starship second stage, which serves as a self-contained spacecraft while in orbit. Both stages are powered by Raptor engines, which burn liquid oxygen and liquid natural gas propellants in a highly efficient full-flow staged combustion power cycle. Both rocket stages are designed for rapid reuse by landing vertically. The Super Heavy booster can perform a boostback burn and Starship can reenter the atmosphere for a belly-first descent.
Starship has a payload capacity of 100 t (220,000 lb) to low Earth orbit in its fully reusable configuration, and is designed for a high flight rate in order to dramatically reduce the cost of space access. Expected applications include satellite launch, including the deployment of a large portion of SpaceX’s next-generation Starlink internet constellation; human spaceflight such as space station crew transport, space tourism, and transport of passengers to Mars; and point-to-point suborbital spaceflight. Once in orbit, the Starship spacecraft can additionally be refueled by Starship propellant tankers before transiting to higher energy destinations such as the Moon and Mars.
Footnote
- Sources: Aerospace dashboard, funkystuff.org
- Outgoing: SpaceX
- Keywords: SpaceX Starship images