SpaceX Starship Explained: How the World's Biggest Rocket Will Take Us to Mars

1. Cost Drop Like Your First Phone Bill After Moving Out

Old-school rockets? One-and-done. They lift off, dump their stages in the ocean, and you buy a brand-new ride each time. Imagine scrapping a 747 after every flight ticket prices would be insane.

Starship flips that script. Both stages land, get refueled, and launch again the same day. Elon Musk claims this could drop the cost per kilo to orbit from 2,720 (Falcon 9) to under 100. Even if he’s off by 50%, that’s still cheaper than shipping a laptop overnight across the country.

2. Payload Room You Could Host a Basketball Game In

Numbers time:

• Height: 120 m (394 ft) - taller than the Saturn V
• Payload bay: 1,100 m³ - enough space for 100 people plus luggage
• Mass to low-Earth orbit: 150 t - roughly three school buses full of cargo

Translation? Instead of launching a small satellite, you can launch an entire satellite factory and still have room left for snacks.

3. Deep-Space Range Without Gas Stations… Sort Of

Starship’s built to reach Mars in about six months. The trick is in-orbit refueling. One “tanker” Starship tops off another, and boom you’ve doubled your range. It’s like meeting a buddy on the highway to pour extra gas in your trunk so you can drive straight to Alaska.

The Super Heavy Booster - 33 Engines of Pure Thrust

Think of Super Heavy as the muscle.

• 33 Raptor engines produce 72 MN of thrust at liftoff.
• Uses liquid methane + oxygen same stuff you cook with, minus the smell.
• Designed to land, get hosed down, and fly again within an hour.

Why methane? You can make it on Mars using water and CO₂ from the air. Yup SpaceX wants to brew its own rocket fuel on another planet. Talk about a long-term plan.

Stainless Steel: The Material Nobody Saw Coming

Carbon fiber is light but pricey about 135 per kilo** and picky about temperature. Stainless steel? **3 per kilo, laughs at heat, and you can weld it in a tent.

Fun fact: At 1,600 °C, stainless steel actually gets stronger. Carbon fiber turns into expensive confetti. SpaceX turned the budget option into a superpower.

Heat Shield Tiles That Snap On Like Lego

The shiny upper stage still needs protection. 18,000 hexagon tiles cover the belly. Each one is lightweight, reusable, and glued on by hand. If one cracks, just pop it off and stick a new one on. No months-long refurb like the Space Shuttle.

NASA’s Artemis Moon Lander - 2027

NASA picked Starship to ferry astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface. The lunar version will:

• Sport landing legs the size of redwood trunks
• Carry 100 t of supplies for a week-long stay
• Refuel in orbit around the Moon using tanker flights

First crewed demo? Artemis IV in 2027. Mark your calendars.

DearMoon Flyby - When Artists Orbit the Moon

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa bought every seat on the first private lunar flyby. Eight artists will spend six days looping around the Moon, live-streaming the whole thing. Imagine a Netflix series filmed 400,000 km from Earth.

Mars Cargo Drop - 2030-ish

SpaceX’s internal goal:

• 2026: Uncrewed cargo Starships land on Mars
• 2028: First crew of 10-12 people
• 2035: A self-sustaining city of 1,000 residents

Ambitious? Absolutely. Impossible? Ask the folks who said landing rockets was impossible in 2014.

1. FAA Paperwork Mountain

Every launch needs permits. More launches, more paperwork. SpaceX is working on a “volume license” think bulk Netflix for rocket launches but politics moves slower than rocket science.

2. Orbital Refueling - Juggling Fire in Space

Docking two giant metal tubes full of cryogenic fuel while orbiting Earth at 27,000 km/h is… tricky. SpaceX plans dozens of test flights to nail the dance. First tests start late 2025.

3. Cosmic Radiation and Human Bodies

Six months in deep space equals about 600 chest X-rays. Solutions:

• Water walls around crew quarters
• Magnetic shields (still experimental)
• Pharmaceutical countermeasures pills that repair radiation damage

Bottom line: we need more data before we send kindergarten teachers to Mars.