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Starship (rocket)

Starship (rocket)21 posts

Starship is a fully-reusable, super-heavy-lift launch vehicle being developed by SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer. It is the tallest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built.

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27 May, 2023

Musk: Next Starship launch in two months

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Musk says the next Starship launch will take place in two months, after tested upgrades are made to the launchpad that was destroyed during the first launch.

Major launchpad upgrades should be complete in about a month, then another month of rocket testing on pad, then flight 2 of Starship

18 Apr, 2023

Musk announces Starship blowtorch

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Following Musk’s tweet about a “Mini Starship with flame,” SpaceX announces the pre-sale of a collectable, Starship-themed blowtorch. The $175 burner has a safety lock as well as a windproof, adjustable flame and is being marketed for things like melting cheese and lighting candles. As one advert puts it:

It’s collectible. It’s functional. And it burns, burns, burns. The Starship Torch.

31 Jan, 2023

Musk: Expendable Starship is ‘an option’

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Musk says SpaceX could eventually develop an expendable version of its next-generation Starship rocket.

Starship is designed to launch up to 150 tons (330,000 lbs) to low Earth orbit while still recovering the orbital ship and suborbital booster for reuse (by comaprison, the Saturn V rocket could lift 118 tons). Musk says the reusable ship may be turned aoround in hours, enabling multiple flights a day, lowering the price of each launch. However, in early 2023, SpaceX updated the Starship section of its website, revealing that an expendable version of the rocket will be able to launch up to 250 metric tons (~550,000 lbs) to low Earth orbit in a single launch.

StarshipSpaceX’s Starbase factory is already building multiple intentionally-expendable Starships. Ship 26 and Ship 27 feature no thermal protection, have no heat shield tiles, and will not be fitted with flaps, making them impossible to recover or reuse. They will be used to test other crucial Starship technologies like orbital refilling and cryogenic fluid management. The first few Starship Moon landers may also be functionally expendable.