{
  "id": "starship",
  "title": "Starship",
  "lang": "en",
  "source_lang": "en",
  "summary": "Starship is SpaceX's two-stage, fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle, under development since the 2010s.",
  "category": "technology",
  "subcategory": "transport",
  "type": "product",
  "aliases": [
    "Starship and Super Heavy",
    "BFR",
    "Big Falcon Rocket",
    "Interplanetary Transport System"
  ],
  "generated_at": "2026-10-16",
  "model": "pro/claude-haiku-5-5",
  "url": "https://aiwiki.page/en/starship/",
  "translations": {
    "zh-Hans": {
      "url": "https://aiwiki.page/zh/starship/",
      "json": "https://aiwiki.page/zh/starship.json"
    }
  },
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "",
      "text": "Starship is a two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by SpaceX, the American aerospace company founded by Elon Musk. It pairs a reusable first stage, the Super Heavy booster, with a reusable second stage, also called Starship, which serves as both an upper stage and a spacecraft. The company's stated aim is a fully reusable orbital rocket with the largest payload capacity of any launch vehicle. Its main long-term goals are routine access to orbit for satellite deployment, crewed lunar landings under NASA's program, and transport to Mars."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Design",
      "text": "Vehicle configuration\n\nWhen stacked and fully fueled, the vehicle has a mass of roughly 5,000 to 5,300 tonnes, a diameter of 9 m, and a height that depends on the version. Block 1 stood about 121 m tall, while the Block 3 configuration is about 124 m. Its planned Block 4 version is estimated at around 142 m. The booster is 71 m tall in its early form and carries a propellant load of about 3,400 to 3,650 tonnes, depending on the block.\n\nPropulsion\n\nThe Super Heavy booster is powered by 33 Raptor engines. Its maximum thrust is about 73.5 MN in Block 1 and 2 and about 80.8 MN in Block 3. Both stages burn liquid methane with liquid oxygen, a propellant combination chosen partly because methane can be produced in situ and burns cleanly relative to kerosene-based fuels. The Raptor family uses a full-flow staged combustion cycle, which the program cites as a source of high efficiency.\n\nMaterials and design history\n\nThe design has changed substantially since the program began. SpaceX first planned to build the vehicle from carbon fiber, but in January 2019 the company switched to stainless steel, which is heavier but tolerates heat better and is far cheaper. Early concepts were known as the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), with a 12 m diameter, and later as the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), a 9 m design with roughly one-third the payload of the earlier version. In 2019 the company began calling the whole system Starship, with the booster named Super Heavy."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Development history",
      "text": "Design work on the earlier concepts began around 2012. Development then moved through a series of suborbital hop tests of the ship prototypes before the first full-stack launch. That launch, on 20 April 2023, was the first integrated flight of the booster and spacecraft. The vehicle lifted off but was destroyed about four minutes later, and the flight was widely regarded as a partial success.\n\nThe second and third flights, in November 2023 and March 2024, progressed further. The March 2024 flight, the third test, reached full-duration burns of both stages and achieved orbital velocity, though both stages were lost during atmospheric reentry. The fourth flight, in June 2024, was the first in which both stages returned and the booster performed a powered vertical landing over the ocean. The same mission was also the first to show a ship-to-ship style liquid oxygen transfer between tanks on one vehicle, which later supported work on in-orbit refueling.\n\nSubsequent flights brought larger changes. The version designated Block 3, sometimes referred to as V3, first flew in 2026 from a new launch pad at Starbase in Texas. Several earlier flights ended with explosions or other failures, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has required mishap investigations and license modifications for many of them."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Flight test record",
      "text": "As of late September 2026, Starship had flown 14 times. Nine flights were counted as successful and five as failures. The most significant milestone to date came on 28 September 2026, with the 14th flight. This was the program's first orbital flight. The ship deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites and made a controlled descent into the Pacific, despite the loss of one engine during the ascent. Flight 14 was still classified as a test flight, and SpaceX planned to assess recent vehicle changes during the mission."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Applications",
      "text": "Satellite deployment\n\nSpaceX intends Starship to launch large batches of its Starlink satellites, which would increase capacity for the company's internet service. Company executives have also discussed launching AI compute satellites into orbit beginning in 2027, though these plans are not yet demonstrated.\n\nArtemis lunar landings\n\nNASA has contracted SpaceX to develop a Starship variant, the Human Landing System (HLS), for the Artemis program. The HLS variant differs from the baseline design: it includes a forward docking port compatible with the Orion crew vehicle, a crew transfer system, and hot-gas thrusters for landing, because Raptor exhaust would disturb lunar soil. Under the plan, astronauts would move from Orion into the HLS in lunar orbit and then descend to the Moon. NASA's HLS work is part of the broader United States effort to return astronauts to the lunar surface.\n\nOrbital refueling\n\nThe HLS concept depends on in-orbit propellant transfer. The lander is too heavy to launch fully fueled, so the plan calls for a depot in Earth orbit that is filled by a series of tanker flights, after which the HLS launches with little propellant, docks, and fills its tanks before departing. NASA planning has assumed roughly ten dedicated tanker missions per lunar mission. SpaceX has demonstrated a tank-to-tank liquid oxygen transfer within one vehicle, but a transfer between two independent spacecraft had not been demonstrated as of mid-2026. A NASA technical report has noted that the transfer of cryogenic propellants between independent spacecraft had never been demonstrated publicly at that point."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Reusability and economics",
      "text": "Starship is designed so that both stages return for reuse, which is central to SpaceX's cost argument. Some estimates describe an expendable launch cost of about 100 million US dollars, with a target of much lower marginal cost once the vehicle is routinely reused. Reported total program cost exceeds 15 billion US dollars. These figures are company targets or third-party estimates and have not been independently verified."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Challenges and controversies",
      "text": "Starship has faced repeated schedule slips. Its goals for orbital refueling were originally set for 2024 and later for 2025, and a NASA safety panel in 2025 said the HLS schedule could be years late for a 2027 crewed landing. A propellant transfer demonstration was optimistically scheduled for late 2026. Flight tests have also produced debris, most notably in 2025, when two flights ended in midair explosions that scattered wreckage over the Atlantic. The launch site in South Texas is near populated areas, and the launch noise and debris have drawn local attention and regulatory review.\n\nCommentators have also questioned whether the reusable heavy-lift system can meet the cadence and reliability that NASA and commercial customers require. Technical concerns center on cryogenic boil-off during long orbital waits, heat-shield durability on reentry, and the accuracy of automated docking and fluid transfer."
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    "elon-musk",
    "mars",
    "methane",
    "oxygen",
    "moon",
    "united-states"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "SpaceX Starship",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship"
    },
    {
      "title": "SpaceX Super Heavy",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Super_Heavy"
    },
    {
      "title": "SpaceX Starship design history",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship_design_history"
    },
    {
      "title": "ITS launch vehicle",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITS_launch_vehicle"
    },
    {
      "title": "Starship flight test 1",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_flight_test_1"
    },
    {
      "title": "Starship flight test 4",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_flight_test_4"
    },
    {
      "title": "Starship flight test 12",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_flight_test_12"
    },
    {
      "title": "Starship Propellant Transfer Demonstration",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Propellant_Transfer_Demonstration"
    },
    {
      "title": "SpaceX launches Starship into orbit for 1st time — largest rocket ever built notches key milestone on dramatic Flight 14 test",
      "url": "https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-starship-megarocket-flight-14-orbital-launch-success"
    },
    {
      "title": "SpaceX launches its massive Starship rocket into orbit for the first time",
      "url": "https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/28/spacex-prepares-to-send-starship-rocket-to-orbit-for-first-time.html"
    },
    {
      "title": "SpaceX’s Starship is headed for orbit. Here’s what’s at stake",
      "url": "https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/27/science/spacex-starship-orbital-launch"
    },
    {
      "title": "SpaceX launches its biggest, most beefed-up Starship yet on a test flight",
      "url": "https://www.npr.org/2026/05/23/nx-s1-5832402/spacex-biggest-starship-flight"
    },
    {
      "title": "Starship and Super Heavy: SpaceX's deep-space transportation for the moon and Mars",
      "url": "https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-super-heavy.html"
    },
    {
      "title": "NASA Safety Panel Estimates Significant Delays for Starship HLS",
      "url": "https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/nasa-safety-panel-estimates-significant-delays-for-starship-hls/"
    },
    {
      "title": "Starship Propellant Transfer Demo: Why On-Orbit Refueling Is the Linchpin of Artemis III",
      "url": "https://slinews.com/technology/starship-propellant-transfer-demo-on-orbit-refueling/"
    },
    {
      "title": "ntrs.nasa.gov",
      "url": "https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20250004625"
    },
    {
      "title": "Starship HLS",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_HLS"
    }
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}