SpaceX Starship

Ship 20 in preparation for the OFT.

*Note: This article is about the upper stage of the Starship launch vehicle as a spacecraft. For the entire system including Super Heavy booster as a launch vehicle, see Starship (Rocket).*

The SpaceX **Starship** is a planned fully reusable VTVL spacecraft intended to eventually replace the Falcon 9 and Dragon 2 fleet. It will also be used for reaching Mars as part of the Starship Mars Program and other purposes. The Starship Super Heavy is a special rocket designed exclusively for use with Starship. It will separate from the Starship after most of it's fuel is burned and then use the remainder to land vertically.

It is being developed at Starbase, TX, and will be launched from their operationally as well.

Starship was originally going to have a carbon composite hull, but switched to stainless steel because it can withstand very high temperatures, so SpaceX is hoping it will double as a heat shield, not only just look cool. Starship also has two sets of movable winglets which help stabilize the vehicle during launch and reentry.

Elon Musk planned to send humans to Mars on Starship at the same time NASA plans to land people on the moon again, 2024! He still hopes for this goal, but has said a more realistic timeline could result in first crewed flight to Mars in 2026.

Starship's main competition is New Glenn, a VTVL spacecraft similar to Starship developed by Blue Origin. New Glenn isn't designed for going beyond Earth, where was Starship is designed to be capable of accessing anywhere in the solar system (unmanned and with a refuel).

## Variations

### Starship (Crew)

The main version of Starship has a pressurized area for crew. It will be used to carry passengers on point-to-point trips around Earth and colonists to Mars. Starship's ultimate purpose is to construct a self-sufficient colony on Mars. This variation is the work horse of this goal, as it will deliver colonists to Mars. It is aimed to carry 100 passengers.

### Starship (Cargo)

The Cargo Starship will have a large cargo bay instead of a habitation area, this is be unpressurized and be used to deploy Starlink satellites, customer launches or other payloads to LEO, GEO, the Moon, Mars or most anywhere else in the Solar System. It will require a fueling unless it is deploying in LEO however.

### Methane Fuel Plant Starship

This variation of Starship will launch as a Crew Starship does to Mars, but instead of crew capacity is has a machine that can turn the CO2 in the atmosphere and Hydrogen (H2) into Methane (CH4)

### Tanker Starship

In order to leave LEO, Starship will need to be refueled. This is accomplished by a Tanker Starship, which instead of a crew area or cargo bay will have extra fuel storage capacity and will mate to the rear end of another Starship so their engine bells are aligned. Tanker Starship will then activate it's engines with out igniting the fuel so it passes unburnt through the combustion chamber, while the receiving Starship runs its turbo pump backwards. Starship will require multiple such refuels to leave LEO. The Tanker Starship then lands and refuels to be used again.

### Fuel Depot Starship

This variation is similar to the tanker starship, and may even simply be a tanker starship, but it would be launched into LEO and refueled by tanker starships until full. Then, the HLS (below) starship would be launched and refuel from the fuel depot to result in a minimal wait time for the moonship crew.

### Lunar Starship (HLS)

SpaceX submitted a proposal for a lunar variation of Starship for the Artemis Human Landing System (HLS) contract. It has no heat shield or aerodynamic flaps, and is painted white as opposed to the plain steel of the other Starship variations. They were selected along with Blue Origin's National Team's Integrated Lander Vehicle and Dynetics' ALPACA Lander for the contract. On April 16th, 2021, Starship was chosen as the lander to be used on the Artemis missions. During a typical Artemis mission, it would launch uncrewed into LEO. there it will be refueled by Tanker Starships to then fly to the Moon. There it will dock with the Lunar Gateway or an Orion capsule and transfer crew. Then it will land on the Moon with the crew and science experiments. After completing it's mission, it will ferry the crew back to Gateway or Orion. The crew will return to Earth via Orion and Lunar Starship will remains in Lunar orbit or return to the surface as it is incapable of reentering Earth's atmosphere with out being destroyed.

### Prototypes

Many prototypes were constructed to test the Starship System. These variations have a mass simulator instead or increased fuel capacity instead of Crew or Cargo capacity.

## Planned Uses

Starship is intended by SpaceX to eventually replace their Falcon 9 and Dragon fleet for launch service provider and crewed missions. The crew and cargo variants will allow SpaceX to provide a large crew and cargo capacity to Earth Orbit and beyond. Starship will serve as intercontinental travel on earth as well, capable of traveling from anywhere on Earth to anywhere else on Earth in less than an hour.

A modified lunar lander version of Starship or Starship Human Landing System or Starship HLS was chosen by NASA for the Artemis Program along with Blue Origin's National Team ILV Lander and the Dynetics Lander. It would fly to the moon, dock with the Lunar Gateway or an Orion capsule, and land on the Moon, then return.

## Development and Testing

See the section of the same name on the Starship (Rocket) page for the information on this topic.

## Spacecraft

See the List of SpaceX Starships page for a list of all Starships.

SpaceX (and Elon Musk really) has changed the nomenclature for Starships three times, going from Mark # (Mk#) up to the third test article (not counting *Starhopper*), which was changed to Serial Number 1 or SN1. This nomenclature was followed until SN20, which was changed to Ship 20, which is the current nomenclature used.

## Fun Facts

* Other aerospace companies have announced similar reusable upper stage projects before Starship has even made an orbital test flight. These include Blue Origin's Jarvis which will launch on New Glenn, Relativity Space's Terran R and Stoke Space Technologies' capsule.

* This is the 100th page added to this wiki!

## Gallery

A gallery of Starship related photos.

Elon Musk holding an early model of StarshipGateway Foundation's purposed Von Braun Class station with a Starship dockingArtist's Rendering of Starship Super Heavy booster landing.An early render of a Martian base with multiple Starship's on the surface.The design progression of BFR to Starship. This diagram does not include the original ITS systems or recent design changes.
## Sources

* SN4 Explosion Video (Everyday Astronaut)
* SN4 Explosion Explained (Scott Manley)
* SN9 Delay and SN7.2 Test (spaceXcentric)
* SN10 Explosion Explained (spaceXcentric)
* Space Explored: S20 Tiles fly off