Starship

SpaceX's fully reusable launch system: the Super Heavy booster with 33 Raptor engines burning methane and liquid oxygen, topped by the Starship upper stage. It is the most powerful rocket ever flown, and the booster returns to be caught by the arms of its launch tower. Still in development since its first flight in 2023, it is meant to refuel in orbit and land astronauts on the Moon as Starship HLS.

Key figures

Builder

SpaceX

Status

In development

First flight

2023

Height

124 m

Diameter

9 m

Liftoff thrust

80,916 kN

Payload to low Earth orbit

100 t

Missions

• Artemis IV: The Complete Mission in Real-Time 3D

Destinations

• Moon

Launch pads

• Starbase (2028, Modelled for Artemis IV)

All spacecraft