Questions tagged [spacex-starship]
Questions regarding SpaceX's Starship, formerly the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) upper stage or BFS
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Why do SpaceX Starships look so "homemade"?
Maybe this is not possible to answer, but I was hoping there was some reliable information available on this.
It seems to me that the SpaceX Starship rockets have sort of a homemade quality to them, ...
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Why did the SpaceX Starship SN10 explode?
Much to everyone's relief.
The SpaceX Starship SN10 successfully completed its flight and landed.....
But, sometime later, It exploded!
Why?
And did it have anything to do with the fire near the ...
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Can a spaceship land on an icy body using retropropulsion? wouldn't the ice melt?
Can a spaceship, say Musk's BFR, actually land on the ice surface of Titan, or Europa, or Enceladus?
It seems to me that the hot exhaust gases would make the surface melt where the rocket is trying to ...
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Why not land SpaceX's Starship like a plane?
I get the reasoning behind designing Starship to land upright. It doesn't require landing gear and the turnaround is expected to be much faster. But I'm beginning to question that logic.
I think the ...
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Why is SpaceX not also working on a smaller version of Starship?
SpaceX is planning to retire Falcon 9, which would leave it with only Starship. While a Starship launch is expected to be cheaper than a Falcon 9 one, a downscaled Starship launch would be cheaper ...
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What is a thrust puck on Starship?
Elon Musk recently mentioned a Thrust Puck on Twitter, "We’re stripping SN2 to bare minimum to test the thrust puck to dome weld under pressure, first with water, then at cryo."
He also mentioned ...
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Isn't Starship way too big?
The Shuttle was designed with a huge payload of 20 tons. This was supposed to not be a problem since:
the reusability would drive down costs until satellite operators dropped expensive space hardware ...
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Why has a rocket system like Starship never been proposed before? It does not seem to use any new science, materials or fuels
I wonder why nobody ever proposed a space launch system like Starship. Methane as a fuel and all the theory behind are well known, so why?
Is it solely because of IT progress that made returning the ...
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SpaceX Starship landing on Moon or Mars: why doesn't it fall over?
How does the SpaceX Starship design accommodate uneven landing surfaces that might not be stable under the weight of the vessel?
I don't understand how SpaceX's Starship would be able to land on ...
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Why is SpaceX building the Big Falcon Ship before the Big Falcon Rocket?
I believe that SpaceX is planning on building the BFS (Big Falcon Spacecraft) before the BFR (Big Falcon Rocket), which serves as the first stage for the second-stage BFS. Does anyone know why they ...
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Why have SpaceX skipped the SpaceX Starship SN12, SN13, and SN14?
Something has happened to the SpaceX Starship SN11.
(For full details and answers regarding SN11, check out the question What happened to the SpaceX Starship SN11?)
Elon Musk recently posted this ...
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For the Starship SN8 flight, did they lose engines in flight?
Watching the first (only?) test flight of SN8 we saw them start flying with three Raptor engines firing and then one looked like it flamed out, with lots of fire inside the engine bay. Then later a ...
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How will SpaceX Starship deploy its payload?
Most modern orbital launchers like the SpaceX Falcon9 have their payload at the front covered by a fairing which splits in half, ejecting the fairings and exposing the payload for deployment.
With ...
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Why are Starship landings so difficult when SpaceX has landed so many boosters?
Per Wikipedia, SpaceX has landed boosters successfully 79 out of 90 times.
Yet Starships seem to be reliably exploding upon landing.
What is so different about the two that Starships are so much more ...
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What is SpaceX doing differently with Starship to avoid it exploding like the N1?
Both Starship and the N1 have more than 30 rocket engines. The N1 exploded after having a chain reaction from a failed engine.
N1 rocket engines:
Starship’s rocket engines:
Unlike the N1, SpaceX has ...
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Can someone explain the SN10 landing failure in layperson's terms?
The things I can't understand from what Elon tweeted are:
"engine was low on thrust due (probably) to partial helium ingestion"
There are only tanks for liquid oxygen and CH4 - where did ...
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Why isn't SpaceX constructing the Super Heavy launch mount on top of the water?
With SpaceX creating their launch facility in Boca Chica Texas, right next to the water, why would they bother building a huge launch pad to withstand the blast, as opposed to building it on top of ...
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Why is Elon Musk building the Starship first? [duplicate]
I mean what is he going to do with the ship alone? Is it even capable of orbital flight on its own?
Now the booster can be put to use immediately, and will probably be easier to make by far (I think)? ...
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Was Starship’s “launch window” administrative, rather than due to orbital mechanics?
According to Wikipedia,
a launch window is the time period on a given day during which a
particular rocket must be launched in order to reach its intended
target.
SpaceX’s internet launch coverage ...
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Elon Musk's ITS Travel Time to Mars Estimate
The average travel time to Mars has been quoted to be around nine months (~ 270 days). This assumes current propulsion methods and when Mars and Earth are near each other.
Musk has been quoted to say ...
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Why is it not concerning from a cost perspective to have so many engines on Starship?
Starship is meant to imitate (to a degree) the affordability of passenger jets. This applies to Earth-to-Earth travel as well as space travel.
Jetliners started with 4 engines, but have since migrated ...
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Why 31 engines for the BFR?
I understand the philosophy of using relatively many smaller engines so that a single engine failure has minimal impact on the mission (provided you can keep the shrapnel from shredding the others) ...
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Why will Starship's 150 ton payload capacity be sufficient to carry 100 people to other planets?
The ISS weighs 450 tons and carries 7 people for three months without resupply.
Starship is supposed to carry 14 times as many people for more than twice the duration with one third the mass.
How?
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Why isn't SpaceX's Starship "trial and error" development strategy an open source project?
Some large community of space enthusiasts is working hard on simulating or extrapolating data on the SpaceX Starship. But this data isn't publicly available.
So why don't they release it as an open ...
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Why doesn't Starship have four landing legs?
A counterpart to the question Why doesn't the Falcon-9 first stage use three legs to land?
This excellent answer states that the first stage of the Falcon-9 uses four legs because four legs are ...
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Is the failure to separate Starship from the Super Heavy booster a "dumb failure" and does it tell something about the project reliability? [duplicate]
Sorry for the possibly dumb question, but I don't know much about rocket technology.
As I gather, the main problem in the recently failed Elon Musk's Starship launch was that the Starship "...
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What can the ISS do that a SpaceX Starship could not?
The SpaceX Starship (lunar and/or crew-rated version, upper stage only) is expected to have more habitable volume than the International Space Station. On the other hand, the ISS is around 400 tons, ...
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Why create a production line for the SpaceX Starship?
We read that Elon Musk is focusing not only on designing a functional new space vehicle, but almost foremost on creating a production line of Starship. In addition to the existing and expanding Texas ...
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Exactly why does Starship need to be this big for interplanetary travel?
As discussed in several answers to Isn't Starship way too big? Starship's unusual size is due to it being intended for missions to the Red Planet. But why?
Even a smaller ship could satisfy the ...
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If one Starship can transport 100 people to Mars, how many could it safely land near Mercury's north pole after one Hohmann-like transfer?
Personally, I would rather live near Mercury's north pole than anywhere on Mars mainly because:
The permanently shadowed craters harbor abundant water ice and other frozen volatile materials
Mercury ...
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Why was Space X's Starship blown up?
I understand that thousands of small rocket fragments will cause less damage when they fall than an intact rocket. But at the time Starship was detonated, I believe it was over the ocean, and not ...
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Was there an anomaly during SN8's ascent which later led to the crash?
In SpaceX'S video, there is a conflagration inside the engine enclosure which seems irregular at around 1:49:49. The engine far left of the engine camera stops working and a few seconds later some ...
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On April 20 2023, how did Super Heavy burn for 40% longer than planned?
The launch profile as planned had the booster shutting down at 169 seconds.
In the event, it burned for 239s, or more than 40% longer. We know that the booster lost 5-7 engines during the flight, ...
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How does SpaceX plan to deal with boiloff on the trip to Mars?
Both BFR (Big Falcon Rocket) booster and BFS (Big Falcon Spaceship) are to run on Raptor engines, fueled with liquid methane and liquid oxygen - cryofuels.
The trip to Mars will take at least a couple ...
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What are SpaceX's Starship's header tanks?
In the Everyday Astronaut video A conversation with Elon Musk about Starship after about 13:00 Musk shows Dodd a cell phone video that he shot in the top(?) of the ...
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Why will Superheavy/Starship have a landing pad so close to the launch pad?
According to this image (taken from this answer)
The landing zone is situated right next to the Starship pad.
In contrast, the Falcon 9 landing pads are much much further at 28°29′09″N 80°32′40″W on ...
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Why will the BFS reenter broadside rather than engine first?
Musk has stated that they added the delta wing to the BFS design because; from one flight to the next the ship may have differing payloads and differing fuel loads. These changes shift the center of ...
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How does SpaceX plan to supply or recycle respiratory gasses?
If Starship carries 100 passengers to Mars, they will consume about 6 metric tons of oxygen and produce about 10 tons of CO2 on each leg of the trip. Much more if they exercise.
CO2 could be converted ...
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What is the two little black side tanks seen at starship?
What is the content of the two little black side tanks at the SpaceX Starship SN3? And what it's used for?
The picture is of Mk1 then SN1 (tanks on left side) then SN3 (tanks on middle front).
Here ...
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How can the Starship booster stand vertically without falling over?
How can the Starship booster stand vertically without falling over?
In my day to day experience, similar long objects (simple objects that can be easily found in thehouse) tend to fall easily with a ...
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Why does starship flip vertical at the last moment instead of earlier
In the test flight of SN9, it appeared that 1 of 2 engines did not relight upon landing. Why is the transition to vertical not done at a higher altitude where a backup engine could be lit if needed ...
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Is Starship aerodynamically stable when travelling nose first?
Is Starship aerodynamically stable when traveling nose first, or does it require constant gimbaling from the main engines to keep it pointing nose first? Is this part of the explanation for why Space ...
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Will it be possible to see BFR approaching the moon from earth, with naked eye?
The title pretty much sums it up. I'm not old enough to have experienced any of the previous manned moon landings. Given that Big Falcon Rocket will go around the moon in 2023, I'm wondering if one ...
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Could one actually make a grain silo rocket?
Watching the recent SpaceX Starship tests got me to thinking:
Could you actually make a rocket using grain as the propellant?
Image from https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starship-sn5-second-hop-plans/...
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How does SpaceX plan to deal with possible methane buildup around Starship?
Starship is going to be fueled with cryogenic liquid methane. Before launch, the vehicle will spend some time fully loaded on the launchpad. Although methane is lighter than air at normal temperature, ...
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Has SpaceX chosen to drop the Transpiration cooling of Starship? If so, why?
Earlier, there was news about a proposed concept for Starship to include "transpirational cooling" in its reentry heat shield design.
These days there is less news about this and tests so ...
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Why does Starship need to transfer crew to/from Orion to land humans on the moon?
In the new NASA Artemis program, Starship needs to transfer the crew to/from Orion.
Why is this even needed?
I thought that the Starship design allows it to travel directly from Earth to the Moon ...
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Why was the SpaceX Starship SN10 slanted when it landed?
Why was the SpaceX Starship SN10 slanted when it landed?
Was the landing pad uneven?
Or did the Starship land a little way away from it?
Or was this caused due to hull damage?
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Why has SpaceX changed Starship from carbon fiber composite to stainless steel?
Recently, there was news that SpaceX changed the material used for the BFS/Starship (upper stage of the BFR) from initially planned carbon fiber to metal which seems quite counter-intuitive as carbon ...
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How will the crew exit Starship when it lands on Mars?
When SpaceStarship lands Mars, the crew will be almost 50 meters above the surface. How will they get out with all their equipment?
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