Musk Introduces SpaceX Starship Program: Aiming to Recover Upper Stage and Refuel in Orbit

During an exchange with Tesla owners in Silicon Valley, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk provided a detailed update on the Starship program.

It is understood that Starship is currently the largest rocket under development in the world, and SpaceX is advancing its tenth full-stack flight mission. Elon Musk stated that SpaceX plans to achieve two key goals of the Starship program as early as next year: recovery of the upper-stage spacecraft and orbital propellant refueling. These two objectives are crucial for reducing rocket launch costs. However, in the Starship test activities in 2025, SpaceX still faces numerous setbacks and has yet to make substantive progress on these goals. Musk mentioned in a discussion that the Starship program has faced enormous challenges from the very beginning. He pointed out that in many respects, Starship is “insane,” because its thrust is two and a half times that of the Saturn V lunar rocket, and future versions will have three times Saturn V’s thrust. Saturn V was the largest rocket in history and also the largest flying vehicle. Starship’s thrust is three times that, and its weight is about twice as much. Musk emphasized that the “insane” part of Starship is that SpaceX hopes to make it a “fully and rapidly reusable” rocket, which makes Starship “one of the toughest engineering challenges ever.”

Musk said that the complexity of Starship led many people to believe it was impossible when it was first proposed. Musk stated that Starship once had a “very high what I call ‘laughter factor’,” and people would “immediately laugh at its absurdity.”

Despite facing numerous doubts, SpaceX continues to push forward with the Starship program. Musk stated that one of the biggest challenges the Starship program currently faces is its heat shield. Musk pointed out that the heat shield is the most difficult part of the Starship to overcome because it is not reusable. He emphasized, "Solving the heat shield problem might be the biggest challenge Starship is currently facing." The upper spacecraft of the Starship uses thousands of heat shield tiles independently manufactured by SpaceX, and the heat shield is crucial for the full reusability of the Starship, as the spacecraft must be able to withstand the high temperatures during atmospheric re-entry. After solving the heat shield issue, the next key goal for the Starship is to achieve the recovery of the upper spacecraft and to be able to be caught by the "giant metal chopsticks" (i.e., the recovery tower). Musk stated that the recovery tower is crucial for the reusability of the Starship, because without it, SpaceX would have to land the rocket in water. He optimistically stated that the Starship is expected to achieve recovery this year, but at the latest, it will be completed by the first half of next year.

Once SpaceX is able to successfully recover the Starship using the mechanical arms of the recovery tower, the company will further enhance it to make both the Starship and the booster not only reusable but also "fully and rapidly reusable." These upgrades are crucial for reducing the cost per flight and per ton of payload for the Starship, with the goal of bringing the cost below that of the Falcon 1 rocket. Musk also mentioned that reducing launch costs means the cost of sending a hundred tons or more of payload into orbit will be lower than traditional rockets that can only deliver half a ton of payload, such as the Falcon 1. Additionally, another key objective of the Starship program is in-space refueling, which is vital for interplanetary missions and NASA's Artemis lunar mission. He explained that the process of in-space refueling will first be achieved by docking two Starships and transferring fuel, after which SpaceX will work on establishing orbital fuel depots.