Building a Starship a Week In Texas

I recently posted a link to a video showing how United Launch Alliance builds their booster rockets. Contrast this with how Elon Musk and SpaceX are now building their Starship (and soon Super Heavy) rockets in Texas. Even more incredible is that they plan to build a booster a week.

Why the hell does Elon Musk need to build so many Starships, anyway?

Because he’s actually serious about settling Mars. It’s not a joke. It’s not a con for more government money (although Musk won’t turn that down). No, Mars is the raison d’être for SpaceX. And now, in South Texas, Musk is getting close enough to Mars that he can almost taste its red dirt.

Let’s just step back for a moment to acknowledge how nuts this is. Starship is only the upper stage for SpaceX’s Super Heavy rocket, but it is arguably the most novel spacecraft ever built. No one has ever built a fully reusable rocket, and the second stage that goes into space is the hardest part. SpaceX remains a long way from making the interior of Starship habitable for humans on a journey to Mars. But even building a fully reusable vehicle that can lift 150 tons into low Earth orbit would be a marvel. That’s more throw capacity that the Apollo Program’s Saturn V rocket had.

SpaceX has already disrupted the space launch industry with their Falcon boosters. Can they do it again?