SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the “Holy Grail” for making human life multi-planetary lies in our ability to build a fully reusable rocket system that can carry massive amounts of equipment, materials and people into deep space.
That’s why SpaceX created Starship.
That The vehicle consists of two stainless steel components, with the company’s first-stage Super Heavy booster at the bottom, and the second-stage Starship spacecraft at the top. It will be able to carry over 100 metric tons of cargo and crew in a single launch.
Referred to collectively as a starship, the two components rise almost 400 feet in the air, nearly 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.
Lifting all that weight off the ground is no easy task, and the booster requires 33 SpaceX Raptor engines. Just in case, the spacecraft carries seven more engines.
The project may be attractive to investors. According to McKinsey & Co., private funding for space companies exceeded $10 billion in 2021, ten times more than in the last decade. Traditionally, most of this funding has been focused on activities closer to Earth, such as building satellite communications, but there is some evidence that this may be changing.
“Recently there has been an increased focus on studying the moon,” said Brooke Stokes, an associate partner at McKinsey, in an interview. “So, the moon and not only. Think of the moon, Mars [and] deeper exploration of the planets. Lunar and other investments totaled about $1 billion from private investors in 2021, the highest amount we have seen to date.”
Some experts have calculated that if SpaceX is successful with Starship, along with global satellite internet venture Starlink, the company’s valuation could soar into the trillions of dollars.
Watch the video above for more on what Starship could mean for the future of space travel and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.