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Starship

48 answers

Prediction

When will Starship be fully and rapidly reusable?

“Looks like we will probably catch the ship with the tower in a few months. If there had been a tower out to sea where we practiced landing the ship, it would have been caught. First reflight of the ship will be either end of this year or early next. That will be a fork in the road of history for consciousness reaching the stars.”

— Elon Musk, 20 August 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Prediction

When will Starship be fully and rapidly reusable?

“High-cycle, reliable engine reflight without replacement, refurbishment or laborious inspection is about the same degree of difficulty as a rapidly reusable heat shield. And then there are thousands of smaller challenges throughout the primary structure. This is a crazy hard problem.”

— Elon Musk, 12 May 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Prediction

When will Starships and people get to Mars?

“For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years. The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars. It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six month trip time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2 day trip time). This means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city. That said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster.”

— Elon Musk, 8 February 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Prediction

When will Starships and people get to Mars?

“I am confident that Starship will land humans on Mars. That path is clear. But what really matters is securing the future of consciousness, not just getting a small number of people to Mars. That probably requires getting over 100,000 people and 1M tons of cargo to Mars. The critical threshold to pass is making it such that Mars can grow even if supply ships from Earth stop coming for any reason.”

— Elon Musk, 15 October 2025 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Prediction

When will Starship be fully and rapidly reusable?

“Making a fully reusable orbital rocket of any design is one of the hardest engineering problems of all time. Much, much harder than going to the Moon, which is why it still hasn’t been solved. I am cautiously optimistic that Starship will achieve full reusability next year. The other critical technology, albeit much easier, is orbital refilling. If fortune favors us, that will also be achieved next year. Then consciousness and life as we know it can extend to the planets and hence to the stars.”

— Elon Musk, 22 August 2025 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What does success look like for Starship?

“Ultimate success is building a civilization on Mars that can continue to grow even if resupply ships from Earth stop coming. That gets us past the single-planet Fermi Great Filter. Along the way, there are of course many milestones of success that are significant from a product/technology or business standpoint, but becoming multiplanetary is one of the few things profound enough to make the top 10 all-time evolutionary milestones.”

— Elon Musk, 13 December 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Prediction

When will Starship be fully and rapidly reusable?

“Starship is now more than twice as powerful as the Saturn V Moon rocket and, in a year or so, it will be three times as powerful at 10,000 metric tons of thrust. More importantly, it is designed to be fully reusable, burning ~80% liquid oxygen and ~20% liquid methane (very low cost propellant). This enables cost per ton to orbital space to be ~10,000% lower than Saturn V. Starship is the difference between being a multiplanet or single planet civilization. Building a new world on Mars is now possible.”

— Elon Musk, 7 November 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why does Starship need orbital refilling?

“The other crucial element, for missions beyond Earth, is orbital refilling. This requires docking with ourselves for propellant transfer, which is far easier than docking with the Space Station, something we already do several times a year.”

— Elon Musk, 24 September 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Fact

Is the Hyperloop still happening?

“In the coming years, Boring Co will attempt to build a working Hyperloop. From a known physics standpoint, this is the fastest possible way of getting from one city center to another for distances less than ~2000 miles. Starship is faster for longer journeys.”

— Elon Musk, 24 April 2022 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why do reusable rockets matter?

“Full & rapid reusability is the holy grail of orbital rocketry Starship is designed to be 100% reusable and ultimately be ready to refly within an hour of landing. This is the key to becoming a multiplanet civilization. No one would buy a single-use airplane, car or even bicycle! You’d need to tow another car just for the return trip 🤣”

— Elon Musk, 20 October 2021 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What does "the best part is no part" mean?

“We’re going to try to catch the Super Heavy Booster with the launch tower arm, using the grid fins to take the load. Saves mass & cost of legs & enables immediate repositioning of booster on to launch mount — ready to refly in under an hour. Legs would certainly work, but best part is no part, best step is no step.”

— Elon Musk, 30 December 2020 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why build a satellite internet network?

“We see this as a way for SpaceX to generate revenue that can be used to develop more and more advanced rockets and spaceships… We believe we can use the revenue from Starlink to fund Starship.”

— Elon Musk, 15 May 2019 · CNBC ↗ · In the archive