Starship is designed to be fully reusable, and SpaceX plans to land and relaunch its Super Heavy boosters, as it does with its Falcon 9 rockets.The second flight, in November 2023, achieved stage separation, a significant advance, but the booster exploded during its planned landing on the Gulf of Mexico. Eight minutes later, at 93 miles high, the Starship upper stage caught fire and detonated when the craft vented excess liquid oxygen.between $5 billion and $10 billion

Begun in 2012, Musk has estimated that the Starship program will cost between $5 billion and $10 billion to develop. In 2023 SpaceX planned to pump some $2 billion into rocket system in an effort to finally get Starship into orbit for the first time.

How much can Starship carry : Starship is the world's most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable.

How many times can Starship be used

SpaceX's website calls Starship 'a fully reusable transportation system' — this means that it is designed for repeated launch, orbit, and landing. Super Heavy is designed to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere following a flight, and land at the craft's designated launch site.

Why did Starship 3 fail : During the test, multiple first-stage engines failed and the rocket began to tumble. Engineers activated a self-destruct mechanism while the ship was in mid-air.

On November 18, 2023, Ship 25 and Booster 9 launched, successfully completing hot-staging, during the launch, Ship 25 passed the Kármán Line, becoming the first Starship to reach space, and also became the heaviest object to ever reach space, before exploding at 148 km.

Musk claimed that the future Starship 3 would cost less to launch than SpaceX's original rocket, the Falcon 1 small launch vehicle, which had a price of about $10 million, because of full reusability. He estimated the Starship cost per launch could fall to as low as $2 million to $3 million.

How much does a single Starship cost

Taking a look at Starship's costs.

However, Starship is still very much a development program, and Payload estimates it currently costs around $90 million for SpaceX to build a fully stacked Starship rocket. The vast majority of this cost goes toward the rocket's 39 Raptor engines and labor expenses.Both components are reusable. This makes Starship different from SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, where only the first stage and fairings are reused. Elon Musk believes that such a reusable system will reduce the launch cost to $10 million.A SpaceX Super Heavy Starship that cost $50 million to build in 2025 that is successfully flown ten times over 2025-2026 would have about $70 million in costs over ten flights. The average per flight costs would be about $12 million per flight. The original build cost would be $5 million cost per ten flights.

The success of the SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable launch vehicle has been one of the most remarkable technological achievements of the last decade. Powered by SpaceX's Merlin engine, the Falcon 9 booster can be reused over 10 times, with minimal maintenance between flights.

What went wrong with Starship 2 : 9/10 engines were initially relit. During the boostback burn, a LOX filter blockage occurred and resulted in progressive engine failures which led to the destruction of the booster. At T+7:05, a planned vent of liquid oxygen caused several explosions and fires.

Will Starship ever fly : All dates for future flights are approximate, being "no earlier than" (NET) dates. Elon Musk has stated that Starship would fly hundreds of times before launching with humans. A planned use for many of these flights is to launch the much larger Starlink Gen2 satellites.

How many ships go missing

IN THIS FACTS + STATISTICS. There were 38 large ships totally lost in 2022, a decline from 59 in 2021, according to latest data from Allianz.

All ships, whether cruise ships or aircraft carriers, after decommissioning are cut up into pieces and the parts sold for recycling. This is called ship breaking.Both components are reusable. This makes Starship different from SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, where only the first stage and fairings are reused. Elon Musk believes that such a reusable system will reduce the launch cost to $10 million.

Are NASA rockets reusable : As of 2024, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are the only orbital rockets to reuse their boosters, although multiple other systems are in development. All aircraft-launched rockets reuse the aircraft.