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To be pedantic, it actually seems pretty likely the first stage could have reached LEO. There were no issues at all on ascent, and it has the fuel capacity. A
by bpodgursky 6y ago
To be pedantic, it actually seems pretty likely the first stage could have reached LEO. There were no issues at all on ascent, and it has the fuel capacity. At one point Elon was talking about possibly testing this.
But they decided not to do this, because their first priority was to get it to land, and they don't envision LEO launches using only the first stage. That will be in conjunction with the much larger second stage.
- ncallaway 6y ago> At one point Elon was talking about possibly testing this. I hadn't heard about that. I know he's said that the Starship is theoretically _capable_ of SSTO w/ no payload, but I don't recall any suggestion from him that he'd test it. Elon says a lot of things though, and I probably just missed it somewhere. Any chance you know where/when he said it?
- bpodgursky 6y agoNah, you're right. That's the quote I see, and probably all he said: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1076613555091234816 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1076613555091234816. Sounds like it's capable, and the plan on Moon and Mars, but not on Earth. Must have been others speculating on the Starship test plans.
- yellowapple 6y ago> and they don't envision LEO launches using only the first stage. The bragging rights of being the first to achieve SSTO seem too tempting for Musk to ignore.