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Well it's vastly scaled down from what was originally proposed. The original proposal (ITS) was for a vehicle that could deliver 300 tons to LEO. Then that got
by elil17 4y ago
Well it's vastly scaled down from what was originally proposed.
The original proposal (ITS) was for a vehicle that could deliver 300 tons to LEO. Then that got scaled to down to 150 tons.
They had proposed doing "Earth to Earth" (rocket travel from city to city) with it. Not on the table now as I understand it.
They did pull off a steel-based design and an FFSC engine which is really cool. But they HN commenters were absolutely right that the original design was a fantasy.
- greedo 4y agoThey actually were awarded a contract in 2022 for point to point travel for the USAF. A logical extension of that would be city to city. https://spacewatch.global/2022/01/spacex-wins-102-million-air-force-contract-for-point-to-point-transportation/ https://spacewatch.global/2022/01/spacex-wins-102-million-ai...
- kitsunesoba 4y agoIf I'm not mistaken, MCT/ITS is something that's potentially still on the table, just kicked down the road until after Starship+Superheavy have proven themselves and demand for cargo+crew delivery capacity greater than what Starship is capable of (which is already absurdly high relative to predecessors) has materialized. It makes sense, because at that point building MCT/ITS is a matter of "just" scaling up Starship+Superheavy instead of starting from a blank slate. I believe earth-to-earth is still a consideration, too, if only because the US military has expressed interest in such capabilities.
- cwillu 4y agoEarth to earth is still listed prominently on https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/ https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/