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I don't think the point has ever been putting tons of heavy stuff into orbit. This is a system for taking us to the moon and Mars.

• GuB-42 4y ago
  It indeed started as the "Interplanetary Transport System", but there isn't a Mars mission yet, so it is a solution looking for a problem. The challenges of getting to Mars are huge, and that essentially ended the "pissing contest" era of space travel that gave us Apollo, and pretty much all of what we know about space travel today. Political figures understood that the next step after the Moon was Mars and that neither the US nor USSR were ready to take it despite the ridiculous amount of effort they could spare. Landing people on Mars is hard, very hard, and having a launcher capable of that is only part of the equation. There are radiation, travel time, etc... There is no way SpaceX can do it by itself, and the US government is not ready. So it might be the big goal, but certainly not the product SpaceX will sell. There is a Moon mission though, and I think SpaceX quickly switched the focus on that as soon as Artemis was starting to become a reality. But while it is part of the plan, the real "moon rocket" is SLS and the spaceship is Orion, Starship is "just" a lander. A weird situation if you ask me, but hey, politics. So yeah, the think SpaceX is selling is a rocket to put tons of heavy stuff into orbit, with Mars and the Moon being the extra plan, if the government decides to take it. I am not convinced about Mars, unless maybe China starts a pissing contest, which may be the best thing that can happen to space travel, but it looks like the Moon is getting at least something (of which China is probably no stranger to), still wait an see of a settlement.