SpaceX's Starship launch on Thursday was not only impressive, but it could also be a major milestone for the space industry, as it could dramatically reduce the cost of launching rockets.
See also: SpaceX Starship: Exploded during first orbital test flight
Elon Musk 's massive rocket , which carried no payload or people, didn't survive Thursday's landing. But it traveled through space and reentered Earth's atmosphere before exploding, a landmark moment for SpaceX.
The rapid progress of the development of the launch system Starship-Super Heavy raises high hopes that this massive rocket will be fully operational – and fully reusable – very soon.
The SpaceX Starship is central to Elon Musk's ambition to reduce rocket launch costs to around $10 million per launch, a critical move for those competing to create future industries in space, such as asteroid mining or space factories.
SpaceX has already reduced launch costs
Starship-Super Heavy is the largest launch system ever developed. The Super Heavy booster that carries Starship into space can produce twice the thrust of the rockets that sent Apollo to the Moon.
When fully deployed, it will be able to launch up to 150 metric tons into orbit. This offers significant cost savings, as more cargo could be carried on each launch. But it also helps companies invest significantly less money in preparing their cargo, since they will no longer have to shrink it.
See also: SpaceX Starship's second launch ends in explosion
SpaceX does not rely solely on the massive capacity of the rocket to reduce launch costs. Its main drive is to make the large 122-meter tall rocket fully reusable.
Consider how much a flight could cost if the airline had to build a new plane each time. This is how the majority of the launch industry deals with rockets.
Reuse offers great opportunities to reduce costs. This is not a random proposition – SpaceX has already proven that the business model works with the Falcon 9.The rocket does not discard its launcher. Instead, after each launch, it lands to fly another day. With this technology, SpaceX has managed to reduce the cost of launching rockets to about $67 million per flight. That works out to $1,500 per pound of cargo. By comparison, the Space Shuttle charged $25,000 per pound until 2011.
The promise of Starship is the full reuse of both stages, for an indefinite period of time.
This can change everything. SpaceX is ready to move forward after Thursday's success. However, there is work that must be done before industries can place their payload on Starship at low cost.
See also: Watch the 3rd SpaceX Starship test flight live
According to Musk's equation, SpaceX needs the Starship rocket and its launch vehicle to be fully reusable in order to reduce launch costs. This was not attempted on Wednesday, resulting in the launcher and the spacecraft being lost during their re‑entry.
Source: businessinsider
