Rocket Report: A nearly perfect flight for Starship; China’s surprise launch

Starlink, Kuiper, and the US military all saw additions to their mega-constellations this week.

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[shawnce]

Has SpaceX released a current spec for the low earth orbital payload of the Starship? How much weight have they added to achieve this successful launch and reentry?

They have continued to state at least 100t to a Starlink useful LEO orbit (not seen exact reference orbit information they are using). It is likely it will be a bit over that when the Raptor 3 based craft are flying.

 

[shawnce]

If they keep increasing the height of subsequent versions we'll soon have a space elevator and everything/everybody will be fine.

As a point of reference the current version of the Falcon 9 that they have been flying for years now is around 27% taller than the original Falcon 9. The Starship stack is so far growing in height less than that.

The growth in height for both the Falcon and Starship is a result of having more engine thrust that they could put towards lifting more propellant. The merlin gained a lot of performance and the Raptor is as well that has allowed both craft to grow in height (however likely to a less percent change given the high starting point of the Raptor family).