This is rarely mentioned. Because of its design, Starship can’t just go to the Moon, it first requires orbital refueling (from other Starships). NASA estimates they would need at least 15, but that was before the Starship payload capacity was downgraded.
IIRC it has extra engines just in case if not all work. Just adding to even more weight. And they haven’t even proven 50 ton capacity to LEO, the last explody sample had like a couple of tons of payload.
It would be hilarious if SpaceX folded and we found out later that the entire reason for why SpaceX launches are so competitive is because they are making a loss at each one, funded by the SpaceX investors.
that would be delightful.
I haven’t been following spaceflight lately because everything is so doom but they are having repeat engine failures right? is it because of the methane fuel or the engine design themselves?
A couple of engines in the lower stage always fail, but with only a small dummy load that isn’t a problem for the test flight. Something in the upper stage exploded, probably a ruptured fuel line.
Ahhh so we are basically at the “everyone left at Space-X that isn’t totally burnt out are failson Elon Musk fankids and cultists and his company has lost institutional capability and can’t build rockets anymore”?
I think the initial idea is so bad that engineers have a hard problem working around that. Stainless steel should make it easier to use in cold & hot situations, so they can save weight on the heat shield (and it is already very heavy), but now they have rupturing fuel lines and engines.