Elon Renames BFR to Starship upper stage and Super Heavy Booster

Elon Musk tweeted that they are renaming the BFR to Starship.

Technically, two parts: Starship is the spaceship/upper stage and Super Heavy is the rocket booster needed to escape Earth’s deep gravity well (not needed for other planets or moons).

54 thoughts on “Elon Renames BFR to Starship upper stage and Super Heavy Booster”

  1. Do you presuppose that there’s to be such a glut of Earth to Mars cartage carriers that the average Joe won’t know of whom you speak when you say you’re pulling up stakes and Starship-tripping to Mars?

  2. TRIGGER WARNING

    “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain; on behalf of the crew and myself, I’d like to welcome you, and thank you for choosing to take the Dick on your journey to Mars.

    If this is your first time riding the Dick, you can rest assured that it is our desire to provide you with a comfortable and satisfying experience.

    Complimentary cocktails are available upon request.

    Now, please relax and brace yourself as as we enter full thrust.”

    (sorry)

  3. I think they’ll only rotate rear fins by 60 degrees and fix them all. One would point down and two to the sides. Angles between them would stay 120 degrees. They could get rid of these huge actuators and make it simpler and stronger. Forward fins should stay because you need some permanent control area. You can’t do that with gas thrusters. The rest should not change.

    Mayby it would not be very radical, but definitely counter-intuitive.

  4. Really??? I think not much for things that aren’t literally images or representations of Eagles… there are lots of cheesy eagle figurines for sale but nobody named a car after it like Ford did for the Falcon. 😉

  5. Actually, naming a carrier “boat” would be fairly significant, given the clear technical differences between a boat and a ship.

    It might point to be being submersible.

  6. I think Starship is too generic to the point people won’t know it is referring to a specific vehicle. Maybe Falcon Starship?

  7. If it was my company I’d just one up the Falcon and call it the Eagle. I’d call the stages respectively the Eagle Cargo Stage and the Eagle Booster Stage. Of course Elon has been acting a bit off of late (maybe the Model 3 roll out burnt him out) so I wouldn’t be surprised by any silliness coming out of SpaceX.

  8. To be honest isn’t hard part the new engine? I know this is more than just a adding a tail-fin to a car but with regard to relative difficulty is it?

  9. I don’t like the shakiness of their design updates of late.

    First they change the overall design to the winged one, then barely a month later they talk about radical, counter-intuitive re-designs which hint to further important changes.

    And a ridiculous name change.

    The name change I can live with, though, but the SpaceX BFR/Starship design should be mostly solid by now.

    For me this means delays. Which would be disappointing, but not completely unexpected.

  10. “Unless this “starship” is sent on a mission to another star system it can’t be called a starship”
    Elon Musk – “Later versions will”

  11. That’s stupid. No rocket incapable of achieving escape velocity from the Solar system should ever be called a starship.

    And if I wrote what I think about the above being declared “toxic”, would it be rated super-ultra toxic?

  12. Do you presuppose that there’s to be such a glut of Earth to Mars cartage carriers that the average Joe won’t know of whom you speak when you say you’re pulling up stakes and Starship-tripping to Mars?

  13. TRIGGER WARNING

    “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain; on behalf of the crew and myself, I’d like to welcome you, and thank you for choosing to take the Dick on your journey to Mars.

    If this is your first time riding the Dick, you can rest assured that it is our desire to provide you with a comfortable and satisfying experience.

    Complimentary cocktails are available upon request.

    Now, please relax and brace yourself as as we enter full thrust.”

    (sorry)

  14. I think they’ll only rotate rear fins by 60 degrees and fix them all. One would point down and two to the sides. Angles between them would stay 120 degrees. They could get rid of these huge actuators and make it simpler and stronger. Forward fins should stay because you need some permanent control area. You can’t do that with gas thrusters. The rest should not change.

    Mayby it would not be very radical, but definitely counter-intuitive.

  15. Really??? I think not much for things that aren’t literally images or representations of Eagles… there are lots of cheesy eagle figurines for sale but nobody named a car after it like Ford did for the Falcon. 😉

  16. Actually, naming a carrier “boat” would be fairly significant, given the clear technical differences between a boat and a ship.

    It might point to be being submersible.

  17. If it was my company I’d just one up the Falcon and call it the Eagle. I’d call the stages respectively the Eagle Cargo Stage and the Eagle Booster Stage. Of course Elon has been acting a bit off of late (maybe the Model 3 roll out burnt him out) so I wouldn’t be surprised by any silliness coming out of SpaceX.

  18. I don’t like the shakiness of their design updates of late.

    First they change the overall design to the winged one, then barely a month later they talk about radical, counter-intuitive re-designs which hint to further important changes.

    And a ridiculous name change.

    The name change I can live with, though, but the SpaceX BFR/Starship design should be mostly solid by now.

    For me this means delays. Which would be disappointing, but not completely unexpected.

  19. That’s stupid. No rocket incapable of achieving escape velocity from the Solar system should ever be called a starship.

    And if I wrote what I think about the above being declared “toxic”, would it be rated super-ultra toxic?

Comments are closed.