On November 5, 2019, at the first U.S. Air Force Space Pitch Day, Elon Musk said the Super Heavy Starship reusable rocket will use just $900,000 worth of propellant to get off Earth and into orbit and with operational costs will eventually cost $2 million per launch. Musk said during a conversation with Lt. Gen. John Thompson, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, at Los Angeles Air Force Base.
This will likely mean that each Super Heavy Starship will cost about $100 million to build. This would be near the cost of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy. The Falcon Heavy has 27 Merlin engines and the Super Heavy Starship will have about 38-44 Raptor engines.
The Super Heavy Starship will mostly be made of 301 steel. Carbon fiber material costs about $130,000 a ton and stainless steel costs $2,500 a ton. The main body of the Super Heavy Starship will cost about $3 million while the Falcon Heavy costs about $20-30 million for the main rocket.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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