SpaceX Starship Version 3 Will Be 150 Meters Tall

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Nextbigfuture has covered Elon mentioning that a future SpaceX Starship could be 20% longer BUT now it is reported that SpaceX is designing a 150 meter longer Starship. Felix Schlang at What about It? describes the new version 3 Starship work.

This would be up to 95 feet longer than the current 120 meters.

The structural changes will happen at the same time as engine upgrades.

12 thoughts on “SpaceX Starship Version 3 Will Be 150 Meters Tall”

  1. Well they did say that this year would see a plethora of nation state and private enterprise space craft , in a new space race / gold rush , aiming for the moon, asteroid prospecting , and mars missions, Jaxa managed a feat never achieved by landing in a very precise location, and on uneven ground , despite the issues they are now having , that alone was historic in its implications, as the ability to land at your desired location , instead of the Apollo program that could only land on smooth ground and mostly was many km from the desired touch down. If they are going to do as space X intends and that is to land starship craft on the moon close to the water ice craters, their plan as told of on these pages only last week showed their aim is to land three or more ships , and then slowly lower then to a horizontal position, to create a first step lunar base , the ability for starship to connect to other star ship vehicles can with even current technology to build a sizeable base, compared to the advanced basa plan , which will do something similar, but their craft will have a third of the internal volume of starship and less facilities. Limited by the size of the rocket they will use to launch their lunar ground module. It’s shades of Apple TV’s for all mankind where it featured a tiny first moon base with limited space inside , made to fit the fairing of the rocket , but the space X design isn’t limited by that as the starship craft/module sits atop the boosters .
    Reading the specs on thrust and weight , they seem to have made huge strides in meta materials to achieve a lower mass in weight space craft but very much larger , they will succeed sooner or later , as so far even though they last the previous two it was only the same process NASA had early in its rocket programs in the very late 50’s abd early 60’s until finally, achieving orbit , not long aftwr they put a human in orbut , and kater around the moon
    Which is exactly what space X have been doing .
    If he can do this and I believe he will, this will be a game changer , as he is likey to aim for even bigger craft, although they maybe would need to join up in orbit , by launching say a 200m craft in two halves , joining in orbit then heading to wherever they choose .
    It will be interesting to see if this will work , I hope it does , and hope that the Jaxa mission can be salvaged , that said the current Jaxa mission it’s rovers are working great .
    It will be interesting to see which nation or private organisation archives the next lunar landing or beyond .
    Suddenly we are seeing a huge space race here , it almost begs the question, why now ?, perhaps it’s this discovery of water ice craters .
    As whomever can get to that first , can control that supply of water , for drinking, crop growth and rocket fuel manufacturing.
    It’s an exciting time in human history.
    Just a pity that the hidden antigravity technology is still withheld from the science community, as with that weight , and thrust are no longer an issue and any craft can be as large as is required.
    Bear in mind they pretty much admitted having had anti gravity since the 50’s .
    This whole thing is a little bit like the early explorers in Europe who’d built bigger sailing ships to discover the new world ( America ) like musk and the others , they stood on the horizon not knowing what they’d find when they arrived or even if they’d make it , but they did make it and look what happened, a very short time after starting they had built their first colonies .
    And so as we stand in the middle of the second decade of the millennium, just 120 years after humanity took the first powered flight . We have reached this point .
    Also if they achieve these things , space will become not only cheaper but routine .
    Practice really will make perfect .
    This next two years may be the last time we see the moon unlit by human activity, soon we will look up and see the lights from future colonies, dotted all over the moon and beyond

    • Exactly: The height of the rocket is dictated by the amount of thrust available per square meter at the bottom of the rocket. Increase the engine thrust, and you can make the rocket taller without losing acceleration.

      At the original length, they could get even more acceleration, but that’s probably capped by Max Q already.

      The taller booster carries more delta V, without increasing air resistance appreciably. So it’s a win. The more delta V you get from the booster, the less the upper stage has to supply, which means you increase your payload capacity.

      • That thing has to re-enter too, which means balancing the longer Starship and larger moment-of-inertia. Shouldn’t that likewise impose its own constraints?

        • Larger moment of inertia is is a mixed bag. Your control loop can respond slower and still stay on top of things if you’ve got a lot of inertia. Seriously, try balancing a pin on your finger, and a yard stick. The yard stick’s easy, the pin almost impossible.

          In this case, you’ve got the grid fins at one end, and the engines at the other, and they both gain control authority from being further from the center of mass.

          • Here is where the idea of wet workshops could help….have the engine-block and one tank come back.

            Keep the LOX tank up there.

  6. I wonder if maybe they have not reached the performance requirements for Starship now that they are flying actual hardware. It could be overweight or some other performance degrading realities that will be bad for all the ambitious plans.
    To get the desired mass to orbit, they simply stretch it and spend some more fuel.
    I hope I’m wrong.

    • You can’t make a rocket bigger if the smaller version isn’t reaching performance requirements. If the small rocket was not meeting requirements and you make the new rocket bigger and heavier then it would not be able to launch.

      They are doing this because the forthcoming Raptor V3 engines are significantly lighter and have higher thrust. That means you can increase how much fuel the first stage can lift of the pad and you can increase the size of the second stage.

      Summary: this is happening because things are working out better than planned.

      • There are also annoying sizing ratios in the context of reusing the same platform for a second stage in an earth rocket and as a refuelable vehicle for moon use. There seems to be an around 1500 ton propellant local maxima they want to hit.

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