The History of Starship, Part 1

SpaceX has been working on its Starship rocket for a long time. This post and the second part will tell the history of the Starship program from early concepts to future plans.

Raptor Conception: In 2009, SpaceX announced the Raptor engine. It was originally planned to be the upper stage engine of Falcon 9 It was also planned to use hydrogen and LOX instead of methane.

Falcon X, Falcon X Heavy, and Falcon XX: At the 2010 Joint Propulsion Conference, SpaceX announced the Falcon X, Falcon X Heavy, and Falcon XX super heavy lift rockets. These were going to be powered by the Merlin 2 engines which were supposed be like the Merlin 1 engines that power Falcon 9 but larger. They were also going to replace the Merlin 1 engines on Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.

Credit: SpaceX

Design #1: Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT): In October 2012, SpaceX announced the Mars Colonial Transporter, which would be a rocket capable of taking 150-200 tonnes to low earth orbit. The next month, Elon Musk said that the Raptor engine would now be a methalox engine. SpaceX wanted this design to be made out of lithium-aluminum alloy.

Design #2: Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT): In February 2014, SpaceX said that MCT would now be an interplanetary spacecraft capable of taking 100 tonnes of cargo and crew to LEO. In March 2014, SpaceX Vice President of Propulsion Tom Mueller said that it would have a Falcon 9 style engine configuration with nine engines on the first stage and one engine on the upper stage. He also announced that the payload fairing would be 10 meters.

Credit: Nathan Koga for NSF/L2

Design #3: Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT): In May 2014, SpaceX announced that they had increased the thrust of the Raptor engine to 6,914 kN (1,554,300 lbf).

Design #4: Mars Colonial Trnsporter (MCT): In June 2014, SpaceX made a new design that would take over 300 tonnes to LEO. SpaceX was also considering fairing diameters of 10-15 meters.

Credit: Nathan Koga for NSF/L2

Design #5: Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT): In October 2015, SpaceX revised the design, considering multiple options (below). They also considered multiple engine configurations.

Credit: NSF member Lamontagne

Above: Carbon fiber test tank, Credit: SpaceX

Design #6: Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT)

In February 2016, SpaceX made a new design. This design would be able to take 73.3 tonnes to LEO and would have a 12 meter diameter. They decided on this version after considering two other versions (all below). They were also planning to make a spacecraft that would refuel the ship.

Credit: NSF member Lamontagne

Credit: Nathan Koga for NSF/L2

Design #7: Interplanetary Transport System (ITS)

In February 2016, MCT was renamed the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS). It would be 122 meters tall.

Credit: NSF member Lamontagne

Credit: SpaceX

Design #8: Big Falcon Rocket (BFR)

In September 2017, SpaceX renamed ITS to Big Falcon Rocket (BFR). They also decided to have a 9 meter diameter fairing to avoid having to make a new factory. The ship would be called BFS (Big Falcon Spaceship).

Credit: NSF member Lamontagne

Design #9: Big Falcon Rocket/Starship

In September 2016, Elon Musk announced a new design together with the announcement of the DearMoon mission around the moon. It would be 118 meters tall. In November 2018, BFR was renamed to Starship, with the booster named Super Heavy.