Super heavy: 50 фото

As of 2024, Super Heavy prototypes are being flight tested. Super Heavy flew for the first time on April 20, 2023, during the first orbital launch attempt of the Starship rocket.

The Super Heavy first stage alone stands 230 feet tall while the Starship upper stage, designed to carry cargo, passengers or both, towers another 164 feet and is equipped with six Raptor engines of its own. It is capable of lifting up to 150 tons of cargo to low-Earth orbit.

The vehicle has a principal diameter of 9 meters and is built from satinless steel. It is powered by SpaceX own Raptor engines running on liquid methane and oxygen. The Super Heavy Starship will be 118 m high and will weigh 4400 t at launch.

Payload further breaks down the costs to attribute 70% ($63 million) to the cost of building a Super Heavy booster and 30% ($27 million) to Starship proper. This is important because Super Heavy's primary role will be launching multiple Starships to orbit, where they can operate without boosters.

In January 2024, SpaceX said that because Starship carried no payload, they planned to vent excess liquid oxygen from the second stage near the end of the burn. The venting of that oxygen led to a fire and explosion. Elon Musk echoed the assessment, writing: Flight 2 actually almost made it to orbit ...