Starship’s highest low-Earth orbit payload is 300 tons: Musk

According to the latest report, a user posted a picture on Twitter and @Musk, comparing the carrying capacity of several well-known rockets in low-Earth orbit. Musk then stated that his starship was in consumption mode. The maximum payload can reach 250~300 tons.

Musk said: “The optimized, fully reusable Starship has the same reference orbital payload of 150 tons as the Saturn V. In depletion mode, the Starship can have a payload of 250 to 300 tons.”

His words caused a heated discussion on Reddit, after all, the Saturn V is completely expendable, while SpaceX is taking the recyclable route; and the starship itself has twice the mass of the Saturn V.

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Moreover, the payload is up to two times. In this regard, it is undoubtedly an astonishing performance. Of course, the Saturn V itself was not designed for low-Earth orbit, so the comparison is a bit unfair.

Furthermore, the Saturn V launch vehicle, also translated as Saturn 5, is a launch vehicle used by NASA in the Apollo program and Skylab space programs. Class throwable liquid-fuel rockets played an important role in space missions from 1967 to 1972.

Since its first flight in 1967, the Saturn 5 still holds the world record for the largest carrying capacity rocket. It is also 7 times the carrying capacity of the second most powerful rocket in the United States.

The Saturn 1 B, and the strongest rocket in the Soviet Union, Proton-K, is also 21. 2 times the capacity of the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket of the century.

Although NASA has envisioned larger rockets (such as the Nova rocket), the Saturn 5 is the largest rocket in history at 110.6 meters and the tallest and heaviest launch vehicle ever used, with major contractors including Boeing, North American Airlines, Douglas Aircraft, and IBM.

(via)