Elon Musk Reacts To Comparison Of Starship With Doomed Rocket That Knocked Soviet Union Out Of Moon Race

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday claimed higher payload capacity for Starship than previously known. The CEO was noting the distinguishing factors between the Starship and Soviet Union’s N1 rocket which failed to launch.

What Happened: Elon Musk said that the Starship payload is 250 to 300 tons to orbit in expendable mode, higher than the 250 tons noted by SpaceX.

According to the SpaceX website, Starship is capable of carrying up to 150 metric tons fully reusable and 250 metric tons expendable.

“Improved thrust & Isp from Raptor will enable ~6000-ton liftoff mass,” Musk added. The CEO was responding to a Twitter user looking to compare Starship with Soviet N1.

N1 was aimed at enabling crewed travel to the moon. However, all four attempts to launch failed, and the program was suspended in 1974.

Why It Matters: The Soviets carried out a clandestine launch of the N1 on July 3, 1969, which ended up in a “colossal explosion,” according to NASA. This effectively knocked out the Soviet Union from the Moon race just days before U.S. astronauts walked on the surface of the moon.

SpaceX conducted the first test launch of Starship in April. The rocket exploded in less than four minutes after take-off, damaging the launch pad at Starbase and raining down dust on the residents of Port Isabel, Texas.

Earlier this month, Musk had expressed surprise at the Raptor engines’ performance. He said that the combined power of Starship‘s multiple Raptor engines will generate a thrust of 19.5 million pounds or 8877 tons.

Acknowledging Raptor’s chamber pressure of 350 bar as uncharted territory, Musk expressed surprise at the engine's ability to withstand it. "To be frank, we did not expect the engine to survive a full-duration run at that pressure. It is uncharted territory," Musk said.

SpaceX’s Starship, composed of the Super Heavy rocket and the spacecraft, aims to create a fully reusable transportation system for crew and cargo missions to Earth’s orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Prior to the first launch test, Musk himself had drawn a parallel between N1 and Starship, calling it the closest comparable rocket to Starship. The Soviet counterpart, however, had a payload capacity of less than 100 tons.

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