Undated
Elon Musk says high-strength cryogenic-grade carbon fiber costs roughly 50 times as much as steel.
“it's like roughly 50 times the cost of steel.”
Topic
Starship
6 facts from 2 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
Undated
Elon Musk says steel's melting point is about twice that of aluminum, which allows a lighter heat shield on Starship.
“the melting point of steel is much greater than the melting point of aluminum. It's about twice the melting point of aluminum.”
Undated
Elon Musk says Starship generates over 100 gigawatts of power at liftoff.
“on Liftoff the rocket is generating over 100 gigawatts of power”
Undated
Elon Musk says two Starship boosters have exploded during ground testing and one destroyed the entire test facility.
“We've had two boosters explode on the test end. One obliterated the entire test facility.”
Undated
Elon Musk said early versions of Starship had no doors because doors were unnecessary complexity for the goal of reaching orbit.
“Early versions of Starship didn't even have doors. We didn't need doors. We did need to be super focused on getting to orbit.”
Undated
Elon Musk said SpaceX removed landing legs from its rocket and chose to catch it with mechanical arms on the launch tower, because legs add mass.
“Why not just have it land on the arms of the tower it launches from?”
Episodes