Future Vision of Boca Chica as a US Space Force Base
Starship is unlike any rocket before. It’s 100% reusable. It lifts 100 tons, and that number will grow to 200 tons at least (the Saturn V Moon rocket, most powerful in history until now, could lift 130 tons). Starship can also refuel in orbit, so it can send that whole enormous cargo (which might well be several hundred people) anywhere in the Solar System and return whole. The Saturn V could only get a fraction of its payload to the Moon, returning only a tiny capsule.
The difference is staggering even before you consider this. Unlike airplanes, NASA, Boeing, China, Russia, Europe, everyone throws away every rocket they launch. What would it cost if you treated airplanes the same way? If you built a new one every time you flew, on average (based on list price for a new 737), that would increase the cost of each and every plane ticket by roughly $493,650.79. Each way.
and think of it in this way…
Just as the speed of tanks revolutionized warfare between the World Wars, this development changes everything. Forget C-17s and cargo ships: you might as well use horses and wagons. A fleet of Starships is not just an incremental improvement in logistics: it’s a fundamental shift in the nature of warfare. The ability to almost instantaneously create and reinforce a whole combat theater anywhere on Earth will give the United States overwhelming power, unlike anything heretofore seen outside of science fiction.
And let me stress: we’re not just talking about the initial deployment. The bigger deal is the resupply. It took six months in 1990-91 for the United States to get its forces in position to invade Kuwait. Maintaining them in the field required a constant stream of slow-moving cargo ships from U.S. ports halfway around the world. A decade later, and for 20 years thereafter, a similar supply chain ran through Karachi, Pakistan, up a rail line, then on truck convoys over the Khyber Pass. Since that was often impractical (there were these pesky Taliban guys about), the military frequently had to rely on the only available alternative, a grueling 36 hours on a C-17 (including layovers). All of this depended on deals with shady, unfriendly countries, subsidies (bribes), and endless risk of attacks on our personnel.
What if you could ship everything you wanted anywhere in the world straight from Texas? Or Florida? Or anywhere else? In under an hour?
plus the undeniable,
The SpaceX Starfactory is designed to build a Starship a day. A fleet of 1,000 Starships could thus be constructed in about three years. Current Starship is designed to lift 100 tons, but Elon has said that he intends to increase that number to 200. That’s a combined 200,000 tons of payload.
As to cost, Musk’s math suggests a per-launch operational cost of $700,000 once the system reaches economies of scale. But let’s say $2 million is our high-end estimate. To fly a fleet of 1,000 Starships would cost between $700 million and $2 billion per sortie.
The SpaceX Starfactory is designed to build a Starship a day. A fleet of 1,000 Starships could thus be constructed in about three years. Current Starship is designed to lift 100 tons, but Elon has said that he intends to increase that number to 200. That’s a combined 200,000 tons of payload.
As to cost, Musk’s math suggests a per-launch operational cost of $700,000 once the system reaches economies of scale. But let’s say $2 million is our high-end estimate. To fly a fleet of 1,000 Starships would cost between $700 million and $2 billion per sortie.
Now let’s look at what we’re up against, and what we’re competing with.
The total weight of a modern U.S. armored division (more accurately these days a heavy mechanized infantry division) is roughly 155,000 tons. All estimates here are approximate, but it breaks down as follows…
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