At 124.4 meters, Starship V3 is the tallest rocket ever built — beating Saturn V (the Apollo moon rocket) by 14 meters. It is about as tall as a 40-story building, and nearly twice the height of a Falcon 9. The flame icon under Starship marks the dual-stage Methalox propulsion system.
Thrust is the force pushing the rocket off the pad — more thrust = more payload. Super Heavy's 33 Raptor 3 engines generate about 98 meganewtons at sea level. Saturn V, the previous record holder, produced 35 MN. SLS Block 1 — NASA's flagship — produces 39 MN. Falcon Heavy: 22.8 MN.
From a 39 km maximum on IFT-1 to consistent 200+ km on IFT-4 onward, the progression shows when Starship became a real space-capable vehicle. The Kármán line (100 km) is the internationally recognized edge of space — Starship has crossed it on every flight from IFT-2 onward. Bar color reflects mission outcome (red = vehicle lost, gold = partial, green = full success).
SpaceX went from 2 launches in 2023 to 5 in 2025 — the most active development cadence of any super-heavy launch vehicle in history. By comparison, Saturn V launched only 13 times in 6 years.
This is the metric that matters: how much it costs to put one kilogram in orbit. NASA's SLS costs $31,500/kg. Falcon Heavy already dropped that to $1,500/kg. SpaceX targets $20–50/kg with Starship at scale — that would be a 600× drop from SLS. The orange bars are SpaceX targets (not yet achieved); the others are actual prices.
Payload mass each rocket can put in low Earth orbit. Reusable mode (where the booster comes back) sacrifices some payload to save fuel; expendable mode (where nothing is reused) maxes out lift. Saturn V topped out at 140 t and was always thrown away. Starship V3 can reportedly hit 200 t expendable — or 100 t while still landing the booster for reuse.
The Raptor is the world's first full-flow staged combustion engine in production. Each generation got more powerful AND lighter — Raptor 3 produces 280 tf of thrust (51% more than Raptor 1) while weighing 26% less. That's a 2× improvement in thrust-to-weight ratio in seven years. Super Heavy uses 33 of them.
Super Heavy + Ship together fly with 39 Raptors — more engines per launch than any other operational vehicle. Saturn V used just 11 (5 + 5 + 1). SLS uses 4 RS-25s and two boosters.
The Mechazilla launch tower (with giant pivoting chopstick arms) is designed to catch the Super Heavy booster as it falls. It worked on three of the first four serious attempts — IFT-5, 7, and 8. IFT-6 was aborted to ocean by automated health checks; IFT-9 attempted the first booster reflight and broke up on landing.
| Flight | Date | Booster Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFT-5 | Oct 2024 | CAUGHT | CAUGHT |
| IFT-6 | Nov 2024 | Aborted to ocean | Missed / N/A |
| IFT-7 | Jan 2025 | CAUGHT | CAUGHT |
| IFT-8 | Mar 2025 | CAUGHT | CAUGHT |
| IFT-9 | May 2025 | N/A (reflight, splashdown) | Missed / N/A |
| IFT-10 | Aug 2025 | Splashdown only | Missed / N/A |
| IFT-11 | Oct 2025 | Splashdown only | Missed / N/A |
| IFT-12 | May 2026 | RUD on boostback | Missed / N/A |
12 integrated flight tests in 37 months. Border color = outcome. Hover for detail.
Cost per kilogram to LEO (log scale — each gridline is 10× cheaper). Dashed outline = SpaceX target, not yet achieved.