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Diggsey

What you don't get a sense for in the video is the size of this thing... It's absolutely bonkers.

9m (30 ft) in diameter 50m (160 ft) in height (or would be with the nose-cone)

That's the height of a 12-story building. And this is the upper stage of the full rocket.

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And it's being powered by one raptor rocket. It's designed to have 6.

And the first stage "Super Heavy" is designed to have 31.

Update: I think the hopper in the video is a prototype of the lower stage, which is planned to have 31 engines. The upper stage is planned to have 6.

The small hopper in the video is an early general purpose prototype from heavy duty steel, what flew today is a prototype of the second stage (Starship).

But assembly enclosure for the first stage (Super Heavy) is being built already.

The test today is a prototype for the upper stage.

Afaik, the hopper in the video is the prototype of the 6-engine upper stage. The super heavy will actually be even bigger than the one in the video!

...with a 22 ton steel weight (that little block) on the top of it, in addition to the entire weight of the test article and the fuel.

There is likely very little fuel though for such a small hop.

I read somewhere it had about 15 tonnes of fuel onboard, which isn't trivial

Just a slight correction: this prototype is 30m tall. Still absolutely bonkers how big this is and ALSO that it's not the full height yet.

Construction equipment for scale:

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/mz7KZlvgwTBa5cs4xfM_aA--~A...

I read that as "for sale," and was genuinely concerned for a moment that spam was being posted on HN. :D

For reference, the Falcon 9 FT is 3.7m (12 ft) in diameter and 70m (230 ft) in height.

The commentator likened it to flying a giant grain silo.

Oh my goodness. I had heard of Starship from the initial PR, and from those photos I had somehow assumed it was about the same size as a train carriage (~60ft.)

The crazy part is that Elon has said this will look like a rowboat compared to their future rockets

Could you share a source for this quote?

https://blog.ted.com/what-will-the-future-look-like-elon-mus...

@34:15

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