Elon Musk Explained Why SpaceX Uses Steel for the Starship Body

SpaceX founder Elon Musk, known for his space exploration ambitions, has revealed why the company abandoned carbon fiber in favor of stainless steel when building the Starship spacecraft. This decision served as an important engineering solution that ensured not only economic efficiency, but also the durability of the ship in extreme conditions. Ixbt.com reports this .

According to Musk, modern carbon composite materials are still very expensive. Currently, one kilogram of them costs about $130, and production volumes are limited. According to ixbt.com, working with such materials creates major difficulties in the mass production of the spacecraft.

Engineering and Durability Factors

Another disadvantage of carbon fiber is the complexity of working with cryogenic fuel components, particularly liquid oxygen. It was also found that this material cannot withstand the extremely high temperatures that occur when the spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere, posing a risk of structural disintegration.

Stainless steel, on the other hand, retains its strength even at ultra-low temperatures. It is much cheaper to produce, easy to process, and handles thermal loads well upon atmospheric re-entry. These very characteristics allowed SpaceX to accelerate the creation of Starship prototypes and move on to testing phases earlier.

Elon Musk praised the thermal protection layer on the latest version of the Starship, noting that the ship currently "looks amazing." Recall that during the Flight 13 test flight, Starship successfully splashed down in the Indian Ocean and for the first time fully maintained its integrity during re-entry.

At the same time, SpaceX engineer Michael Nicholls shared news regarding other company projects. According to him, an important testing phase for all 20 satellites in the Starlink V3 constellation has been successfully completed. This indicates that projects in the field of Starlink and AI are also developing rapidly.