Elon Musk aims to increase Starship’s orbital cargo capacity to 10 million tonnes

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has announced plans to eventually increase the amount of cargo delivered to Earth orbit using the ultra-heavy Starship space system to 10 million tonnes per year. According to ixbt.com, the entrepreneur made the statement while presenting the company’s latest quarterly report. This was reported by Ixbt.com reports .

SpaceX currently places approximately 2,500 tonnes of cargo into orbit each year using its Falcon rockets. Given that all other operators and countries worldwide deliver only around 300 tonnes annually combined, the company accounts for 80–90% of all cargo launched from Earth into orbit.

According to Elon Musk, once the new-generation Starship system becomes fully operational, it will initially be capable of carrying one million tonnes of cargo into orbit annually, rising to 10 million tonnes in the long term. If this ambitious plan is achieved, the amount of payload delivered into space will increase 4,000-fold compared with current levels.

Testing and technological advances

Practical steps toward these ambitious goals are continuing steadily. In particular, SpaceX successfully completed the 13th test flight of its Starship spacecraft in July. During the mission, 20 Starlink V3 satellites were successfully deployed into orbit for the first time without carrying a payload.

After completing the flight program in full, the spacecraft made a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean. Importantly, for the first time in its history, the vehicle managed to remain afloat on the surface, allowing specialists to organize its recovery and restoration.

Ambitious plans for the future

In the future, Starship is expected to become a fully universal and reusable space system. Company engineers plan to use its various configurations not only to launch next-generation satellites but also for crewed flights to low Earth orbit.

The transport system is also expected to become the main platform for long-duration scientific expeditions to the Moon and Mars. This will undoubtedly open a new chapter in humanity’s history of space exploration.