Starship: The Day the World Changed

The scope and scale is unprecedented. Never has the world seen a Rocket this size. The access is undeniable. Never has a rocket company been this transparent and never has the average person been afforded the opportunity to be this close to a launch vehicle on any given day.

Starship Integrated Flight Test 1 (IFT-1) Ready for Test Flight. Credit: Spacepoint

As Starbase sits on a narrow strip of private land surrounded by a federally protected wildlife refuge, the contrast of machine and life is stark but fitting. When people ask why space exploration, there is really only ever one answer. Life, always life. The protection, the expansion and the search for life. Space satisfies natural human curiosity and the inclination to explore, and for Elon Musk, the sense of urgency to make life "multi-planetary."

Earth is the only planet we know of in the habitable zone of her star that currently supports biological life. Venus and Mars also in the habitable zone, do not. NASA has confirmed over 6,000 exoplanets yet there are only an estimated 45 Earth like rocky planets in the habitable zones of their stars. And using our solar system as an analog, of those 45, there may be as few as 15, if any, capable of supporting biological life in those zones. Despite this, human desire to explore is so ingrained we have to leave the comfort of this amazing world to perhaps one day find another.

And so on Earth in 2023, with our natural desire to explore, Starship was poised to begin its mission to extend human presence to the Moon, Mars, and one day beyond. Booster 7 and Ship 24, fully stacked stood over 394 feet tall. Including the orbital launch mount, the entire structure exceeded 400 feet in height. This was the largest rocket ever built, powered by an ambitious vision to explore and expand human civilization beyond our planet.

At 08:33:01 the morning of April 20th, Starship’s Raptor engines ignited a cloud of dust and debris rising over 400’ completely obscuring the launch tower. T+ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8… long seconds later she left the pad slowly emerging above a massive cloud of dust. When she appeared, clearing both dust cloud and tower, then, then, one knew just how large this vehicle was.

At the same time, in that moment, Starship Integrated Flight Test 1 (IFT-1) was successful and the world changed. It cleared the tower, and as Musk stated, his basic objective was clear, "far enough away from the launchpad before something goes wrong". For the first time in history, humans had a vehicle specifically designed for interplanetary space flight, and more importantly, a leadership commitment to expand human presence beyond Earth.

Musk's multi-planetary vision for humanity has given the industry a definition of success. Going back to the Moon and returning to Earth, is not enough. We have to stay and humans have to go beyond. This is not trivial, based on history, regardless of the current excitement surrounding the industry, this can go away. Many have seen it go away before. Only an estimated 30% of the current US Population was at least 5 years old in December 1972 the last year of the Apollo moon landing program. Apollo ended and more tragically the national commitment to human space flight to the Moon. Humans landed and walked on the Moon, returned to Earth, and then walked away. In a way, the Apollo Moon Program was a victim of its own success. But Apollo gave the world something invaluable, the belief that anything was possible.

This time, 50 years later, could be different. People expect the impossible thanks to Apollo. We will return to the Moon and perhaps beyond, but will we stay? One could argue, if we don't, then what is the point?

History will look back on the past 65 years from Apollo to Artemis to Starship as the time when humans began leaving their home to explore their neighborhood, and April 20, 2023 may be the day that survives the history books. No one will remember the size, the thrust, the stainless steel or the technology.

What they will remember is the vision to create the future, the will to deliver, and the moment. The moment in time when humans set out to make humanity a multi-planetary species.