Starship reached orbit for the first time on Monday. One of my favorite potential use cases is launching the next generation of space telescopes faster and with far fewer constraints.
Today, engineers designing the largest space telescopes face extreme mass and volume limits that forces them to make telescopes lighter, foldable, and dependent on incredibly intricate deployment mechanisms, adding years of engineering complexity and increasing the risk of failure.
Starship changes that tradeoff. Thanks to its massive payload capacity and volume, telescope builders could "convert risk into mass": build heavier, simpler observatories instead of optimizing every component around launch constraints.
That could accelerate the next generation of space telescopes, and astrophysics research, by decades!
Today SpaceX's Starship just launched the entire mass of the international space station in one single launch.
It look the NASA 37 launches to do the same
For the same cost as the international space station we can now build an entire small city in space inhabited by perhaps tens of thousands of people.
This isn't science fiction. We could actually do this for the same price as the ISS.
September 28, 2008: SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket reaches orbit for the first time.
September 28, 2026: SpaceX's Starship rocket reaches orbit for the first time.
🚨RIGHT NOW IN THE OVAL OFFICE:
Trump exploded.
Fist against the table. Voice booming like thunder:
“They’re invading us in Europe!
It’s a complete, total, merciless invasion!
And the United Kingdom… is suspect number one.”
He didn’t stop at the rage.
He dropped the bomb no one expected:
“I’m going to launch the Western Survival Pact.
Whoever signs: slams borders shut, deports en masse, and defends their culture to the death.
Whoever doesn’t sign… stands alone against the wave.
And the first one who has to sign… is the United Kingdom.
Or it sinks.”
Deathly silence.
No one breathed.
Western Civilization just received its ultimatum.
FOLLOW ME, THE NEXT DROP WILL BE SHOCKING
"Don't know how much I can say but INOES, Glazers and people on the commercial side were not expecting what happened yesterday." -@AliceTalksFooty
Alice explains what happened and how Snapdragon were not happy.
Non believers, listen👇🏻
#BoycottUnited#GlazersAndINEOSOut