Elon Musk Sets Goal of 10 Million Tons Yearly Orbit Capacity

Elon Musk announced during an analyst call on Tuesday that SpaceX aims to drastically scale its orbital delivery capacity through the Starship rocket. While current Falcon rockets deliver 2,500 tons to orbit annually, Musk stated the company aspires to deliver over one million tons per year and eventually reach 10 million tons.

Starship is designed for full reusability to reduce launch costs from approximately $2,700 per kilogram to $185 per kilogram. This expanded capacity is intended to support the deployment of next-generation Starlink satellites and a planned network of one million AI-computing satellites.

Despite a difficult development phase where five of 13 launches failed or faced significant concerns, Musk indicated that the next flight is scheduled for later this month. He suggested the company could eventually achieve a launch cadence of one flight per day.