Washington
SpaceX has spent over $15 billion developing its next-generation Starship rocket, according to filings, highlighting Elon Musk’s push toward fully reusable spaceflight. The investment far exceeds the roughly $400 million cost of developing Falcon 9, underscoring Starship’s scale. It is central to Starlink expansion, enabling higher-capacity satellites for global internet services. NASA has committed funding under Artemis programme for future lunar missions relying on Starship via the Artemis program. Despite progress, technical hurdles remain including refuelling systems, launch infrastructure, and repeated orbital reliability. Experts say airline-like rapid launch capability remains unproven at scale. Development continues with iterative test flights and design improvements across multiple Starship prototypes toward eventual operational readiness.
