--- title: "Elon Musk Suggests Adding “Dragon Wings” to Starship" description: "Musk tweeted that he was \"thinking about adding giant stainless steel dragon wings to Starship\" that could allow it to keep cool during re-entry." date: "2019-04-15" modified: "2019-04-15" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-suggests-adding-dragon-wings-starship" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Space" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Suggests Adding “Dragon Wings” to Starship ![Musk tweeted that he was "thinking about adding giant stainless steel dragon wings to Starship" that could allow it to keep cool during re-entry.]() *\Image: SpaceX/HBO/Victor Tangermann\* ## Dragon Wings Sometimes, it's easy to tell if space travel visionary and meme reviewer Elon Musk is joking on Twitter. Other times, not so much. Just before the return of HBO's mega-hit "Game of Thrones," [Musk tweeted]() that he was "thinking about adding giant stainless steel dragon wings to Starship" that could allow his eventually-Mars-bound spacecraft to keep cool during re-entry. "Starship will land on a ring of fire," he [added later](). https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1117581094415503360 ## Winter is Coming When asked how serious he was on a scale of one to ten, Musk [gave the plan a 6.5](). And, to be fair, we've thought Musk was joking about plenty of things before — leading to his fair share of successes. He put together a company devoted to digging tunnels called The Boring Company, for instance — and even marketed a [novelty flamethrower](). ## Shoot for the Moon Besides, SpaceX's Starship is just as much of a moonshot as Musk's other endeavors: a spacecraft that's meant to shift the paradigm interplanetary travel, eventually offering up to 100 passengers a trip to the Moon or even Mars. From red-hot, futuristic ["heatshield hex tiles"]() to a shiny retro-looking [stainless steel dome](), Starship is already looking like something straight out of science fiction. So why not throw some high fantasy legendary creature wings on top of the pile? **READ MORE:** ['Game of Thrones': Elon Musk Proposes Dragon Wings for SpaceX Starship]() \[*Inverse*\] **More on Starship:** *[SpaceX's Starship Hopper Completes First Tethered “Hop”]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()