--- title: "Damn, This Photo Shows How Huge SpaceX’s Starship Really Is" description: "A new image uploaded by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shows two Starship prototype tanks being assembled \"in the midbay.\" And they're absolutely gigantic." date: "2020-06-25" modified: "2020-06-25" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/photo-huge-spacex-starship" categories: - "Space" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" tags: - "elon musk" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "the digest" --- # Damn, This Photo Shows How Huge SpaceX’s Starship Really Is ![A new image uploaded by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shows two Starship prototype tanks being assembled "in the midbay." And they're absolutely gigantic.]() *\Image: Elon Musk via Twitter\* ## Absolute Units A new image shared by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Thursday shows two Starship prototype tanks being assembled "in the midbay." https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1276058326954938368 At first, it may just look like a pair of your average hot water tanks — but if you zoom into the picture, you can spot individual engineers working on the welds on top of the two monstrosities. They're absolutely gigantic — and they're just the Starship's tanks. Twitter user Matthew Wilkes was impressed. "These things are like space bound skyscrapers," [he quipped](). ## Extremely Tall SpaceX envisions its final Starship spacecraft to be 160 feet tall — without the booster — and a massive 30 feet in diameter. With booster, the rocket will tower at about [just shy of 400 feet](), almost 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty, including its base. "This thing is going to take off, fly to 65,000 feet — about 20 kilometers — and come back and land in about one to two months,” [Musk said]() at the Starship unveiling event in September 2019 (that test has not yet happened). “So that giant thing, it’s really going be pretty epic to see that thing take off and come back.” ## Booster Seat SpaceX's individual Raptor rocket engines for the Starship alone are over ten feet tall and four feet in diameter. There's a good reason for that. SpaceX wants to cram up to 100 passengers, or 100 tons of cargo, into the spacecraft for trips to the Moon and perhaps even Mars. The news comes after SpaceX [intentionally blew up]() a Starship prototype tank called SN7 at its testing site in Boca Chica, Texas earlier this week. A test of the SN7 Starship tank last week didn’t result in an explosion, something that Musk called a [“good result”]() on June 15. **READ MORE:** [Elon Musk Shares Stunning Image That Shows Tank's Real Size]() \[*Inverse*\] **More on Starship:** *[SpaceX Blows Up Another Starship Tank, This Time on Purpose]()* ## 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]()