dormouse1953

The SpaceX Starship project is in serious trouble. The last three test launches have failed, and yesterday the ship for the next launch exploded while being fuelled for a static firing test. However, even if things were working perfectly, there's a serious problem with the logistics of the project. 

Starship Block 1 was rated to deliver 100 tons of payload to LEO. Block 2 numbers are a bit vaguer at 100-150 tons, Block 3 targets 200 tons, and Block 4 is intended to carry 400 tons, if the vehicle is expended, which makes it much more expensive. Fuel carried to orbit counts as payload. For Starship to travel beyond LEO, it needs to be refuelled. It holds 1,500 tons of fuel. That's a lot. 

So far, no Starship has completed a full Earth orbit. The plan for the Human Landing System variant which is supposed to take astronauts back to the Moon is to carry out several large and entirely automated fuel transfers in orbit. Pumping fuel between large spacecraft in microgravity has not yet been demonstrated. The transfers have to happen in rapid succession because all the fuel is cryogenic and boils away as it warms up. Filling up 1,500 tons of fuel requires somewhere between four and twenty successful flights and successful transfers to deliver the fuel, depending on your assumptions. 

The test flights of Starship have demonstrated that a very high-performance vehicle - which it genuinely is - needs exquisite care before launch, which slows down the launch rate. SpaceX has two launch stands in Texas, and is building another at the Kennedy Space Centre. But that seems to be all of what they'll have for the next few years 

Currently they're planning an unmanned demonstration landing on the Moon this year, and the manned landing in 2027. They aren't going to meet those deadlines, as is quite obvious, and should stop pretending. They've built what seems like a pretty good rocket, but it won't do the things claimed for it any time soon. Those need something even bigger.