Why SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket looks unlike anything the company has ever built before
Most recently, SpaceX launched a mega-rocket - Starship 24 into the sky from Starbase, Texas. Even though it explodes minutes after lift-off, that won't stop SpaceX from continuing to build more Starships prototypes and try again, because SpaceX founder, E- lohn Musk has very big plans for future missions of other Starship prototypes. Not only is Starship the world's largest, most powerful rocket, but its appearance is unlike anything SpaceX has ever built.
So stay tuned for today's video to explore why Starship looks so different from SpaceX's previous rockets!


Intriguingly, in fact, Starship doesn't really resemble any other rocket in the world.
The mega-rocket consists of two stages. The first stage rocket booster, called Super Heavy is completely silver, while the second stage spacecraft, dubbed Starship, is half silver, half black. This silver-black color scheme is a vast change from SpaceX's white Falcon 9 rockets or NASA's orange and white Space Launch System.
Starship's mostly-silver appearance comes from a type of non-corrosive alloy called 300-series stainless steel. It's the first time someone has made a rocket from this material since the 1950s.
The reason why most rocket companies avoid steel is that it's heavy, and the heavier the actual rocket, the less payload it can carry to space on the same fuel tanks. Instead, the outer frame of most rockets is built of durable but lightweight metals like aluminum and titanium. Titanium is great for keeping a rocket lightweight but it can cost up to 15 to 20 times more than steel.
That's why, in 2019, SpaceX replaced its Falcon 9 rockets' titanium grid fins with welded steel fins. However, the cost is not the only reason SpaceX now prefers steel over titanium in its rockets.
According to material science experts, steel works better in extreme temperature conditions than titanium. That means both under extreme heat, like during launch and atmospheric re-entry, but also extreme cold, like in deep space.
Moreover, that's important since Starship's mission is to eventually shuttle humans to the moon and Mars, exposing the spacecraft to temperatures as cold as -455 degrees Fahrenheit equivalent to -270 degrees Celsius, which could make most rocket material weak, brittle, and prone to cracks or breaks.
On the other hand, stainless steel, actually increases in strength at these cryogenic temperatures, making it ideal for deep space travel.

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