SpaceX Starship will have 42 Raptor engines in future version

SpaceX Founder and CEO, Elon Musk, said that the future version of Starship will have 42 Raptor engines to improve its performance and capabilities.

Starship is designed to take heavy payloads into orbit and in space with its integrated flight structure that combines 123 meters in height and expands 9 meters wide. The vehicle consists of two stages, from which the booster has 33 Raptor engines, consuming sub-cooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen, to generate 7,590 tf of thrust at liftoff.

The booster has 3,400 tons of propellant capacity, and it takes the upper stage, carrying a payload of humans to space, to send them off and return to Earth to the launch site.

As of May 30, 2025, SpaceX has achieved several milestones with the booster stage, including safe hot-staging, tower catch, and first booster reuse with recent Flight Test 9.

On the other hand, the upper stage sits on top of the booster to take a ride to the upper atmosphere, It fires six onboard Raptor engines to enter space and lead the mission. The ship uses 3 Raptor engines in the outer core and 3 Raptor vacuum (RVAC) in the inner core. The six Raptors combined generate a total of 1,500 tf thrust during ascent and have a payload capacity of 100-150 tons.

Starship with 42 Raptor engines (Source – SpaceX)

More engines

Musk, during his address to the Mars plan on making life multiplanetary, said the Starship stack will be getting 42 Raptor engines. So, which part will be getting the upgrade? The answer is Starship.

According to the information, the ship will include 3 new Raptor engines, making a total of 9 Raptor engines. The new addition will be in the outer core, which means that it will be adding more performance to the vehicle. Meanwhile, the super heavy booster will continue to use a 33 Raptor assembly.

SpaceX has plans to increase the size of the entire vehicle, which will create more space for new engine assembly, and the Raptor 3 design will make this effort efficient.