SpaceX Founder Elon Musk reveals Starship V4 tanker upgrades

SpaceX Founder and CEO, Elon Musk, recently highlighted improvements in the Starship V4 tanker, which will deliver more than 200 tons of propellant per flight. This upgrade cuts the number of orbital refueling flights needed for a lunar-bound Starship to five or six.

SpaceX now places top priority on establishing a self-sustaining city on the Moon within the next ten years. The company shifted focus from Mars, where missions face launch windows only every 26 months and six-month travel times. The Moon allows launches every ten days with just two-day trips. This schedule supports rapid testing and growth.

Starship drives Musk’s vision through its massive payload capacity. The fully reusable system carries 100 to 150 tons to low Earth orbit, and future versions will increase performance further. Each flight delivers large amounts of cargo, such as habitats, solar panels, and equipment to extract water ice from lunar craters. Based on SpaceX’s plans, Starships themselves could also become instant structures, offering spacious pressurized volumes for early bases.

Once lunar resources produce propellant on-site, missions require fewer tanker flights from Earth. This cycle creates a self-growing outpost, where each delivery enables more efficient future shipments.

SpaceX Founder and CEO, Elon Musk, reveals Starship V4 tanker upgrades

Blue Origin competes with Musk’s company by developing its own lunar lander for NASA missions. Yet SpaceX progresses quickly with Starship’s scale and reusability. The rocket supports NASA’s Artemis program while pursuing broader goals of human expansion.

Starship is a key part of SpaceX’s space exploration strategy. The company is actively testing its new versions to test Starship’s stability and reusability for space missions. Despite making steep progress, the rocket has yet to launch a commercial mission. However, it’s expected that 2026 could be the year we see that happening.

(source)