Military Starship: How SpaceX Is About to Make America Globally Dominant

The Rod Martin Report ^ | Mar 03, 2025 | Rod D. Martin

[Skwor]

The economics are straight out of Heinlein.

The question, of course, is why would Elon want to be able to build a new Starship every day? The things are reusable: even a handful would revolutionize space, and certainly no one has mass produced such things before. Who would even buy them?

[Skwor]

Trump reinvigorates our Space Force, Musk is currently working with the pentagon in coordination with SpaceX.

I think we are on the cusp of a real revolution of American technology and hegemony. Most people are completely unaware of the changes coming. I remember Reagan's Star Wars was mocked and now it is everyday tech. This I think will be even bigger.

[bert]

A Starbase is being enlarged at Boca Chica Texas from which the mission to Mars will go forth on SpaceX rockets

[glorgau]

SpaceX already puts 80+% of all mass into orbit.

[jimtorr]

SOME of the Star Wars tech is everyday. Things like “rods from god” are not.

However most of the space-based weapons could not be done because of a lack of affordable launchers and a lack of will, not a lack of know-how or technology.

The Space X launchers are capable of getting things to high-earth orbit, where weapons need to be.

[calljack]

I think the plan is to have 1000 passenger capsules go to Mars with 200 to 300 people in each one. I bet they plan to land the capsule and convert it into something necessary.

[Skwor]

Trust me much more is than you realize, you are only aware of what is in the publics domain, not that which is common in the military domain.

[TheDon]

That’s an eye opening article. Thanks for posting it.

[bigbob]

Elon is actually Delos. D. Harriman.

[Skwor]

Nice parallel.

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[LastDayz]

Fascinating...

[Taxman]

ping

[P8riot]

My concern is that currently Starships are not defendable. They would be vulnerable to attack on approach or departure. This would have to be addressed if it is to be used as the fulcrum of a weapons system.

[Skwor]

Of course, this article is more a concept discussion. We already defend air bases for our large cargo planes so that infrastructure exists and is well known.

At 200 tons delivery vehicles much less expensive can be created to deploy from those orbiting spacecraft. The hard part is solved, reusable, cheap mass producible rockets.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Wow, that is astonishing. I had NO IDEA it was that high. I asked Grok about the total payload mass launched by SpaceX:

• In 2023, SpaceX launched about 1,200 metric tons to orbit across 96 Falcon family launches. BryceTech’s Q3 2023 report pegged SpaceX at 84% of global orbital mass that year
• In 2024, SpaceX delivered over 1,498 metric tons to orbit across 134 launches. That was 85.5%
• Industry analyses and X chatter (e.g., Elon Musk’s October 2024 claim) suggest SpaceX hit ~90% of Earth’s orbital mass in 2024, with no other provider—China, Russia, or the U.S.—coming close. China’s 2024 launches totaled about 150 metric tons across 67 missions, per state media, while others (ESA, Russia, ULA) added maybe 50–70 metric tons combined.

[Macoozie]

Another thread-

Any trip to Mars will depend on the timing of the planets in orbit. Go at the wrong time it takes 3 times as long. The launch window is very narrow and doesn’t repeat for ~35 years.

They want to launch by end of 2026.

[llevrok]

I bet they plan to land the capsule and convert it into something necessary.

An In no Out burger stand?

[ConservativeMind]

Let’s make a space elevator.

[fella]

Private Enterprise vs. government bureaucracies.

[UnwashedPeasant]

Elon could do Space Uber.