Elon Musk Revealed New Starship Raptor 4 Made NASA STUNNED!
TECH MAP 1/29/2025
Starship V2 is currently breaking many technological records, but we all know that Starship will have a V3 version.
And, Elon does not plan to stop there. On the first day of this year, he announced that after increasing the height of Starship to 10m, which I assume he refers to as the V3, Starship will increase in diameter.
This increase in size not only hints at a post-V3 version of Starship but also indicates that it will be an even more colossal vehicle, necessitating a significantly more powerful engine.
This engine would require propulsion capabilities surpassing the current Raptor 2 and even exceed the power of the upcoming Raptor 3, which is set to be installed on Starship V2.
Fortunately, Elon has some exciting revelations in store for us—fans who are passionate about exploring and theorizing the potential of this groundbreaking new engine.
Elon Musk Revealed New Starship Raptor 4 Made NASA STUNNED!
Just before the new year started, on December 31 of last year, answering the question on X of whether Starship would have twice the thrust of the Saturn V, in addition to affirming that it was already more than capable, Elon Musk also added an interesting piece of information.
“When Raptor reaches 300 tons of thrust at liftoff, which Raptor 3.x can probably do (certainly Raptor 4 will), then it will have 10k metric tons of thrust at liftoff, which is 22.5M lb-F, almost exactly three times Saturn V.”
Based on this, we know that in addition to Raptor 3, there will be at least 2 new Raptor versions being developed, Raptor 3.x and Raptor 4, which promise to bring outstanding stats.
First, let's talk about Raptor 3.x, this is not the first time the SpaceX billionaire has mentioned this engine. He first announced this version last August on X, along with its upgraded figures.
Elon Musk Revealed New Starship Raptor 4 Made NASA STUNNED!
First, the thrust of each of these Raptor engines will exceed 300 tons, bringing the sea-level thrust of the Super Heavy to 10,000 tons overall, meeting the requirements needed for Starship V3.
This is also the thrust that Elon mentioned, which will be three times that of the Saturn V ship. Not only the thrust but also the fuel efficiency of this engine will be upgraded, with up to 5 sec of ISP gain over time.
As for Raptor 4, there’s not much concrete information about it. However, we do know it will surpass the capabilities of the Raptor 3.x series in every way. It’s really hard to imagine how an engine could surpass that kind of thrust.
Believe it or not, SpaceX has had such an engine in mind, and it may be the new Raptor 4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUkbWr4HH-Y
