ITS launch vehicle

History

Elon Musk first publicly discussed the launch vehicle in 2012 as part of SpaceX's Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) project, a privately funded effort to create reusable rockets, engines, and capsules for human Mars travel and return. Musk had expressed a personal ambition to enable Mars exploration and settlement as early as 2007. Between 2011 and 2015, SpaceX released scattered details about the mission architecture. In a 2011 interview, Musk said he hoped to land humans on Mars within 10 to 20 years.

By late 2012, he predicted the first colonists would arrive no earlier than the mid-2020s. A 2014 statement reiterated that timeline. Development of the large Raptor engine for MCT began before 2014. In October 2012, Musk outlined a plan for a second reusable rocket system far more capable than the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, which had already cost billions.

He described it as a much larger evolution of the Falcon 9 booster but said SpaceX would not discuss it publicly until 2013. In June 2013, Musk stated he would delay any SpaceX initial public offering until the Mars Colonial Transporter was flying regularly. In February 2014, SpaceX announced that the MCT launch vehicle's main payload would be a large interplanetary spacecraft also called Mars Colonial Transporter, designed to carry up to 100 tonnes of passengers and cargo.

Musk said it would be 100 times the size of an SUV. According to SpaceX engine chief Tom Mueller, concept designs at the time showed the rocket could use nine Raptor engines, similar to the nine Merlin engines on each Falcon 9 core, to put over 100 tonnes of cargo on Mars.

Description and technical specifications

The ITS launch vehicle had two stages. The first stage was an interplanetary booster, while the second stage could be either an interplanetary spaceship or an ITS tanker. Both stages used Raptor engines burning liquid methane and liquid oxygen in a full flow staged combustion cycle, with both propellants becoming gas before entering the combustion chamber. High-pressure gas was bled off to pressurize the propellant tanks, replacing the helium system used on Falcon 9.

The vehicle stood 122 meters tall. Both stages were built from carbon fiber, including the cryogenic propellant tanks, and were fully reusable with vertical landing.

Gross liftoff mass was 10,500 tonnes, with a liftoff thrust of 128 MN. The first stage was 12 meters in diameter and 77.5 meters high, powered by 42 sea-level Raptor engines, each producing about 3,024 kN of thrust. Total booster thrust was roughly 29,000,000 lbf.