Space X’s massive Starship has been designed with the capacity to boost up to 150 tons into low-Earth orbit, far more than rockets currently in common use. With its success, the potential for launching larger payloads — whether cargo, satellites, or entire interplanetary spacecraft — becomes more tantalizing to deep space mission designers looking to explore other planets and asteroids.
Outer-planet science gets a boost from renewed interest
Starship arrives as the scientific community puts increased emphasis on exploring the outer solar system. The Origins, Worlds, and Life: A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032 — commonly known as the 2022 Planetary Science Decadal Survey — identified a Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP) as its highest-priority flagship mission for the coming decade. Until now, that mission concept assumed launch aboard a heavy launcher such as Falcon Heavy, with flight times stretching into the teens of years.
Recent analysis by researchers at MIT’s Engineering Systems Lab suggests that a refueled Starship could reach Uranus in about 6 years — roughly half the cruise time expected under earlier plans. The study argues that on-orbit refueling would allow direct trajectories without complex gravity assists, and that Starship’s existing design could possibly support an aerocapture deceleration maneuver at Uranus, avoiding the need for an extraordinarily large propulsive burn.
Starship Is Not Quite A Finished Product
Despite the successes so far in testing, Starship remains under development. The on-orbit refueling architecture — crucial for heavy interplanetary missions — has yet to be demonstrated. The initial trials of that are due to occur next year, in 2026. Those trials are a matter of urgency for Project Artemis, as the Human Landing System for lunar missions is planned to be a modified SpaceX Starship, and to reach the lunar surface and return, that HLS version will require refueling in low Earth orbit.
Even when refueling works reliably, designing a spacecraft that can survive the vast distance to Uranus and then slow down for orbit insertion remains a major challenge. For example, deceleration at Uranus would require significant delta-V (change in velocity), or else a carefully engineered aerocapture using a heat shield and atmospheric drag. That’s not simple, and given the distance — roughly 160 light minutes from Earth — the system will need to be entirely automated and capable of handing any and all contingencies that may arise that far away from controllers here on Earth.
Moreover, mission planning for a flagship outer-solar-system mission has not yet formally begun, much less budgeting for it. Decadal flagship missions often run into the billions of dollars, and this will be no exception. That means that the mission will need to get political support to proceed. All of those things are over the horizon and will happen on another day, but it is an interesting thought experiment to consider the possibilities that Starship will open.
