

NASA specifically built the Saturn V rocket to carry the Apollo moon landers into space. Famous German scientific genius and space enthusiast Wernher von Braun was involved in the program, along with many other important researchers. The United States developed the Saturn V (Roman numeral five) rocket as a heavy lift vehicle during the 1960s space race with the USSR. And while the Saturn V, for all its awesome power and dimensions, was a single-use, disposable rocket, SpaceX is making the Starship reusable. The Saturn V’s designers focused on putting a man on the moon, while the Starship could be a sort of “space airliner” for tourists or passengers bound as far afield as Mars. The Starship might carry up to a hundred or more. The Saturn V could carry only two or three people inside a lunar module. On closer inspection, however, the Starship and the Saturn V are different beasts from different eras and with dissimilar goals. Their only possible rival, short of a few mostly-failed Soviet designs, is the Chinese Long March 9. Both are lift vehicles on a titanic scale, hundreds of feet tall and able to carry over 110,000 pounds of payload. SpaceX Starship: What’s the Difference? A spaceship is a spacecraft controlled by a crew.Īt first glance, Saturn V and Starship look similar. In our Saturn V vs SpaceX Starship comparison, we look at how both space vehicles stack up against each other.

The Starship could open up space to humans more than previous rockets – if it lives up to its design promises. Technological advances also greatly increase its ability to carry people and payloads efficiently into space. It is researching and building the SpaceX Starship as a Super Heavy Launch Vehicle slightly more powerful than the Saturn V. The Saturn V set a high bar for ambitious rocketeers, but Elon Musk’s SpaceX has taken up the challenge. The Saturn V carried 24 astronauts successfully into space without any serious accidents. NASA engineered it for the Apollo lunar missions and used it to launch Skylab in space. The Saturn V held the crown for many years as the biggest and most powerful among these aerospace platforms. Rising above the earth’s surface on a thunderous pillar of exhaust as they seek the cold void of space, rockets are among mankind’s most awe-inspiring vehicles.
