SpaceX's Starship stands 407 feet tall with 18.1 million pounds of thrust

SpaceX's Starship launch vehicle measures 407 feet with both of its stages joined together, according to Engadget. That makes it the tallest rocket to have flown and the most powerful, generating 18.1 million pounds-force of thrust at liftoff.

For scale, the vehicle rises above Hyperion, the tallest known living tree, and stands about a third taller than the Statue of Liberty when its pedestal is counted. The September 28, 2026, launch carried a booster rated at 18.1 million pounds of thrust, up from 16.7 million pounds on the first full-stack flight in April 2023.

The lower stage, called Super Heavy, is 236.2 feet tall and supplies the first push off the pad. The Starship spacecraft sits on top at 170.6 feet. SpaceX built the system to haul large payloads and, in time, to move people and cargo past Earth orbit. The company also aims to bring both stages back and fly them again.

Super Heavy carries 33 Raptor engines that run on liquid methane and liquid oxygen. NASA's Space Launch System, by comparison, produces between 8.8 million and 9.4 million pounds of maximum thrust. After the stages separate, Starship continues on three standard Raptor engines plus three Raptor Vacuum engines built for space, with thrust listed at about 3.5 million pounds-force. Only the booster number applies to liftoff.

Lifting heavy payloads takes more than raw power. Super Heavy holds 3,650 metric tons of propellant, and Starship carries another 1,600 metric tons, for 5,250 metric tons combined. Even at that scale, the rocket relies on staging, efficient engines and extensive planning before launch.

For NASA's planned lunar landings, Starship will still need to refuel in Earth orbit. The lander uses much of its propellant simply reaching orbit. The plan calls for a propellant depot to launch first, then tanker Starships to deliver fuel, then the lander, which docks with the depot and takes on propellant. The crew later launches on NASA's Orion spacecraft under the Artemis program, meets the waiting lander in Earth orbit, and Starship carries both toward lunar orbit before two crew members descend to the surface and return. Keeping propellants extremely cold in space remains a serious technical hurdle.