Dima Zeniuk
@DimaZeniuk · Mar 31, 2026
The reason SpaceX chose steel over aluminum for Starship:
— Aluminum can easily melt from re-entry and engine heat
— Steel is far more resilient to both ascent and re-entry heating
— Steel doesn’t require paint, which is hard to maintain through cryogenic cycles
Elon Musk@elonmusk· Mar 31, 2026Stainless Steel Starship
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Steel also had the advantage over carbon fiber of not driving SpaceX into bankruptcy making Starship
09:28 AM · March 31, 2026 · 333.6K views
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