#^Starship point-to-point: a potential future application or a capability flex?
Officially announced by SpaceX as a future goal of Starship, Point-to-Point proposes utilizing its rapidly reusable Starship launch vehicle as an Earth-focused fast transportation system, allowing people to travel anywhere in the world in under one hour.
While the capability is undeniably exciting and futuristic, its viability remains questionable due to the numerous technical and regulatory challenges, as well as the economics of what would certainly be an expensive system compared to traditional transportation methods.
Point-to-Point was revealed during one of Elon Musk’s earlier Starship presentations, when Starship was known as the BFR (Big Falcon Rocket). Although six years have passed since the official announcement,
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell mentioned it again during interviews following the announcement, saying that Point-to-Point would be available “within a decade” six years ago. Furthermore, Point-to-Point remains part of the Starship overview on the SpaceX website.
At the time of the reveal, which was part of an overview of Starship’s bigger goal of making life multiplanetary with its Mars missions, the idea was met with a mix of excitement and skepticism. It proposed a future where Starship could break the transit time constraints of air travel, providing a flight to anywhere in the world in under an hour, and some of the main flagship routes, such as London to New York, in under 30 minutes.
That, at least, was the rocket’s flight time. It did not include details or timings regarding the boarding and egress process, which, according to the presentation, would involve a transit on a speedboat to the launch and landing platform. However, proponents claim airlines only advertise their actual flight time.
Futuristic proposals involving rockets transporting passengers across the planet have been embedded in past proposals but often dismissed as far-fetched and not cited as the primary reason for utilizing a rocket.
One such example was Lockheed Martin’s VentureStar, a fully reusable single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) vehicle concept, primarily designed as a futuristic complement to the Space Shuttle Program and a challenger to medium lift launch vehicles by vastly reducing the cost of launch services.
Concept showing VentureStar launhing from an airport. (Credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin)
While it was in its X-33 development phase, a subscale technology version of the VentureStar, it was designed as a cargo-dedicated vehicle, but noted future aspirations to incorporate a crewed version centered around its payload area. Future use materials showed VentureStar launching from an airport with passengers reading newspapers while waiting for their flights on the vehicle.
One since-lost marketing video, from Lockheed Martin’s Skunkworks facility that was building the X-33, cited that passengers could launch from California and land in New York “in minutes.”
However, this version of Point-to-Point was never expanded on, as the X-33 was soon canceled following major development issues with its unique composite propellant tanks.
Domestic Point-to-Point within the U.S. removes some of the major issues Starship’s version could encounter.
It has previously gained some interest from Sir Richard Branson, although he, too, cited global transportation as the goal, despite Virgin Galactic operating in the suborbital realm.
A bit of an Easter Egg from Richard Branson. Talking about a global network of spaceports, trans-continental supersonic space flights, delivering passengers anywhere on the world within a couple of hours. pic.twitter.com/WBZ6xvsfPO
— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) May 10, 2019
“In the great story of commercial aviation, (there will be) a chapter that will see Spaceport America become linked with a global network of spaceports,” noted Branson at a Spaceport America event. “Virgin Galactic (could be) operating transcontinental supersonic spaceflights, delivering passengers anywhere on the planet.”
It was no surprise that SpaceX’s proposal gained the greatest attention, not least because Elon Musk revealed it at a major Starship presentation. Since then, Musk has not spoken about it with the vigor he presents for Starship’s other capabilities, such as building permanent bases on the Moon and Mars.
However, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell promoted the “residual capability” of Starship during a TED interview in 2018, which also debated some of the challenges the company would face.
“Basically, what we’re going to do is fly BFR like an aircraft and do point-to-point travel on Earth. So you can take off from New York City or Vancouver and fly halfway across the globe,” noted Shotwell. “You’ll be on the BFR for roughly half an hour or 40 minutes. The longest part of that flight is actually the boat out and back (to the platform).”
SpaceX is no stranger to ocean-based platforms, having previously acquired two oil rigs and named them Phobos and Deimos. The company worked on the platforms briefly but would ultimately sell them.
For point-to-point to work, SpaceX will have to meet the stringent requirements and restrictions surrounding launching and landing near major population centers. While Falcon 9 boosters return to both ocean-based droneships and land-based landing zones, the latter are located within relatively remote launch centers in Florida and California — several miles away from any major cities or towns.
SpaceX has already demonstrated its ability to land Super Heavy boosters at its Starbase launch site in Texas, for which the company went to great lengths to warn locals of the sonic booms during the vehicle’s return — despite a large exclusion zone where the nearest population center is around eight kilometers away.
However, for a regular point-to-point launch and landing platform to be located near a major city, local regulations, including FAA-level noise restrictions, could result in the platform being placed tens, if not hundreds, of kilometers off the coast. Such a distance would further increase travel times to and from the platform via boat.
The potential location of a Starship point-to-point platform off the coast of New York City. (Credit: Google Earth)
Interestingly, Shotwell doesn’t believe the requirements for the launch and landing platforms will be that restrictive — expecting the platforms to be located 5-10 km off the coast.
“We’re bringing the (Falcon) first stages back, and we’re landing them on federal property, on an Air Force base. So I think doing it, I don’t know, ten kilometers out from a city, maybe it’s only five kilometers out from a city (is possible).”
The logistics and costs of resupplying the ocean platform, servicing the rocket both before launch and after landing, and transporting passengers to and from the pad also affect the viability of the economics of point-to-point. Economics, even with a customer base of the super-rich looking to fly transatlantic a few hours less than usual, failed to save Concorde.
Space Shuttle Enterprise and Concorde in the early 80s. (Credit: Paris Air Show)
Even with the economic game changer of a fully reusable launch vehicle, the costs of propellants alone for such a large rocket will play into the price of tickets.
“Everyone thinks rockets are really expensive, and to a large degree, they are, and how could we possibly compete with airline tickets here?” Shotwell said. “But if you think about it, if I can do this trip in half an hour to an hour, I can do dozens of these a day, right? And yet, a long-haul aircraft can only make one of those flights a day.”
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“So even if my rocket was slightly more expensive and the fuel is a little bit more expensive, I can run 10x at least what they’re running in a day and really make the revenue that I need to out of that system.”
On the plus side, there won’t be a lack of rich commuters looking to fly on a rocket, although they will be riding on an actual rocket that comes with the G-forces such an experience would entail. That may rule out some of those willing passengers.
As mentioned, on the timescale of point-to-point becoming a reality, Shotwell noted, “within a decade for sure,” six years ago. Such timelines are never set in stone, with Starship, like most other rockets, being delayed many years from its projected milestones. SpaceX has also often noted it will take many hundreds of Starship launches before humans are cleared to fly on it.
As such, it is hard to see commuters riding on a point-to-point flight within the next two decades. Fortunately, however, point-to-point is not restricted to commuter travel. The concept has already garnered interest from the U.S. Air Force, specifically the Air Force Research Laboratory, for transporting cargo around the world.
Starship-like vehicle delivering cargo, presumably after a point-to-point flight. (Credit: U.S. Air Force)
While the economic viability of point-to-point transportation for the U.S. Air Force is questionable, when the military adapts to logistics transportation in a timely manner, as seen with the C-17, it will likely be worth spending time and money exploring other options, such as Starship.
While cargo point-to-point removes several concerns associated with a commercial passenger system that would be burdened with regulations, the military would still need to cater to flying rockets to other parts of the world outside of a warzone scenario.
Thus far, SpaceX has only shared information regarding point-to-point on Earth. However, one potential future option for point-to-point’s ultimate viable use may ironically not be on Earth.
SpaceX aspires to build large, self-sustaining cities on Mars, which recently received attention during Elon Musk’s recent presentation on SpaceX’s latest plans for making life multiplanetary. Notably, although not expanded on, one slide noted the goal of a “global mobility,” potentially laying the foundations for a point-to-point system on Mars.
Elon Musk presenting SpaceX’s latest plans for Mars. (Credit: SpaceX)
Many of the potential roadblocks for this system on Mars would be mitigated compared to Earth, such as territorial, noise, and safety impacts on large population centers.
While still an official goal of SpaceX, the transportation of commercial passengers on Earth via Starship is likely to be the final leg of any realization of this project. Military and off-world potential remains its most realistic potential.
(Lead image: SpaceX render of Starship performing a point-to-point flight. Credit: SpaceX)
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