Super Heavy
The first stage of Starship is a 71 m tall, 9 m wide steel cylinder: mostly propellant tanks, with 33 Raptor engines at the bottom. (Width is exaggerated here so the engines are visible.)
Two tanks of cryogenic propellant
Liquid methane fills the upper tank and liquid oxygen the larger lower tank, separated by a shared dome. Together they hold about 3,400 tonnes, nearly 80% of it oxygen by mass.
Feeding the engines
Oxygen drains straight down into the engine bay. Methane travels through the downcomer, a pipe running through the middle of the oxygen tank, and both reach every Raptor.
33 Raptors in three rings
Raptor is a full-flow staged-combustion methane engine. The 3 center (purple) and 10 inner (red) engines gimbal to steer; the 20 outer engines (grey) are fixed and only fire during ascent.
Liftoff and ascent
All 33 engines fire for about two and a half minutes, burning most of the propellant as the tanks drain.
Hot staging and boostback
The ship ignites while still attached, venting through the hot-staging ring. The booster then relights its 13 gimbaling engines to flip and fly back, steered by its grid fins.
Caught by the tower
Only the 3 center engines fire for the landing burn, slowing the booster beside the tower, whose chopstick arms catch it under the grid fins so it can be refuelled and flown again.