Elon Musk Says SPCX's Starship Could Deliver Up to 10 Million Tons to Orbit Every Year

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) CEO Elon Musk said that the company’s Starship rocket could eventually deliver between 1 million and 10 million tons of payload to orbit annually as operations scale. Up to 10 Million Tons of Payload On Wednesday, the billionaire responded to user Eric Berger, who questioned why Europe would opt for Italian aerospace company Avio and its solid-fuel rocket technology amid SpaceX’s long-term plans to transition launch operations toward Starship. Solid-fuel rockets use a pre-mixed solid propellant and generally have a simpler propulsion architecture than liquid-fueled rockets. Europe's response to Falcon 9 exiting the market should not be to shovel contracts to the dead-end, solid rocket technology Avio is flying. Rather it needs to invest heavily in rapid reuse, because what's coming down the line is even more of a steamroller than Falcon 9. pic.twitter.com/3aQO4F6AAh— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) September 16, 2026 “Starship will deliver somewhere between 1M and 10M tons per year to orbit,” Musk said in his response. The billionaire added that even if “non-SpaceX tonnage to orbit were to triple, it would still be less than 0.1% of what SpaceX plans to do,” expressing bullish sentiments on SpaceX’s payload capacity. Starship will deliver somewhere between 1M and 10M tons per year to orbit.Even if non-SpaceX tonnage to orbit were to triple, it would still be less than 0.1% of what SpaceX plans to do.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2026 However, Musk acknowledged the large gap between orbital payload and payloads transported via aircraft, saying it was still “small potatoes compared to airflight tonnage.” (which is still small potatoes compared to airflight tonnage)— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2026 Notably, Musk said in March this year that the Starship rocket could transport 1 million tons of payload to orbit, in response to a user who asked what the payload capacity of the company’s flagship rocket would look like in five years. Starship’s Flight Test 14 The comments follow SpaceX’s announcement that the company will conduct Starship’s first orbital launch on September 22, which was confirmed by Musk. The billionaire also said that the company will begin deploying the Starlink V3 satellites, which will offer better bandwidth than the current Starlink constellation. Price Action: SpaceX shares were up 0.99% at $152.38 during overnight trading on Wednesday. Read Also: Elon Musk Predicts Solar Will Crush All Other Energy Sources to Below 0.1% Amid Texas Boom: ‘So Obviously the Future’ Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link. Photo courtesy: Shutterstock