SpaceX
This is how big SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and BFR rocket is in real life
An artist duo has published an impressive, unofficial look at the true size of SpaceX’s reusable rockets, using a brilliant combination of 3D modeling and animation to really compare Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and BFR with recognizable landmarks and cityscapes, lending an incredible sense of scale to the extraordinary feats of engineering that SpaceX routinely launches, lands, and relaunches every month.
In the video, posted on the Corridor YouTube channel on June 19, VFX artist Wren Weichman — known on social media as “sirwrender” — acts as the host of a brief clip where he tours viewers around an office and several cityscapes populated with scale-model 3D renders of all of SpaceX’s various rockets, both those currently operational and those under development. His point is undeniably true: human brains simply are not accustomed to or easily able to build accurate mental pictures of vast real-world objects. The reality almost invariably comes as a visceral shock to onlookers, even those that know better than to trust their perceptual instincts. Be it grand natural wonders or human constructs, humans are quite simply bad at estimating scale until they do so in person.
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- SpaceX technicians work at the base of Falcon 9 B1039 ahead of launch, CRS-14. (Tom Cross)
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- The scale of Falcon Heavy. (Photo: Tom Cross)
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- The hypersonic X-15 and Falcon 9 S1, with a common 737-800 airliner on the right. All vehicles are roughly to scale. (Wikipedia, SpaceX)
With the case of rockets and their launches, this is doubly true and further exaggerated by the fact that launch webcasts, videos, and photos often feature unfamiliar backgrounds of industrial equipment or a perfectly featureless skies, all while almost invariably excluding (for good reasons…) familiarly scaled features like people, cars, animals, or everyday buildings. In many cases, preparations for rocket launches are often the absolute best times available for photos that truly give a sense of scale, as it’s actually reasonably safe to be and work in close proximity to an unfueled rocket.
With the help of models of Falcon 9, Heavy, and BFR created by 3D design Reese Wilson (@AstroReeseW), Wren (@sirwrender) takes those scale shortcomings to task and does his best to create examples with the very cues that average fans and viewers rarely get to see alongside real-life rockets.
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- Wren’s example of a rough, uneducated estimate of Falcon 9 legs based on easily available images and livestreams. (sirwrender/astroreesew)
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- The full-sized Falcon 9 landing leg is just a smidge larger in reality. (sirwrender/astroreesew)
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- A handful of rather absurd cases also serve to illustrate just how huge SpaceX’s rockets are. (sirwrender/astroreesew)
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- Just your run-of-the-mill pile of Falcon Heavies in suburban New York City. (sirwrender/astroreesew)
The video really needs to be watched to be fully appreciated – my favorite segment is near the start, where Wren notes that viewers likely expect some of the seemingly insignificant components, projecting a layperson size-estimate of a Falcon 9 landing leg inside his workplace before expanding it all the way to full-scale, at which point the leg literally does not fit inside the office. Visualizations of BFR further show that the crewed Mars rocket will effortlessly dwarf the already massive Falcon 9 and Heavy.
Regardless of whether you were or were not intimately familiar with the actual scale of SpaceX’s many rockets, Wren and Reese make for a seriously entertaining (and educational) combination. Here’s to hoping the duo ventures into more spaceflight and SpaceX videos in the future! Enjoy the video below.
In a groundbreaking new report from Reuters, SpaceX is reportedly discussing merger possibilities with xAI ahead of the space exploration company’s plans to IPO later this year, in what would be a blockbuster move.
The outlet said it would combine rockets and Starlink satellites, as well as the X social media platform and AI project Grok under one roof. The report cites “a person briefed on the matter and two recent company filings seen by Reuters.”
Musk, nor SpaceX or xAI, have commented on the report, so, as of now, it is unconfirmed.
With that being said, the proposed merger would bring shares of xAI in exchange for shares of SpaceX. Both companies were registered in Nevada to expedite the transaction, according to the report.
On January 21, both entities were registered in Nevada. The report continues:
“One of them, a limited liability company, lists SpaceX and Bret Johnsen, the company’s chief financial officer, as managing members, while the other lists Johnsen as the company’s only officer, the filings show.”
The source also stated that some xAI executives could be given the option to receive cash in lieu of SpaceX stock. No agreement has been reached, nothing has been signed, and the timing and structure, as well as other important details, have not been finalized.
SpaceX is valued at $800 billion and is the most valuable privately held company, while xAI is valued at $230 billion as of November. SpaceX could be going public later this year, as Musk has said as recently as December that the company would offer its stock publicly.
The plans could help move along plans for large-scale data centers in space, something Musk has discussed on several occasions over the past few months.
At the World Economic Forum last week, Musk said:
“It’s a no-brainer for building solar-powered AI data centers in space, because as I mentioned, it’s also very cold in space. The net effect is that the lowest cost place to put AI will be space and that will be true within two to three years, three at the latest.”
He also said on X that “the most important thing in the next 3-4 years is data centers in space.”
If the report is true and the two companies end up coming together, it would not be the first time Musk’s companies have ended up coming together. He used Tesla stock to purchase SolarCity back in 2016. Last year, X became part of xAI in a share swap.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship V3 gets launch date update from Elon Musk
The first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.
Elon Musk has announced that SpaceX’s next Starship launch, Flight 12, is expected in about six weeks. This suggests that the first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.
In a post on X, Elon Musk stated that the next Starship launch is in six weeks. He accompanied his announcement with a photo that seemed to have been taken when Starship’s upper stage was just about to separate from the Super Heavy Booster. Musk did not state whether SpaceX will attempt to catch the Super Heavy Booster during the upcoming flight.
The upcoming flight will mark the debut of Starship V3. The upgraded design includes the new Raptor V3 engine, which is expected to have nearly twice the thrust of the original Raptor 1, at a fraction of the cost and with significantly reduced weight. The Starship V3 platform is also expected to be optimized for manufacturability.
The Starship V3 Flight 12 launch timeline comes as SpaceX pursues an aggressive development cadence for the fully reusable launch system. Previous iterations of Starship have racked up a mixed but notable string of test flights, including multiple integrated flight tests in 2025.
Interestingly enough, SpaceX has teased an aggressive timeframe for Starship V3’s first flight. Way back in late November, SpaceX noted on X that it will be aiming to launch Starship V3’s maiden flight in the first quarter of 2026. This was despite setbacks like a structural anomaly on the first V3 booster during ground testing.
“Starship’s twelfth flight test remains targeted for the first quarter of 2026,” the company wrote in its post on X.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk shares insights on SpaceX and Tesla’s potential scale
In a pair of recent posts on X, Musk argued that both companies operate in domains where growth is not linear, but exponential.
Elon Musk outlined why he believes Tesla and SpaceX ultimately dwarf their competitors, pointing to autonomy, robotics, and space-based energy as forces that fundamentally reshape economic scale.
In a pair of recent posts on X, Musk argued that both companies operate in domains where growth is not linear, but exponential.
Space-based energy
In a response to a user on X who observed that SpaceX has a larger valuation than all six US defense companies combined, Musk explained that space-based industries will eventually surpass the total economic value of Earth. He noted that space allows humanity to harness roughly 100,000 times more energy than Earth currently uses, while still consuming less than a millionth of the Sun’s total energy output.
That level of available energy should enable the emergence and development of industries that are simply not possible within Earth’s physical and environmental constraints. Continuous solar exposure in space, as per Musk’s comment, removes limitations imposed by atmosphere, weather, and land availability.
Autonomy and robots
In a follow-up post, Elon Musk explaned that “due to autonomy, Tesla is worth more than the rest of the auto industry.” Musk added that this assessment does not yet account for Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot. As per the CEO, once Optimus reaches scaled production, it could increase Earth’s gross domestic product by an order of magnitude, ultimately paving the way for sustainable abundance.
Even before the advent of Optimus, however, Tesla’s autonomous driving system already gives vehicles the option to become revenue-generating assets through services like the Tesla Robotaxi network. Tesla’s autonomous efforts seem to be on the verge of paying off, as services like the Robotaxi network have already been launched in its initial stages in Austin and the Bay Area.
Tesla analyst claims another vehicle, not Model S and X, should be discontinued
SpaceX reportedly discussing merger with xAI ahead of blockbuster IPO
