Leaving Earth: The Rocket Equation, Engine Cycles, Raptor and Starship

Deep End Era. Engineering with Sankalp · Oct 28, 2026 · 1h 1m

Why does it take a 120-metre rocket to put a few tens of tonnes into orbit? Amara Lindqvist and Jonah Petrakis (both fictional) work it out on a Texas causeway. A logarithm makes rockets mostly propellant, and pumping liquid oxygen to 300 bar is the core problem of engine design. Only one engine has ever flown with full-flow staged combustion. Catching boosters with chopsticks, and fourteen flights of iterative failure and success, lead to the first orbital Starship. Cross-reference: ep109 (safety systems and independent protection, compared with autonomous flight termination).

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