SpaceX's Dragon and Starship - Revolution, Reusability, and the Race to Mars

SpaceX's Dragon and Starship is the electrifying story of how two revolutionary spacecraft - one proven, one poised to change everything - are shaping humanity s future in space. This is the inside scoop on how SpaceX took the hard-won experience of building and flying Cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon and used it as the springboard to develop the most ambitious space vehicle ever: Starship.
From delivering supplies to the ISS to launching astronauts safely into orbit, Dragon proved that commercial spaceflight could be fast, reliable, and reusable. But Dragon wasn t just about missions, it was about learning. Every docking, every reentry, every splashdown was a step toward something bigger. And that something bigger is Starship: a fully reusable, stainless-steel rocket designed to carry humans to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Packed with thrilling accounts of test flights, behind-the-scenes innovation, and bold engineering decisions, this book shows how lessons from Dragon - from life support systems to heat shields and redundancy - directly informed the design of Starship. Whether you're a space enthusiast or just love a good underdog-turned-powerhouse story, this is your ticket to understanding how two ships - Dragon and Starship - are launching us into a new era of exploration. 

List of contents

1 SpaceX: The Mars Messiah s Mission.- 2 From Partners to Pioneers: How NASA Fueled SpaceX s Ascent.- 3 Engines That Rewrote the Rules of Spaceflight.- 4 From Falcon 1 to Falcon Heavy: Rockets That Revolutionized Spaceflight.- 5 Dragon's Ascent: From Concept to Spacecraft.- 6 Building the Mars Messiah s Mars Rocket: The Starship Revolution.- 7 Ignition and Ambition: How SpaceX s Integrated Flight Tests Turn Fireballs into Forward Motion.- 8 The Mars Machine: How Starbase and Star Factory are Building the Road to the Red Planet.- 9 Hard Tech, Soft Bodies: Starship Meets Human Biology.

Product details

• Authors: Erik Seedhouse
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 12.06.2026
• EAN: 9783032161741
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3216174-1
• Illustrations: Approx. 300 p. 64 illus., 60 illus. in color.
• Series: Springer Praxis Books; Space Exploration
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Technology > Aviation and space engineering; Weltraumforschung, Elon Musk, Astronautik (Raumfahrttechnik), Aerospace Technology and Astronautics, Space Exploration and Astronautics, Soyuz and Geopolitics, Space Station Resupply, Reusable Rocket, After NASA Shuttle Program, ISS Shuttle, SpaceX Spacecraft, Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser, Dragon Spaceship, Boeing CST-100, Private Space Exploration, Starship Development