Boil-Off

The Tiny Problem That Could Ground SpaceX’s Starship Forever

Starship’s biggest threat isn’t a rocket engine failure—it’s the silent evaporation of its cryogenic fuel in space. This thermodynamic limit could make deep space missions impossible without active cooling, a problem traditional aerospace solved decades ago. SpaceX’s ‘move fast, break things’ approach may have met its match: a law of physics that doesn’t bend.