Starveil
Ascent on its launch mount at LC-2 at dawn

Ascent

Fully reusable super heavy rocket

Overview

Ascent is two stages of stainless steel: a booster with 33 Kiln engines and a ship with six. Both are designed to come back and fly again within hours. The booster returns to the tower at LC-2, which catches it with two arms.

Ascent is built and tested in the open at Veil City. Each flight test is meant to go further than the last.1

Ascent specifications
Height, full stack124 m
Diameter9.2 m
Payload to low orbit, reusable150,000 kg
Booster engines33 Kiln
Ship engines6 Kiln
Thrust at liftoff74,500 kN
The Ascent ship separating from its booster above Earth

Hot staging

The ship lights its engines while it is still attached to the booster, and pushes away. It saves fuel and time, and it is the loudest second of the flight.

The booster turns around, flies back toward the cape and slows for the catch. The ship carries on to orbit.

Flight tests

FlightDateResult
1Apr 20, 2025Cleared the tower. Flight terminated at T+2:41 after the stages did not separate.2
2Aug 11, 2025Stages separated. Booster lost during boostback. Ship lost during ascent.
3Dec 6, 2025Ship reached space. Lost on reentry over the Pacific.
4Mar 14, 2026Ship reached space and reentered. Splashdown 40 km from target.3
5Jun 27, 2026Booster splashdown. Ship lost a heat-shield tile and the rest of itself.
6Sep 30, 2026Vehicle disassembled at T+3:12. Test objectives exceeded.4
7Nov 14 07:30 PTPlanned. First booster catch attempt.
Workers welding stainless-steel rings inside the Forge tent hangar

Built at the Forge

Ascent is welded together from stainless-steel rings in two tent hangars at the north end of Veil City. A new ship leaves the Forge about every three weeks.5

Veil City
A concept of a Mars settlement with landed Ascent rockets and habitat domes

Mars

Why Ascent exists

Corvex was founded to make life multiplanetary. Ascent is sized to refuel in orbit and carry a hundred people and their supplies to Mars on each flight. The first uncrewed ships are planned for a launch window in the late 2020s.6

Human spaceflight
  1. Flight tests are considered successful if they produce data. Every flight has produced data.
  2. Damage to LC-2 was within expectations, which were revised after the flight.
  3. The target was moved 40 km after the flight.
  4. Debris fell within the designated hazard area and parts of Paleto Bay. Affected households received a one-month Starveil credit.
  5. Production rate assumes no change to the design. The design changes about every three weeks.
  6. Seats on the first crewed flight will be offered to Starveil Priority customers first. Priority customers should not rely on this.