How much does a kilo of spaceship cost? They are selling the remains of the Space X ships

How much does a kilo of spaceship cost? They are selling the remains of the Space X ships

It's nothing new. The remains of memories from the space race are sold in all formats, from the Apollo XIII notebook, to a “piece” of the Moon, so much so that they have come to worry NASA. The arrival of private companies has only stimulated this and now It is possible to buy fragments of Space X's Starship shipsdirectly on eBay.

ceramic tiles, designed to keep spacecraft cool during re-entry into the atmosphere of the Earth, sell for thousands of dollars on eBay. It is a lucrative secondary market for unique souvenirs that were once attached to some of the largest man-made objects ever to take flight.

To date, the company led by Elon Musk has attempted to put three Starship prototypes into orbit. The first two attempts ended in explosions sending fragments of the approximately 18,000 hexagonal ceramic tiles to nearby South Texas beaches.

In the third and final orbital launch attempt last week, the last prototype reached space, passed over the African continent and crashed in the Indian Ocean. However, it is still possible that the heat shields have come off during launch.

Some of the people who have found or actively searched for these remains are selling them on eBay from about 30 euros to more than 2000. Etsy is also filled with listings for supposed leftover heat shields, packaged in small glass bottles.

There are some who seem overly optimistic about how much money they could make and they put figures above 7000 euros. A search of already sold items shows that one tile sold for more than 3000 euros.

Regarding whether this is legal, in an interview one of the sellers points out that SpaceX “thanked me for telling them that I had these parts and said that I could send them to you or keep them and I chose to keep them”.

Last week SpaceX uploaded a video of the ceramic pieces in action. There you can see the underside of the Ship 28 spacecraft enveloped in an orange-red glow, a “hot plasma field” that increased as it reentered the atmosphere, according to Musk.

Regarding other types of parts, The legality of its possible sale is not known with certainty.. Employees who worked on the Starship program, for example, received a piece, in this case bronze and not collectible ceramic, which of course also sells on eBay for more than €1,000. For other types of space “souvenirs”, the most appropriate thing would be to write to them directly and ask.