[billti]

> Starship will deliver millions of tons to orbit and beyond per year

Excuse my naive physics, but is there a point at which if you take enough mass off of earth and launch it into space, it would have a measurable effect on earth's orbit? (Or if the mass is still tethered to earth via gravity, is there no net effect?)

[crote]

Earth weighs about 5972200000000000000000000 kg. They are claiming to plan to launch ~5000000000 kg / year. That's 8x10^-14 %. You'd need some pretty accurate instruments to tell the difference.

[mr_toad]

The Sun masses so much more than the Earth that the Earth’s mass is effectively irrelevant to its orbit.