This latest design has held to the present day; SpaceX is still shooting for a 387-foot-tall Starship-Super Heavy stack, with six Raptors on the spacecraft. The number of engines on Super Heavy could vary from flight to flight; Musk said the rocket has space for up to 37 Raptors, and each mission will probably require at least 24.
With the design nailed down, SpaceX plans to move fast. The company wants to reach Earth orbit with a Starship prototype in about six months. And people could start flying aboard the vehicle in the next year or so if the test program continues to go well, Musk said.
While Musk and SpaceX have been lauded by their ambitious push for a Starship capable of deep-space travel, the road has not always been smooth.
This evening, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will give an update on the design and future of his company’s next-generation rocket, Starship, a massive vehicle that is meant to take people to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The concept for Starship has evolved in numerous ways over the last few years, and now Musk plans to reveal the vehicle’s latest blueprints.
Musk is giving an hour-long presentation on the rocket at SpaceX’s test facility in Boca Chica, Texas, a tiny town just north of the Mexican border. SpaceX has been building lots of test hardware for Starship at the site, and the CEO will likely be surrounded by this shiny material during his talk. As you watch, keep an eye out for a large Starship test vehicle that’s meant to perform high-altitude test flights in the months ahead.
It’s unclear exactly what Musk will discuss. He mentioned on Twitter that this talk is “mostly a design update for those interested,” though he might touch on the longer-term plans for Starship, as well. The discussion will get underway at 8PM ET; here’s what you need to know before the show.
Elon Musk is doling out more and more details about SpaceX’s next Starship prototype ahead of his big presentation this weekend.
On Saturday (Sept. 28), Musk will reveal the latest design of Starship and Super Heavy, the reusable spaceship and rocket that SpaceX is developing to take people to the moon, Mars and other distant destinations.
Solar power is on the rise. You can see the evidence on rooftops and in the desert, where utility-scale solar plants are popping up. The picture is not all rosy, but if the recent past is any indication, solar power is going to help lead the transition to a carbon-free future, and it might do it faster than we all expected.
Elon Musk and Tesla promised solar roof tiles in 2016, but the industry might not need an upgrade as its grown significantly with the solar panels currently available. You can see the evidence both on individual rooftops and in the utility-scale solar plants increasingly popping up in deserts across the country. In the United States, of all about 30% of the new power capacity added to the grid in 2018 was from solar.
But the picture is not all rosy. Solar power (and sunshine) is intermittent and the price of lithium ion batteries, one of the most popular current storage solutions, is still relatively high.
These are real problems that the industry needs to tackle if solar is going to reach its potential. However, if the recent past is any indication, solar power is going to help lead the transition to a carbon-free future, and it might do it faster than we all expected. Watch the video to learn more.
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SpaceX’s Starship prototype is coming together: Elon Musk recently teased some photos of the spacecraft and its construction site looks like something straight out of Star Wars.
The spacecraft, which serves as a prototype for SpaceX’s Mars-bound Starship, is currently under development, CNN reported. It follows the Starhopper, SpaceX’s first Starship prototype that aced a major hover test in August. Now, SpaceX is ready to build a prototype that may be able to fly into our planet’s orbit.
Billionaire company founder Elon Musk tweeted a pair of photos this week apparently showing progress on one of the Starship prototypes SpaceX is currently developing.
SpaceX has said it plans to use the rockets to shuttle passengers and cargo across the planet or beyond it.
“Droid Junkyard, Tatooine,” Musk wrote in the first tweet, making a joking “Star Wars” reference.
SPACEX boss Elon Musk joined 27 other space experts in signing a document warning against the “consequences” of attempting to contact intelligent alien civilisations.
