With Starship’s capacity for large quantities of cargo and people, he said, it could help establish a “ permanently occupied base on the Moon.”Īfter the Moon, Musk’s next stop is Mars. SpaceX scored the NASA contract to provide the lunar lander for the Artemis Program, but Musk’s vision looks even further. Musk guessed that SpaceX would begin selling Starship launches at a price 5-10 times cheaper than that of Falcon 9 “ probably two years from now.” SpaceX has performed short test flights from its facilities at Starbase in South Texas, some of which have exploded spectacularly, but the upcoming launch will be the first time Starship is to reach Earth orbit. Starship is the largest rocket ever built, reaching nearly 400 ft in height when mounted atop the Super Heavy booster. Ultimately, in order for life to become multi-planetary, we ’ll need maybe a thousand ships.” SpaceX StarshipĮven if the first orbital launch fails, he added that he is “ confident” one will succeed sometime in 2022. And then we’ve also built a factory for making a lot of these vehicles, so this is not a case of just one or two. “ But I think we’ll make a lot of progress. “ There is a lot of risk associated with this first launch, so I would not say that it is likely to be successful,” he said. However, he is not entirely optimistic about the mission. Testing will be conducted in December, and if SpaceX receives FAA regulatory approval, Starship should launch into orbit in January. The first orbital booster and ship are complete, and the launch pad and tower will finish later this month. Starship’s purpose, he said, is to establish a human presence on other planets, namely Mars, to preserve the “ Delicate candle of consciousness flickering in the darkness.”Īccording to Musk, progress on that front is rapidly underway. “ The probable lifespan of civilization is much greater if we are a multi-planet species and ultimately even go beyond our solar system.” “ Eventually, something will happen to Earth, hopefully not soon, either natural or manmade that would cause the end of civilization,” he said. He discussed his vision and purpose for the company as well as the risks to life on Earth, including climate change, comet strikes, nuclear Armageddon, high-mortality pandemics, artificial intelligence, declining birth rates and religious extremism. Musk delivered the announcement in a virtual meeting with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Space Studies Board. …We intend to complete the test flight program next year, which means that it’s probably ready for valuable payloads that are not for testing but actual, real payloads in 2023.” … We intend to do hopefully a dozen launches next year, maybe more. “So that probably means a launch attempt in January or perhaps February.
#Spacex will hopefully first orbital flight license
“ We are expecting our license approval from the FAA around the end of this year,” he said.
On Wednesday, Elon Musk clarified the schedule for his next-generation Starship rocket, saying that SpaceX hopes to perform the first orbital flight in January
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