Elon Musk hopes to launch ‘Starship’ into Earth orbit in January | science and planet

The Starship is SpaceX’s largest rocket, which will eventually accommodate 100 passengers for missions to the Moon and Mars.

As a test, the space company has already launched Starships at an altitude of about 10 kilometers from the production site in South Texas. However, the spacecraft has never reached Earth orbit yet. This is the next step. On its first spaceflight, the company plans to orbit the Earth once, then drop the rocket into the Pacific Ocean, about 100 kilometers northwest of the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Musk said at Thursday’s meeting that Orbital boosters The Starship for the first flight runway has now been built. The launch pad and launch tower should also be ready later this month. SpaceX can then conduct the necessary tests in December, with which the launch could take place in January.

“It’s the largest rocket ever designed, and we’re close to our first launch,” Musk said. The stainless-steel rocket and the super-heavy drives underneath will be “quickly and completely reusable,” according to the SpaceX founder, who called the group the “holy grail of rockets.”

This does not mean that it will be a successful launch immediately. Musk warns that there are many risks associated with this first test flight. “But I think we’re going to make a lot of progress with it.” He also wants to conduct several launches with the Starship missile next year, with a total of dozens of test flights.

SpaceX plans to use a modified version of its Starship rocket to land NASA astronauts on the Moon in 2025 or later as part of the Artemis program. SpaceX eventually plans to transport hundreds of tons of supplies and people to Mars to help Musk’s goal of building an inhabited city on Mars.

The Starship is designed to take cargo and people into orbit at a fraction of the cost of previous designs. Musk previously said he has built a factory to produce more Starships, and his company aims to make many more missiles. Ultimately, Musk said, it will take “maybe a thousand” spacecraft to enable multiplanet life.

Musk reiterated at the meeting that he believes that humanity needs a second planet, given the risks that Earth faces, such as nuclear weapons, major comets, epidemics, low birth rates, artificial intelligence, and religious extremism.