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Elon Musk gives more and more details on the next SpaceX spacecraft prototype before its big presentation this weekend.
Saturday, September 28, Musk will unveil 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.
The presentation will take place at the SpaceX facility in South Texas, near the village of Boca Chica, where the company is building a prototype spacecraft called the Mk1, or Mark 1. SpaceX aims to pilot this vehicle for the first time next month, as part of an unprepared test getaway that will reach an altitude of about 20 kilometers, said Musk.
Video: Watch SpaceX's Epic Starhopper Flight Test
Related, connected, related: The SpaceX spacecraft and the Super Heavy Mars rocket in images
Lifting the lower part of Starship pic.twitter.com/bfW17i469aSeptember 26, 2019
The billionaire entrepreneur, who founded SpaceX in 2002, introduced us to the Starship Mk1 build via Twitter in recent weeks. Yesterday (September 25), for example, he tweeted two photos of the partially finished stainless steel vehicle raised on a carrier.
Musk also provided information on the Mk1 yesterday in a series of tweets, which answered the questions his followers were asking him. For example, he said that this prototype – the second Starship test vehicle, after the single-engine Starhopper, which had retired last month – will be maintained. 165 feet (50 meters) high and weigh 1,400 tons of fuel (and 200 tons dry).
But this weight should decrease in the next iterations, added Musk. "The Mk1 weighs about 200 dry tonnes and 1,400 wet tonnes, but it targets 120 yards Mk4 or Mk5, and the total weight of the battery with a maximum payload is 5,000 tonnes," he said. one of the tweets of yesterday.
In another tweetMusk revealed the number of Mk1 landing feet: "Six, two on the wind, one under each wing and two downwind, providing redundancy for landing on unimproved surfaces."
Musk has already announced that the Mk1 and Mk2 – a similar prototype built at SpaceX's Florida facility – will be powered by at least three of the next-generation Raptor engines. And today (September 26), he tweeted three photos showing what this alignment of three engines looks like.
Three raptors on a spaceship pic.twitter.com/UrRiD62EVkSeptember 26, 2019
Mk1 and Mk2 will both begin suborbital flights, but the goal is to bring them into orbit, Musk said.
The last 100-passenger vessel will have six Raptors, and the Super Heavy will have 35 engines – to our knowledge, anyway. The plan may have changed; we will have to see what Musk said on Saturday.
The final versions of Starship and Super Heavy could also very soon start flying. SpaceX officials said the company's first commercial flights, likely to be equipped with telecommunications satellites, could be launched as early as 2021.
And Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has booked a moon tour aboard Starship, which is destined to launch in 2023. Maezawa plans to bring a handful of artists with him for this mission, known as "Dear Moon".
Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there"(Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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