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The future SpaceX massive rocket, the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), has a new name. Elon Musk, CEO of his personal Twitter account, said the transport part of this gear, currently known as the Big Falcon Spaceship (BFS), now be called Starship, while the reminder part (the bit with real rockets) will be called Super Heavy.
Plans for the 387-foot Big Falcon rocket were officially released in September. The company hopes to eventually replace existing Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon rockets. The craft is being developed at the Port of Los Angeles, at an estimated cost of $ 5 billion. It will carry up to 100 tons of freight or 100 passengers until March.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the company hoped to begin unmanned launch testing of the new rocket by the end of 2019. If all goes well, Musk thinks it could be followed by a first unmanned flight to Mars in 2022 with an inhabited flight taking place as follows: from 2024. A mission to fly over the Moon with a private passenger on board is scheduled for 2023. However, given that the Falcon Heavy has taken almost twice as long as expected, and only 5% of SpaceX's resources are currently used on the spacecraft, it is better to consider these plans as an aspiration.
As a Twitter user It is technically incorrect to call the BFS spacecraft as a spacecraft unless the ship is sent on mission to another star system. Musk quickly responded that later versions of the Starship would be able to do so, although he had previously stated that the craft was meant to be an "interplanetary transport system" capable of traveling "everywhere in the solar system. ".
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