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Watch SpaceX's Starship presentation at 9:15PM ET (updated)
SpaceX is close to outlining the next chapter for its Starship program, and you can hear about it at the same time as anyone else. The company is streaming its presentation on the "design and development" of Starship at 9PM Eastern, with Elon Musk shedding light on the vessel at the launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas. It's not clear exactly what Musk will discuss, although there have been some clues.
SpaceX is building another Starship in Florida
After a poster on NASASpaceflight.com uploaded pictures of another Starship vehicle (f.k.a. BFR) under construction in Florida -- to go along with prototypes being built in Texas -- Elon Musk explained what's going on. The CEO tweeted that "SpaceX is doing simultaneous competing builds of Starship in Boca Chica Texas & Cape Canaveral Florida." He said the plan is to find out which location is the most effective even if the answer "might be both." Still, if the plan is to get these on the moon ASAP -- with other billionaires making plans for lunar travel as we speak -- doubling up on production seems like a good idea. For now, SpaceX's next launch is scheduled for tomorrow to launch 60 of its Starlink internet satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket.
Elon Musk shows off the first SpaceX Starship test vehicle
SpaceX is done preparing the Starship for its very first test flight ever, and Elon Musk has shared an actual photo of assembly on Twitter. Formerly known as the "BFR," the Starship is the private space company's upcoming super heavy-lift launch vehicle meant for journeys to the moon and Mars and for hour-long trips anywhere on Earth.
SpaceX's Starship test vehicle could fly by April
SpaceX might begin Starship test flights sooner than you think. Elon Musk now expects to conduct a technical presentation for Starship soon after its test vehicle flies, "hopefully" in March or April -- in other words, he wants a test flight before April is over. It wouldn't be a spectacle on the order of the concept image you see above, of course. Instead, it would be much like SpaceX's short-distance, suborbital Grasshopper test program from the Falcon 9's early days.
Elon Musk says there's a '70 percent' chance he'll move to Mars
Elon Musk has talked about personally heading to Mars before, but how likely is he to make the trip, really? Well, he just put a number on it. In an interview for the Axios on HBO documentary series, Musk said there was a "70 percent" chance he'll go to Mars. There have been a "recent number of breakthroughs" that have made it possible, he said. And as he hinted before, it'd likely be a one-way trip -- he expects to "move there."
SpaceX BFR has a new name: Starship
We're still a bit away from anyone taking the first tourist trip on SpaceX's next-generation rocket and spacecraft platform, but CEO Elon Musk has just announced a new name for the craft formerly known as BFR: Starship. As he explained in a follow-up tweet, "Starship" specifically refers to the "spaceship/upper stage" while its rocket booster is simply the Super Heavy. Everyone clear? Whatever you call it, SpaceX has big plans for the new vehicle. When Musk revealed details on the Big Falcon Rocket a little over a year ago, he talked about establishing bases on the moon and Mars, as well as using the vehicle for quick point-to-point trips on Earth. Just a few days ago, Musk tweeted that plans for BFR Starship are accelerating, as SpaceX dropped a quest to make its Falcon 9 second stage reusable.
SpaceX drops plans to make Falcon 9 rockets more reusable
For a while, SpaceX has dreamed of making its Falcon 9 rocket as reusable as possible, and not just the first stage. Now, though, it's having a change of heart. SpaceX has scrapped plans to make the rocket's second stage reusable. Instead, Elon Musk said, it's focused on "accelerating" development of the BFR. Musk also teased a significant design shake-up, calling it "delightfully counterintuitive" and a "radical change" compared to the previous design.
SpaceX plans shortcut to test a mini version of its Big Falcon Rocket
SpaceX plans to use a Falcon 9 rocket to test some of BFR's key features even before the company builds a full-sized version of its interplanetary vehicle. The private space corporation's chief, Elon Musk, has revealed on Twitter (like he usually does) that SpaceX plans to upgrade the second stage of a Falcon 9 "to be like a mini-BFR ship." See, the BFR (or Big Falcon Rocket) comes with a passenger spacecraft that can carry up to 100 people and up to 450 tons of cargo. The company specifically designed it for manned and big cargo missions to the moon, Mars and farther locations. SpaceX is even hoping to use the BFR to establish a Martian base and colony in the future.
SpaceX gives us a glimpse of its Mars base vision
SpaceX chief Elon Musk has tweeted two photos that give us a peek into the company's Martian dreams. One of the images shows the BFR, the massive rocket SpaceX is developing for deep space missions, while the other shows the BFR and what he called "Mars Base Alpha." It's no secret that the private space corporation wants to build a human settlement on the red planet. Back in 2017, it announced its plans to launch two BFR cargo missions to Mars by 2022 to prepare for the arrival of the first Martian settlers by 2024. Before any of that can happen, though, SpaceX has to be able to start testing its BFR system in the first half of 2019.
SpaceX reveals identity of the world's first lunar space tourist
The last time that humanity set foot on the lunar surface, Richard Nixon was still president and Pink Floyd was still in the midst of recording their seminal album about its dark side. And while SpaceX's tourism plans don't involve actually setting down on our nearest celestial neighbor, the company does hope to put Yusaku Maezawa, the billionaire founder of Japanese fashion retailer, Zozotown, as close to it as any human has been in the past couple of decades.
Watch SpaceX announce its first BFR passenger at 9PM ET
SpaceX announced last week that it booked its first private passenger for a flight around the Moon in its BFR spacecraft, and today the company will share who that is. Elon Musk gave a hint about who the passenger might be last week, replying to someone asking if the passenger was Musk himself with a Japanese flag emoji. SpaceX says we'll be able to find out who is flying and, interestingly, why during an event today, which will be livestreamed at 9PM ET. You can check it out below. Update: Elon Musk announced that "fashion innovator and globally recognized art curator Yusaku Maezawa" has been selected for the trip, currently scheduled to occur in 2023.
SpaceX booked 'world's first' private passenger for a BFR Moon trip
We haven't seen SpaceX's BFR -- the rocket that it hopes will enable trips around the world, to the Moon, and, eventually, to Mars -- actually take flight yet, but the company says it has already booked a private passenger for a trip around the Moon. No one has been to the Moon since Apollo missions ended in the 70s, but now, in a "world's first" SpaceX is apparently taking reservations. Details like who is going and "why" are to be revealed during a livestream on Monday September 17th at 9 PM ET. Early last year Elon Musk said we'd see two humans take that trip at some point in 2018, but now we're anticipating a delay so that it can occur on the LA-built BFR, instead of a Falcon Heavy carrying a Dragon capsule. Musk has said the spaceship part of BFR could be ready for "short hopper flights" next year and test flights in three to four years. Interestingly, he also tweeted that what's shown above is a new version of the BFR, and in response to a tweet asking if he's the passenger, posted a Japanese flag emoji.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has roughly 300 launches before retirement
Now that SpaceX's final Falcon 9 design has launched for the first time, there's a looming question: how many more launches does the vehicle have left? Elon Musk has an idea. He estimated that SpaceX will build 30 to 40 more Falcon 9 cores for "~300 missions" over the next five years. The pioneering rocket isn't going to go quietly, in other words -- and each core is expected to get several uses before it retires.
SpaceX will build its massive interplanetary rocket in Los Angeles
SpaceX can start building its "Big Fucking Rocket," now that it has officially found a home in LA. Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced on Twitter that the private space giant "will start production development of the Big Falcon Rocket (the spacecraft's tamer name, apparently)" at the port of Los Angeles. SpaceX designed the 348-foot-long behemoth to fly humanity to the moon, Mars and beyond. It will be able to carry up to 50 tons in payload, whereas Falcon Heavy can only carry 30 tons. "This vehicle holds the promise of taking humanity deeper into the cosmos than ever before," he added, along with an illustration of the company's massive interplanetary spacecraft.
After Math: Space Farce
It was a parabolic week for space nerds. The president teased the creation of a fourth military branch dubbed the "Space Force," world-renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking passed away at the age of 76, and NASA's acting chief retired without someone ready to succeed him. But hey, at least to listen to Elon Musk's Wonka-esque visions for the future of spaceflight during his sold out SXSW keynote. Numbers because the only thing harder than math is space.
SpaceX aims to test its Mars rocket system in first half of 2019
You might not have to wait long to see SpaceX's BFR rocket system in action ... maybe. In a talk at SXSW, Elon Musk said he expected the spacecraft's first "short up-and-down flights" by the first half of 2019. He was quick to hedge his claim, noting that his timelines tend to be "optimistic" (remember how Falcon Heavy was supposed to launch in 2013?), but this at least gives you a timeframe. Test flights couldn't place too much later when the goal is to send cargo missions to Mars by 2022.
What's next for SpaceX after its successful Falcon Heavy flight?
Yesterday, SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon Heavy rocket to much fanfare. After numerous delays due to upper-level winds, the rocket lifted off at 3:45 PM ET on Tuesday. The rocket worked perfectly, delivering the test payload into orbit (a red Tesla roadster) and coasting for six hours before performing another engine burn to take it deeper into the solar system. SpaceX was even able to land two of the three boosters in beautiful synchronization. The core booster was lost because of low propellant; it slammed into the ocean at around 300 miles per hour, 300 feet from the drone ship.
Falcon Heavy completes its final maneuver as SpaceX turns to the BFR
After the successful launch of SpaceX's massive Falcon Heavy rocket, Elon Musk indicated there may be a change of plans coming. On the conference call where he confirmed the loss of its core booster, Musk said the company is focusing on the development of its BFR and has "kinda tabled" development of the Crew Dragon spacecraft intended for use with the Falcon Heavy. None of this seems final, however, and Musk also said that if there are delays on the BFR project and an "aspirational" projection that its upper spaceship portion could be ready for short flights next year, then things could change.
Safety is Elon Musk's chief concern for new SpaceX rocket
Over the weekend, Elon Musk hosted a Reddit AMA as a follow-up to his presentation at the 2017 International Astronautical Congress. During that speech, Musk unveiled quite a few different ideas that will revolutionize space travel, from a new rocket called "BFR" (for "big fucking rocket") to a moon base and a trip to Mars by 2024. He took to r/space to answer questions about these many new ideas, and we've rounded up some of the most interesting answers from the AMA.
Elon Musk's Mars dream hinges on a giant new rocket
Last night, Elon Musk dumped more futuristic space tech ideas at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) than we've had possibly over the past decade. That includes a new spaceship, Mars and Moon missions, and even using rockets for high-speed trips here on Earth. "The future is vastly more exciting and interesting if we're a space-faring civilization and multiplanetary species than if we're not," the SpaceX boss led off by saying. "You want to wake up in the morning and think, 'The future's gonna be great.'"