SpaceX founder Elon Musk revealed on Tuesday that he intends to launch his fully reusable spacecraft, the Starship, next month, though he expressed caution after successive postponements.
“We are preparing the first launch of Starship,” said the CEO of Tesla and Twitter, adding that he expects this attempt to take place in April.
The billionaire spoke during an interview at a Morgan Stanley event, broadcast on the Internet, where he considered that there is more than a 50% chance that the mission will be successful.
Musk explained that the spacecraft “was designed to be the first fully reusable rocket in general,” but that it is “likely” that it will take “a few more years” for SpaceX to achieve a “complete and rapid reusability” of the spacecraft.
“This is the breakthrough needed to extend life beyond Earth. This greatly reduces the cost of accessing space. It’s like planes aren’t reusable. It would be crazy if every time you flew somewhere, you had to take a small plane for the return flight,” he stressed.
The businessman stressed that, if all goes well, this vehicle could allow life to be “multiplanetary” and make life on Mars “real.”
The first manned flight of the new Starship rocket, selected by NASA to be the vehicle that will allow astronauts to return to the surface of the Moon, in 2025 at the earliest, will be especially analysed.
Elon Musk had expectations that Starship would reach space for the first time in 2022, with no one on board to begin with.
However, the schedule of this first test remains suspended so far.
On February 10, SpaceX completed a Starship engine test on the launch pad, with 31 of the 33 engines firing simultaneously for about 10 seconds over South Texas.
Source: TSF
