SpaceX has a new prototype of their Mars-colonizing Starship craft and Elon Musk is right on brand with his ambitions and expectations for the new vessel. He thinks it could be in the sky in only a few months.
The new prototype is a result of the previous version of the starship malfunctioning in November. It blew its top right off during a pressurization test. They’re calling this new prototype the SN1 (presumably for serial number 1). Space.com reported Saturday.
Musk has been tweeting progress on the new prototype, which is rapidly being built in two different SpaceX facilities. It seems he’s got some competition going between the two teams. Check out this thread.
Was up all night with SpaceX team working on Starship tank dome production (most difficult part of primary structure). Dawn arrives … pic.twitter.com/SzyDSYUYOu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 27, 2019
In his tweets, Musk reports that flight of the SN1 could be “2 or 3 months away”. That’s crazy fast. But, given SpaceX’s other plans for this and similar vessels, like the Crew Dragon flight set for January 11, first operational Starship flights going to the International Space Station in 2021 and a Starship flight around the moon in 2023… they’d better get going.
What do you think of all of the SpaceX developments?
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