SpaceX just Clarified Starship’s First Payload To Orbit Launch Date changes everything…
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2021 was an exciting year for SpaceX and its revolutionary “Starship” Megarocket.
But 2022, until now? Honestly, not so much.
Remember on May 5, 2021, SpaceX proved its concept, launching Starship SN15 — and landing it, too?
Sadly, it’s been crickets at Starbase ever since.
Starship has yet to set sail in 18 months.
But that may be about to change as Elon Musk just Clarified About Starship’s first payload to orbit.
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It’s not hard to explain why companies have contracted the Starship launch though it hasn’t reached orbit even once.
Starship has huge potential that no rocket has yet!
In 2016, at an International Astronautical Congress in Mexico, Musk sketched out plans for a rocket to colonize Mars, one he would soon be calling BFR (Big Falcon Rocket, in family-friendly terms, but you get the joke). The concept evolved into Starship, but the focus remained on affordability and reusability—making launches as dull and routine as FedEx cargo flights.
The body of the rocket is stainless steel, heavier than the aluminum alloys of most rockets, but cheaper and more easily manufactured. The 33 Raptor engines crammed into the backend of Super Heavy burn methane rather than the traditional kerosene-based rocket fuels, not only because it is cheaper, but also because it could be harvested on Mars by combining carbon dioxide and water. The booster is designed to return to the launchpad after its 6-minute ride; the company believes it can be refueled and ready to relaunch in an hour. Starship is also reusable. The goal is to be able to launch each vehicle three times a day.
Once in orbit, a loaded Starship could be gassed up by a “tanker” version of the vehicle—enabling it to take its 100 tons of payload onto the Moon or Mars. At the February event, Musk explained how a single Starship, launching three times per week, would loft more than 15,000 tons to orbit in a year—about as much as all the cargo that has been lifted in the entire history of spaceflight.
Especially, Musk has claimed the price of each launch might eventually be as low as $1 million, or $10 per kilogram to low-Earth orbit. The only rocket close to Starship in its capabilities is NASA’s Space Launch System, set to fly for the first time this month. Earlier this year, the agency’s auditor found each launch would cost about $4 billion, or nearly $60,000 per kilogram.
All of this is incredible but scientists also fully believe in Starship because it is based on all proven principles.
Even NASA picks SpaceX’s Starship to land Artemis astronauts on the moon.
This is a big guarantee!
In a tweet recently, Musk called “Starship to orbit” one of “two main goals this year.” The other is the wide release of “full self-driving” for Tesla vehicles, a long-awaited feature for the fleet of electric cars that don’t yet have approval from regulators.
Currently, the company is gearing up for the first orbital test mission of a Starship vehicle, which could lift off from SpaceX’s South Texas facility in the next few weeks.
Hopefully, Musk will achieve this goal.
SpaceX just Clarified Starship’s First Payload To Orbit Launch Date changes everything…
