Formerly known as the Big Falcon Rocket, SpaceX’s super heavy-lift vehicle looks to be ready for blast off.
Now known as Starship Hopper, the prototype rocket was completed this week at the company’s Texas launch site and is now ready to be used for sub-orbital testing.
We know this because Elon Musk tweeted out a photo of the finished product:
Starship test flight rocket just finished assembly at the @SpaceX Texas launch site. This is an actual picture, not a rendering. pic.twitter.com/k1HkueoXaz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 11, 2019
SpaceX first Starship hopper under Texas Boca Chica Beach's cloudy sky.@elonmusk #Starship #SpaceX pic.twitter.com/hVg5Ken7Vp
— Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo (@JaneidyEve) January 10, 2019
It needed to be made real https://t.co/9Y490tukao
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 11, 2019
Musk also said that an orbital version of the rocket, which will be taller than the 120-foot prototype above and have thicker skins which won’t wrinkle, is on the way.
Made from a new type of stainless-steel alloy that will “look like liquid silver” as it moves through the atmosphere, the Starship can theoretically be used for point-to-point trips on Earth, flights to the moon and to the lunar surface, and journeys to Mars and back.
There’s still some fine-tuning to be done on the prototype, but if all goes as planned the Starship could begin tests flights in a couple of months.
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