SpaceX: Starship SN10 successfully lands in Texas
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Elon Musk’s dream of populating the Red Planet hinges on SpaceX’s development of the Starship spacecraft. The 164ft-tall (50m) rocket is still in the development stage, which has so far proven equal parts exciting and explosive. The South African billionaire appears undeterred, however, and is positive Starship will reach space before the year is over.
To date, Starship prototypes have not flown higher than 7.8 miles (12.5km).
Even the next Starship iteration, SN11, is only expected to hit an altitude of about 6.2 miles (10km) on its first suborbital test flight.
And of the three rockets launched so far – SN8, SN9 and SN10 – SN10 was the first model to almost stick the landing, although it was damaged and exploded eight minutes after touchdown.
But these are all minor hurdles in Mr Musk’s mind, who said earlier this year Starship is being developed at breakneck speeds.
As far as he is concerned, it would have been much more unusual for the rockets to ace their first launch and landing from the get-go.
He has now told his more than 41.9 million Twitter followers Starship is aiming to reach orbit by July.
Tim Dodd of Everyday Astronaut shared on Twitter today (March 17) a clip of the SN10’s landing attempt earlier this month.
He said: “Honestly, if I hadn’t seen this with my own eyes and didn’t have my own footage of this, I would 100 percent think it’s CGI.
“I think it’s the coolest video in the world! The future is here. Science fiction isn’t even this cool! Can’t wait for #SN11 @SpaceX @elonmusk”
Elon Musk discusses future of SpaceX's Starship system
Mr Musk jokingly replied to the tweet, calling the video footage “CGI IRL” or “in real life”.
He was then asked by another fan: “Crazy! Full stack flight July?”
Mr Musk replied to the question with “That’s our goal.”
“Full stack” is a reference to the full Starship system – the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster rocket.
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Starship will launch from Earth on top of the Super Heavy which, much like the Falcon 9, will return to Earth while Starship carries on into orbit or deeper into space.
Stacked together, SpaceX boasts, the system will be powerful enough to deliver crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars and maybe even beyond.
SpaceX said: “Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry in excess of 100 metric tonnes to Earth orbit.”
Super Heavy will have a liftoff mass of more than three million kg.
The rocket will stand 230ft-tall (70m) and SpaceX has a bold plan to catch the rocket on the way down using its launch tower.
Starship and Super Heavy will together stand more than 390ft tall (120m).
Mr Musk appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast earlier this year where he said the system should become fully operational in the next two years.
He said: “If current trends continue, if you plot the points on the curve of progress, then we should be doing regular orbital flights with a high probability of safe landing in two years.”
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