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Elon Musk tells SpaceX employees that its Starship rocket is the top priority now
SpaceX launched astronauts for the first time barely a week ago but CEO Elon Musk does not want the company resting on its laurels.
Instead, Musk urged SpaceX employees to accelerate progress on its next-generation Starship rocket "dramatically and immediately," writing Saturday in a company-wide email seen by CNBC.
"Please consider the top SpaceX priority (apart from anything that could reduce Dragon return risk) to be Starship," Musk wrote in the email.
[...] So far, the company's Starship development program in Boca Chica, Texas has suffered four dramatic setbacks. While SpaceX has made progress on each iteration, the most recent prototype exploded shortly after an engine test on May 29.
Also at Teslarati.
SpaceX's Starship Super Heavy booster needs a custom assembly tower
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that Starship's Super Heavy rocket booster will get its own tower-like vehicle assembly building (VAB) – and work on the structure may have already begun.
While the only visible work SpaceX has thus far completed on its next-generation Starship launch vehicle is related to the more complex and unproven upper stage of the rocket, its Super Heavy first stage (booster) is just as critical. For SpaceX, Starship was the perfect starting point, itself following on the footsteps of a largely successful multi-year Raptor engine development program. Substantially smaller than Super Heavy and requiring 5-10 times fewer engines, Starship serves as a testbed for an almost entirely new suite of technologies and strategies SpaceX is employing to build massive rockets out of commodity steel.
[...] While Starship itself is not exactly small at ~50m (165 ft) tall and 9m (30ft) wide, the Super Heavy booster tasked with launching the ship on its way to orbit will easily be the largest individual rocket stage ever built. Currently expected to measure 70m (230 ft) tall, Super Heavy – just the first stage of the Starship launch vehicle – will already be as tall as an entire Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy and weigh roughly three times more than the latter triple-booster rocket when fully fueled. At liftoff, Super Heavy will produce more than triple the thrust of Falcon Heavy and double the thrust of Saturn V, the most powerful liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit.
Thanks to the sheer size of the booster, SpaceX's existing Starship-sized vehicle/vertical assembly building (VAB) is far too small for Super Heavy and is even too short to fully stack a ~50m Starship. SpaceX's contractor of choice started assembling that VAB around January 15th and the facility was able to begin supporting its first Starship stacking and welding operations on March 2nd, just a month and a half later, with the structure fully completed by March 18th. As such, assuming the in-work foundation is as close to completion as it seems and SpaceX uses the same contractor for the next building, Super Heavy's VAB could be ready to build the first massive booster prototype as early as July or August. Things could take a bit longer given that Musk says the booster VAB will be 81m (265 ft) tall, nearly twice the height of Starship's VAB, but likely by no more than a few weeks.
Previously: Today WAS the Day -- Crew Demo 2 Launch Successful -- Heading to ISS [Updated]
(Score: 1) by PaperNoodle on Tuesday June 09 2020, @02:40PM (6 children)
>so now manned space fright is second (or lower) priority.
I see it as saying that manned space flight should go beyond LEO and back to the Moon via Artemis and Starship as the lander.
Make space accessible and cheap so that flights/landings to the moon are as regular as flights to the ISS.
B3
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday June 09 2020, @04:08PM (5 children)
Whether Elon blesses that plan or not, it may simply be more practical to use starship to go to the moon first.
Use star ship heavy booster to build bigger private space stations, with a McDonalds and refueling station.
As much as Mars is exciting, wouldn't it be a bit more practical to build a moon base first? There are big differences between Moon and Mars. But in the early years of colonizing another object, the moon definitely has more practical lifeboat escape options.
No matter what, cheap access and regular flights are essential. Otherwise, we do the same as the last 50 years.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Funny) by gmby on Tuesday June 09 2020, @04:53PM (1 child)
If you invite McDuckes into space; I'll slap you in the name of all humanity!
Bye
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday June 09 2020, @05:25PM
How would you expect the president to obtain his standard order:
2 x Big Mac
2 x Filet O'Fish (yuk! and double yuk!)
Shake
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by PaperNoodle on Tuesday June 09 2020, @05:11PM (1 child)
I would hope Elon blesses the plan and sees the practicality of NASA money to help develop Starship. SpaceX was one of 3 designs [nasa.gov] selected for the Lunar lander for Artemis.
B3
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday June 09 2020, @05:26PM
I hope so too. But alas the world is screwed up. I expect SLS will have to win. Because. The senator from Alabama.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday June 09 2020, @07:14PM
https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-moon-starship-step-towards-mars/ [teslarati.com]
https://www.inverse.com/innovation/spacex-starship-elon-musk-explains-rocket-to-the-moon [inverse.com]
SpaceX seems willing to make a variant for each use case. Cargo (uncrewed), fuel tanker, Mars (crewed), and now Moon (crewed). And they have received $135 million to begin work on a Moon-focused design.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]