Elon Musk offers update on SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket

Elon Musk offers update on SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket
SpaceX founder Elon Musk detailed progress on the company’s next-generation Starship program Monday.
SpaceX is developing its next-generation Starship rocket to one day launch dozens of people to space, but Elon Musk emphasized that the rocket has many milestones to go before it can take passengers.
“We’ve got to first make the thing work; automatically deliver satellites and do hundreds of missions with satellites before we put people on board,” Musk said, speaking Monday at the virtual “Humans to Mars” conference.
Tapping into an ever-growing production complex in South Texas, SpaceX is building new Starship prototypes at a rate of multiple vehicles per month. Some of the prototypes are strictly for ground testing, but SpaceX’s next Starship testbed, designed SN6, could attempt a 500-foot (150-meter) hop test later this week.
The most recent Starship test craft, named SN5, was the first Starship with full-size propellant tanks to make a successful launch and landing. During SN5’s brief up-and-down test Aug. 4, the prototype flew to an altitude of 500 feet powered by a single methane-fueled Raptor engine, then made a controlled descent to a nearby landing pad.
Speaking by phone Monday during the virtual Humans to Mars Summit, Musk is “making good progress” on the Starship program. He stressed SpaceX’s advancements in scaling up production of the Starship test vehicles — which are made of stainless steel — at the company’s Boca Chica development and test facility near Brownsville, Texas.
“The main thing we needed to make progress on with Starship is the production system,” Musk said, adding that making a prototype was “relatively easy” by comparison.
Numerous structures, high bay assembly buildings, and elements of launch infrastructure have sprung up at Boca Chica over the last year. SpaceX assembled the first Starship prototype outdoors, using open-air welding, but teams are moving production into indoor, climate-controlled facilities.
Several Starship prototypes were destroyed during ground testing since SpaceX built the first Starship test vehicle last year. But SpaceX gathered critical data during those tests, allowing engineers to update design specifications and improve the Starship design.
“Building the production system so that we can build ultimately hundreds or thousands of Starships — that’s the hard part,” Musk said Monday. “But we’ve been making good progress on the productions system as people can see from the aerial photos of Boca Chica.
“A year ago, there was almost nothing there, and now we’ve got quite a lot of production capability,” Musk added. “We’re rapidly making more and more ships, and we’ll be starting production of the booster soon.”
Musk said SpaceX plans to start production of the first prototype of the Starship’s first stage booster — called the Super Heavy — later this week.

#SpaceXStarship #Starshipmegarocket #WorldToday

P.C - NASA, SPACEX,

[prof.m.ottozeeejcdecs]

Content of your videos is always great, and very informative!
For the plastic voice you get a thumbs down! Can't you talk yourself???

[kennethconnors]

thank God for visionaries like him, , he see's the future and is willing to spend his $$$$ for it

[infinitehonkworks]

Invest in a microphone
Robo voice channels are routinely auto-filtered by most people

[sajithkp]

Elon is the Nikola Tesla of 21st century

[TexanUSMC]

Why does everyone complain about the computer voice? It's not that bad. Great job on the video. Thanks.

[miketanner]

SN6 did it's 150m flight 5 days before you posted this video!!

[innerartdotnet]

NASA's architecture for the lunar landing is so needlessly complicated. So many modules, transfers, and elements for no reason. Government bloat at its worst.

[Asgardsteve]

The SN6 150m hop took place last Thursday (3rd September)

[chrisbragdon]

Musk is truly going to have warp drive soon. A Tesla option that will revolutionize ground and space transportation, big time.

[flugschulerfluglehrer]

Clickbait. Musk is not speaking in this video.

[darkguardian]

Robot voice not too bad when played at 1.25 or 1.5 speed.

[laprepper]

Please don't use this computerized voice thing. It's extremely unpleasant to listen to

[alientehnologi]

I don`t mind the robot voice. Its kinda relaxing for me! :P

[dawnstcentury]

I hope HAL's voice on the starship will be better.

[AskhErBiDoY]

Elon Musk is very inspiring.
I created and shared his Success Story on YouTube.
People love it ♥️

[bitflogger]

What amazes me is that the Starship (Flying Silo) has its single engine placed off-center, since the production version will have no central engine. That makes the flight more difficult, even awkward.

[spoon]

For a minute there I thought this was narrated by Paul Joseph Watson.

[TexanUSMC]

SN6 flew, they're building 8, 9, 10, and 11 now. 9-9-20

[nightlightabcd]

So Falcan 9 is partially reusable! This is the first I have heard it described this way.

[lnchgj]

Computer voice? really? Not interested.