Elon Musk had tweeted that the Super Heavy first stage will start getting built in the spring.
Both, but demo Starship is being built now, whereas Super Heavy hardware will start getting built in spring
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2018
SpaceX will be finishing the internals of the Starship Hopper over the next month. It will begin test flights in February. They need to replace the current placeholder engines with the Raptor engines.
Engines currently on Starship hopper are a blend of Raptor development & operational parts. First hopper engine to be fired is almost finished assembly in California. Probably fires next month.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 5, 2019
SpaceX is Laying Off about 600 Staff
About 10 percent of SpaceX’s 6000+ workforce is being laid off.
There was a slowdown in launch orders for 2019 from the geo-telecommunications industry.
Starlink is the Key to the Future of SpaceX
The Stock Exchange in New York and the Commodities Exchange Chicago in have a premium microwave connection between the two cities. It is worth $100 million per year to put a premium microwave data connection between the two cities. This shaves 5% of the latency time from pricing updates and order placement. This has a lot of value when a big stock starts making a rapid move up or down.
The SpaceX Starlinks could save 30-50% of the latency time between distant financial centers. This is because the speed of light is almost twice as fast in space as it is in a glass fiber. The value for the Starlink financial latency reduction should be even higher. Let us say it is double the New York to Chicago price. This means the premium pairing of cities is worth over $40 billion per year.
There would be 190 combinations of pairs of the top 20 financial cities. There are 435 combinations of pairs of the top 30 financial cities. If the top $100 million per year was paid by the top 20 cities, then this would be $19 billion per year.
SpaceX will use its own launch services to build a highly profitable satellite network. Direct TV generates about $50 billion per year for AT&T.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
Walmart famous for low wages; now can dispense with wages for truckers. Somewill support these out of work men…it’s not Walmart. They are now an external economic problem.
In time we are coming to the realization that machine learning by itself is not the solution to vehicular autonomy. It can help the machine in grasping the world around it but the huge amount of situational understanding and decision making requires classical handwork programming. In other words a sisyphean work that will occupy many of the brightest minds for at least two more decades.
Remember when Walmart’s moto was: Made in the USA?