Elon Musk has tweeted that SpaceX will start construction of the booster stage of the Super Heavy Starship in three months. The first prototype will have 20 Raptor engines instead of 31 to lower the amount of hardware at risk.
The rendering above was by Kimi Talivitie. Kimi is the original creator of a rendering of a metallic SpaceX Super Heavy Starship.
First flights would have fewer, so as to risk less loss of hardware. Probably around 20.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2019
20 Raptors = 8.8 million pounds of thrust. Saturn V 1st stage = 7.5 million. Still huge and still the most powerful rocket launched.
— Rick Strickland (@rdstrick777) May 23, 2019
3 months
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2019
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.
I’m an SLS fan, but I think Super-Heavy might actually be an easier build than Starship. I think it will throttle better with more engines. Starship worries me more actually.
If Super-Heavy flies well and Musk loses his fear of hydrogen and starts using that atop the super-heavy–only then does SLS really face a threat.
I want NTR–so that means SLS for now.
I don’t even start with a unit 63 m long and 9 m in diameter.
Less than half that much if I’m being honest.
Obvious troll is obvious.
Yeah notice that I said “booster flies”. I’m not counting Starship. So before SLS if a Raptor powered booster takes off, gets up to speed and then does a powered return to the pad that would definitely count.
…and the rest of the world.
It’ll be like Energia. It’ll fly, it’ll work. But we’ll quickly realize we can’t afford to do anything with it.
(the reasons it’s unaffordable will be a little different than the Russians who suddenly went broke at the time, but the result will be the same)
hy
Tell that to ULA.
Nobody cares about space X. It’s a giant wank.
and the other 50% is SLS flying a few times before it’s axed.
Better than 50% chance the booster flies before SLS.