{"id":17938,"date":"2019-09-22T17:31:27","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T09:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/elon-musk-tweets-a-sneak-peek-at-his-vision-for-spacexs-starship-mega-rocket\/"},"modified":"2019-09-22T17:31:27","modified_gmt":"2019-09-22T09:31:27","slug":"elon-musk-tweets-a-sneak-peek-at-his-vision-for-spacexs-starship-mega-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/elon-musk-tweets-a-sneak-peek-at-his-vision-for-spacexs-starship-mega-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk tweets a sneak peek at his vision for SpaceX\u2019s Starship mega-rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Members of SpaceX\u2019s team in Texas use cranes to add rear moving fins to the Starship Mk1 prototype. (Elon Musk via Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is talking up his Starship Mk1 prototype super-rocket in Texas, less than a week in advance of an eagerly awaited update on his plans for Starship trips to the moon, Mars and beyond.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s sneak preview came in a flurry of tweets addressing some of the finer design points for Starship Mk1, which looks like a silvery silo equipped with rocket fins as it sits at SpaceX\u2019s Boca Chica facility in South Texas. The 30-foot-wide, roughly 150-foot-tall prototype \u2014 and a similar Mk2 structure taking shape at SpaceX\u2019s site in Florida \u2014 are meant to blaze a trail for an even bigger two-stage rocket, with the pointy-ended Starship sitting atop a Super Heavy first-stage booster.<\/p>\n

During a live-streamed presentation that\u2019s set for Saturday at the Boca Chica site, Musk is expected to discuss plans for testing and flying the Starship system over the next few years.<\/p>\n

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has already struck a deal with SpaceX to take a Starship flight around the moon by the mid-2020s, and is reportedly planning to sell a multibillion-dollar stake in his fashion retail company to cover the cost.<\/p>\n

Musk has said Starship (previously known as the BFR) could take on flights to Mars by the mid-2020s, plus crewed trips to the moon and supersonic point-to-point trips between destinations on Earth. He didn\u2019t address those beyond-Earth visions in today\u2019s tweets, but in a discussion with his followers, he did get into the nuts and bolts of Starship design \u2014 including what\u2019s going to be packed inside the prototype\u2019s nose cone, or fairing.<\/p>\n

Musk also said there are some aspects of the design that he\u2019s not yet \u201cfully bought into.\u201d Here\u2019s how the Twitter thread spun out:<\/p>\n