Posted on 01/13/2019 12:01:55 AM PST by vannrox
Elon Musk and SpaceX's ambitious plans to reach around the moon and all the way to Mars require a big effin' rocket. Now we know what it looks like.
Musk tweeted out an image on Thursday of an assembled early version of the SpaceX Starship, which was once known in polite company as the Big Falcon Rocket.
Starship test flight rocket just finished assembly at the @SpaceX Texas launch site. This is an actual picture, not a rendering. pic.twitter.com/k1HkueoXaz — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 11, 2019
"Starship test flight rocket just finished assembly at the @SpaceX Texas launch site. This is an actual picture, not a rendering," Musk wrote.
He first teased us in December with an image of the prototype rocket under construction.
The assembled version looks like a stainless-steel Airstream trailer mated with a space shuttle. A person or mannequin in a spacesuit stands nearby to give us a sense of scale. Starship is a monster.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
The more things change...
More cucumber than falcon.
*ping*
Very similar to the old v2 rocket.
Yeah, I was thinking it’s straight out Space Patrol or Commander Cody using 70 year old technology. Interesting.
Somewhere, Robert A. Heinlein is smiling.I’m
I don’t care what Musk has done. This totally redeems him in my eyes. This rocket is finally the one I’ve waited for since all that 1950s sci-fi.
Very cool
This test article was put together in a few weeks by a company that builds water tanks. It should fly within the next couple of months. Musk says another test article that can make it to orbit should be ready by June. I think it’s being built by SpaceX and shouldn’t have all the wrinkles. The one pictured will probably go no higher than 15,000 feet.
The final production version will be a third taller and it’s just the second stage.
Great info. Thanks!
Just a few months ago, this rocket was going to built out of composites. Now it’s going to be built out of shiny stainless steel and not have a heat shield.
It’s amazing how quickly SpaceX can make changes and get things done compared to the government.
Thanks fieldmarshaldj. I'm sure some will be surprised by the design, compliant as it is with aerodynamic requirements. The right hand shot appears to be the artist's conception, the left hand image appears to be a slightly cleaned-up actual photo -- the earlier images showed that it was roughly crafted out of large sheets of stainless steel. The engines are the long-awaited Raptor methane-burners, and this prototype is to be a "hopper", straight up, straight down, propulsive landing.
https://www.universetoday.com/141076/the-spacex-starhopper-has-three-raptor-engines-on-the-bottom/
As Musk tweeted: “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.”
Reminds me of Chesley Bonestell’s art works of the 1950’s.
Seems like there was a Twilight Zone or such with something similar. Looks very familiar.
Nice and shiny.
http://www.astronautix.com/v/v-2.html
The basic A4-A5 aerodynamic configuration was based on the shape of the Wehrmacht “S” model bullet. Refinements were made by trial and error tests in Hermann and Wieselsberger’s wind tunnel at Aachen.
Very cool. I continue to be impressed by Musk’s ability to swing for the fences - of all the Silicon Valley barons, his companies are the ones doing the most exciting work, while Google and Facebook keep coming up with new ways to intrude on privacy.
Perfect
I’m so old I remember when Space Patrol was a radio show.
Buzz Corey was the hero, as I recall.
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