Posted on 01/31/2024 3:34:49 PM PST by BenLurkin
Starlab — being built by Voyager Space and Airbus through a joint venture, alongside partners including Northrop Grumman and Hilton — is planned to launch on a single mission of SpaceX’s mammoth rocket.
Starlab represents one of the earliest commercial customers to order a Starship launch from SpaceX. The companies did not disclose the launch contract’s value.
The station is one of several currently in development by U.S. companies, as NASA prepares to retire the International Space Station in 2030.
Voyager and Airbus are targeting as early as 2028 for Starlab’s launch. The space station’s four-year development and construction timeline also gives SpaceX time to move forward with Starship, advancing from demonstration flights to launching customer spacecraft.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Starship is looking bigger in the next version of it.
It’s already the biggest thing to fly.
CC
It’s larger than the Saturn V by a good bit too. So it’s the largest object to ever fly. Had the range safety fedboys not pushed the boom boom button when the telemetry dropped out for starship it would have made orbit it was firing on all it’s engines and near orbital velocity already. I expect the next launch to put starship into orbit making it the largest humans have ever orbited and opening the solar system to human presence. 100 tonnes is enough to out humans to the asteroid belt and if you do on orbit fuel transfers you can get to anywhere inside Jupiter orbit and back. There is a reason Musk is working on synthetic methane tech from water and co2 that’s exactly what you need on Mars to make return fuel. Plus it shuts the greens up since it’s carbon neutral fuel when made with nuclear or off peak wind electricity in South Texas.
Love me some SpaceX what a great time to be alive.
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