Elon Musk teases SpaceX Starship prototype on Twitter
Elon Musk said a prototype of the SpaceX Starship the company plans to eventually use for shuttling cargo and passengers to the Moon and Mars is almost finished.
The billionaire entrepreneur behind other companies like Tesla and Neuralink showed off some photos on Twitter from the SpaceX Starship Texas build site Monday.
Earlier, he tweeted that the Starship prototype and three Raptor rocket engines should be “almost ready to fly” by the time the company gives its next update on the project on Aug. 24.
“This will be a super fun race to orbit, moon & Mars,” Musk wrote.
SpaceX plans to use the “fully reusable” Starships to transport more than 100 tons of goods to the surface of the Moon or Mars. The company said the spacecraft will be able to carry as many as 100 people on “long-duration, interplanetary flights.”
The company has shared a goal of reaching Mars by 2022 and bringing a crew there by 2024 in order to eventually establish a base there.
SpaceX is tentatively scheduled to begin transporting passengers in 2023. Japanese billionaire Yusaka Maezawa booked a trip to the Moon via a SpaceX rocket then, Reuters reported last year.
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The Starship could also serve in some more Earth-focused applications. SpaceX has said its speed could cut down the time of a long-distance trip — such as London to New York or New York to Los Angeles — to less than half an hour.