Musk kept pre-launch expectations low. “If we can get far enough from the launch site before something goes wrong, I consider it a success,” he said in a conversation with Twitter subscribers on Sunday. “As long as the launch pad doesn’t explode.”
The spacecraft consists of two parts. The bottom is the super heavy giant booster. Its height is 70 meters, and its rocket engines are at least 33 interconnected. This propels the massive rocket into space.
The pod is placed atop the Super Heavy for the crew and supplies. This capsule is (also) called the Starship, it is 50 meters long and has its own rocket engines.
1:06The complete spacecraft is 10 meters longer than the Saturn V rocket. This rocket took people to the Moon and back between 1968 and 1972. The spacecraft is nearly three times as long as the Soyuz rocket that Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers took into space.
Starship is designed to carry a lot of cargo. about 150 thousand kilograms. That’s a lot more than NASA’s SLS. This was the most powerful rocket in the world and could carry 95,000 kilograms into space.
SpaceX has been working on the massive rocket for years. In 2017, the first plans were presented by Musk. At the time, the spacecraft was still called Big Fucking Rocket. Later the name was changed to Big Falcon Rocket and in 2018 SpaceX launched Starship.
Photo: SpaceX
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