(cont'd from Tuesday's post)
Note: all of this is from the video
To build "Starship" has always been the goal of SpaceX, to create a safe and reusable system for human travel in space.
Stage one is the Super Heavy booster which will launch stage two, the space ship itself. The booster will spend two minutes in ascent and four minutes returning safely to earth ("excitement guaranteed"). They will build many more Starships (stage two) than boosters because that booster, according to plan, will be reusable and available for a new mission in just one hour.
If you're interested in its payload capacity, its new Raptor engine (half the cost and twice the thrust), how much it can carry to Mars in one mission, or how it compares to Saturn V, it's all in minutes 5-34 of the video below.
Why do all this? Elon's mission for SpaceX hasn't changed since it started: making life multi-planetary starting with Mars. It's the first time, he says, in earth's 4.5-billion-year history that this has been possible.
"We need to seize the opportunity and do it as soon as possible to secure the future of life . . . I must be frank, civilization is feeling a little fragile these days." When the fully reusable Starship is complete and routine, it will be an "utterly profound breakthrough" with possibilities we can't even imagine now.
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