During a live-streamed evening presentation on September 28, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said he would like to see his Starship spacecraft make it into orbit in six months, but we all know he could be a little off on his calculations, and he even admits that.
“This is going to sound totally nuts, but I think we want to try to reach orbit in less than six months,” Musk said, reports the Verge. “Provided the rate of design improvement and manufacturing improvement continues to be exponential, I think that is accurate to within a few months.”
A crowd watched as Musk spoke from a stage in front of a prototype of the Starship spacecraft at the SpaceX launch facility near the southern tip of Texas. Mush noted the announcement was made on the 11th anniversary of a SpaceX rocket reaching orbit for the first time in 2008.
That launch was successful, making it the first time, anywhere on Earth that a private, commercial space company launched a liquid-fuelled rocket into space. “If that launch had not succeeded that would have been the end of SpaceX,” Musk said.
The large spacecraft stands 50 meters (164 feet) tall and is covered in a reflective metal exterior. The spacecraft is expected to launch for the first time in a couple of months – doing some controlled “hops” – reaching 65,000 feet (19,800 meters) before landing back on Earth, according to Phys.org.
Not everyone was bubbling over with enthusiasm over the SpaceX announcement. The head of NASA, Jim Bridenstine – effectively accused SpaceX of being distracted by its ambitious Starship program, according to the UK’s Independent.
“I am looking forward to the SpaceX announcement tomorrow,” he said. “In the meantime, Commercial Crew is years behind schedule. NASA expects to see the same level of enthusiasm focused on the investments of the American taxpayer. It’s time to deliver.”
Musk responded, saying that less than five percent of the company was working on Starship. “To be clear, the vast majority of our resources are [focused] on Falcon and Dragon, especially Crew Dragon.” Musk said.
