SpaceX’s Starship is being simultaneously assembled at a facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Boca Chica, South Texas. Elon Musk visited both build sites on Monday, August 5, to inspect the Starship assembly progress. On Tuesday morning, August 6, the SpaceX CEO told his 27.7 million Twitter followers the progress in Florida was “great” despite setbacks. The update came just one day after Mr Musk confirmed a major Starship announcement will be made on August 24.
Elon Musk tweeted: “Great progress by Starship Cape team. Started several months behind, but catching up fast.
“This will be a super fun race to orbit, Moon and Mars!”
SpaceX’s operations in the US are spread between Florida, Texas and Hawthorne in California.
In California, the rocket manufacturer frequently employs the services of the Vandenberg Air Force Base for satellite launches.
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Moving forward, however, Mr Musk suggested all Starship launches will take off from Florida and Texas.
The SpaceX update could include an expected rocket redesign or minor change to the Starship’s looks.
Since the spacecraft was first conceptualised in 2016 as the upper stage of the Mars Colonial Transporter – now the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) – the Starship has seen a number of radical changes.
In its most recent form, the Starship prototype is a three-finned stainless steel construction armed with three powerful SpaceX Raptor engines.
A previous Starship design reveals a more classic, black and white spacecraft with two forward actuated fins and three back fins.
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Once assembled, the Starship will pair with a Super Heavy lower booster stage to form a complete Big Falcon Rocket.
The spacecraft will match or exceed NASA’s Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo programme, which to date is the most powerful rocket ever built.
On Sunday, August 4, Mr Musk told his Twitter followers the Starship prototypes will be “almost ready to fly” before the end of the month.
The Starship Mk1 in Texas and Starship Mk2 in Florida are the first step in SpaceX’s ambitious plan to make interplanetary travel real.