We are quite amazed by Elon Musk's ambitious claim about Starship's moon landing timeline from his recent interview with TIME, as well as the first successful untethered Starhopper lift-off. Besides, the Asian space agencies aren't sleeping either, as we have some truly exciting stuff to report about China's Tiangong-2 space station and India's Chandrayaan-2 moon mission.
The first untethered SpaceX Starhopper flight reached a height of around 20 m. We're looking forward to the next Starhopper raptor engine test within the next few weeks, where the Starhopper is supposed to reach a height of around 200 m.
In an interview with TIME Magazine, Elon Musk hinted that an unmanned Starship could already fly to the Moon in 2021, and a crewed Moon landing could just follow SpaceX Dearmoon mission in 2023. Besides, SpaceX would and probably will be financing all these missions on their own, as NASA currently is still sticking to their SLS and the Lunar Gateway for their 2024 Artemis moon mission.
Since SpaceX orbital Starship prototypes in Cocoa, Florida, and Boca Chica, Texas, are scheduled for the first orbital tests by late 2020, and SpaceX would be able to draw revenue from their Starlink Internet satellites as of 2021, there is indeed a good chance to see Starship/Super Heavy bringing humans back to the Moon before NASA's Artemis / SLS plan. If NASA would switch from SLS to Super Heavy and SpaceX moon lander after SpaceX's successful moon landing in 2023, Elon Musk's Mars colonization plan would certainly also get an additional huge push forwards.
With regards to Starship's atmospheric re-entry design, SpaceX might switch from the liquid methane bleeding to the classic heat shield tiles.
SpaceX successfully launched their 18th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-18) mission for NASA, and the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket also perfectly flew back to the landing zone at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Currently the Cargo Dragon spacecraft is safely docked to the ISS.
India successfully launched their Chandrayaan-2 moon mission, mainly in order to detect the presence of water ice at the lunar South Pole. The Indian lunar lander together with a small rover are supposed to land on the moon by September.
China's Tiangong-2 space station reentered the atmosphere under controlled conditions after almost 3 years of successful operation. China is already planning for the next and larger space station by 2022, and the Chinese Moon Program shouldn't be underestimated either. We'll certainly keep you updated on any further developments through our channel!
So according to Elon Musk's interview with TIME, Starship status quo looks quite promising. We're really looking forward to an official SpaceX Starship announcement or even more information on a SpaceX crewed mission on the upcoming Elon Musk Starship presentation.
------- ✅Recommended videos✅ -------
We explain why we feel more sad than happy on the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/8j4GSVf48n6y/
We analyze SpaceX's Mars colonization plan and how first landing on the Moon (either in collaboration with NASA or by themselves) fits into this:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/A958Nv26oQY1/
------- Interesting resources to look up: -------
SpaceX Starship & Mars mission homepage:
https://www.spacex.com/mars
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