Elon Musk is trying to build hype around SpaceX's projects again, this time tweeting about the company's prototype super-rocket for future space travels.
The billionaire entrepreneur and space travel visionary posted a series of photographs on Twitter last week featuring SpaceX's Starship Mk1 mega rocket.
One of the images shows the 30-foot-wide, 150-foot-tall spacecraft looking like a massive, silvery silo with a pair of rocket fins on its sides. It's currently being kept at the company's Boca Chica facility in Texas.
Musk Tweeting About Starship Mk1
The Starship Mk1 mega rocket will serve as one of the primary delivery systems for SpaceX's planned missions into space. Along with its Mk2 counterpart, the Mk1 will be used as a prototype for a larger two-stage rocket that will eventually carry the Starship spacecraft into farther areas in space.
In one of his tweets, Musk gave a brief glimpse of the Starship prototype from inside SpaceX's hangar. The view of the mega rocket is surrounded by construction equipment and spare parts. The proud SpaceX chief captioned the photo, "Droid Junkyard, Tatooine," as an obvious reference to the fictional desert planet in the Star Wars movies.
Musk also shared a photo the construction team attaching a metal dome on top of the rocket's cylindrical shaft. He jokingly captioned the image as, "Area 51 of Area 51."
Answering Fan Questions On Twitter
All jokes aside, the SpaceX CEO also answered a few questions from fans about the Starship mega rocket.
When Twitter user @JaneidyEve asked Musk when the company plans to conduct the first test flight for the Mk 1 mega rocket, he replied by saying that the SpaceX team is looking at a possible 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) flight in October. He added that they could also attempt to take the spacecraft into orbit sometime after that.
Meanwhile, @SpaceXFan97 brought attention to the rocket's fairing, asking whether it will be stacked in time for SpaceX's scheduled update on Sept. 28.
Musk confirmed that the fairing will indeed be covered once they finish the necessary hardware to the spacecraft's tip. He said they are installing several key pieces to the rocket's nose, including forward movable fins, cold gas attitude control thrusters, composite pressure vessels, header tanks for landing, and a few large batteries to name a few.
All these are being added to balance out the high mass of the rocket's Raptors and rear fins located at the bottom.
@Erdayastronaut asked Musk about the Starship Mk1's landing system. He said having three landing legs proved to be aerodynamically unstable both during ascent and descent.
Musk answered that the mega rocket's stability is not an issue, even if it uses three landing legs. He explained that the spacecraft's stability is controlled by the rapid movement of its rear and forward fins during entry and landing. This is also helped by the rocket's ACS thrusters.
Musk added that the Mk1's smaller leeward "fin" would serve as another leg for the rocket.
SpaceX is set to give a huge update on Saturday, Sept. 28, about its space travel plans. The date will coincide with the anniversary of the company reaching orbit for the first time.
