The Starship Mk1 “breathed” for the first time during tests at SpaceX’s facilities near the South Texas village of Boca Chica. The test saw SpaceX engineers test the venting system on the rocket as Elon Musk’s company gears up to begin sending humans to Mars and beyond. The Twitter account for South Padre Island – a coastal resort town in Texas – saw the testing and wrote: “A STARSHIP IS BORN!!! #SpaceX #Starship MK1 breathed her first breath at 5:57pm on 11/18/2019!! The first round of pressure testing today is occurring.”
NASA Spaceflight said on its Youtube channel: “Testing has begun on Starship Mk1 including the vehicle’s first ever vent.”
The Starship is a staggering 164ft (50m) tall, 200-ton, or 1,400 tons when fully loaded.
The Starship prototype is constructed of eye-catching stainless steel instead than the carbon composite or aluminium-based materials.
This gives the SpaceX Starship “exceptional thermal properties” and a lower cost.
A refined Starship paired with a SpaceX Super Heavy booster stage will increase the rocket’s height to 387ft (117m) and capable of carrying 220,000 pounds.
The spaceship will also include the functions for “orbital refilling”, which would allow fuel to be transferred from spacecraft to spacecraft in Earth’s orbit – something which Mr Musk said is easier to do than docking at the International Space Station (ISS).
He added: “This is one of the other critical pieces of the puzzle to establish a base on the moon or Mars.
“I think we should do our very best to become a multi-planet species and we should do it now.”
READ MORE: Elon Musk: SpaceX plans for Mars put alien life and NASA astronauts
The South African-born billionaire said Starship will take humans across the solar system, and be able to return them to Earth.
SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell said during a recent NASA-organised CLPS teleconference that Starship could be used to get humans to the Moon – which will be used as a jumping and refuelling point in the voyage to the Red Planet – in as little as three years.
Ms Shotwell said: “We are aiming to be able to drop Starship on the lunar surface in 2022.”
