SpaceX is transforming space travel with its radical rocket designs. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has slashed the cost of space travel with its reusable body. And SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has revealed his Starlink satellites will tomorrow launch on the back of Falcon 9 that has already seen space twice before.
The reusable rocket revelation was made on a SpaceX tweet reading: “The booster supporting this mission previously flew in support of the Telstar 18 VANTAGE and Iridium-8 missions.”
The Telstar 18 VANTAGE launch took place late last year, and put a 7,000kg communications satellite into space.
And the Iridium-8 mission put several satellites into orbit to complete a private constellation for a mobile phone company.
Space commentators believe tomorrow’s historic SpaceX launch could be one step step to help humanity one day settle the moon and Mars.
SpaceX plans to loft the first 60 spacecraft of its planned Starlink constellation, engineered to provide affordable internet access for people around the world.
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Six more launches each with 60 satellite payloads will be needed to activate Starlink.
And six more after will be required for the Starlink network to offer “significant coverage,” Elon Musk has admitted.
There’s a “fundamental goodness” inherent in improving internet access, the cavalier entrepreneur said last week.
But project will generate enormous revenue as well, perhaps up to $50 billion per year for SpaceX.
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Elon Musk said: ”Total internet-connectivity revenue in the world is on the order of $1 trillion annually, and we think maybe we can access about 3 percent of that, or maybe 5 percent.
That would be a huge boost over SpaceX’s launch revenue, which tops out at around $3 billion per year.
The extra money could allow SpaceX to do what Musk has repeatedly said is the company’s main goal: help humanity become a multi-planet species.
“We think this is a key stepping stone towards establishing a self-sustaining city on Mars and a base on the moon.
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“We believe we can use the revenue from Starlink to fund Starship.”
Starship is the reusable, 100-passenger spaceship that SpaceX is developing to ferry people to the Red Planet and other distant destinations.
Starlink will launch atop a giant rocket called Super Heavy, which will also be reusable, SpaceX revealed.
SpaceX’s Red Planet spaceship is already in the flight-test phase; a scaled-down prototype called Starhopper recently made a brief, tethered jump at SpaceX’s South Texas facility.
