Elon Musk says he’s ‘highly confident’ the 36-story Starship, designed to take humans to the moon and Mars, will reach orbit this year
Daniel Levi
Posted On February 11, 2022
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday he was “highly confident” his new SpaceX36-story Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket ever built designed for voyages to the moon and Mars, will reach Earth orbit for the first time this year.
Despite a series of technical and regulatory hurdles yet to be overcome, Musk said that the first orbital flight of his towering Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket ever built, could see the first launch in March.
Musk made the remarks at an event where he addressed a throng of news media and supporters at his company’s “Starbase” facility in Boca Chica, Texas, for a presentation that combined a high-tech pep rally with big-screen videos and a question-and-answer session.
While he anticipates failures, Musk said he’s confident Starship will reach orbit by the end of this year. While standing alongside the 119-meter rocket at SpaceX’s Texas spaceport, the event marked the first major updates in more than two years. Musk told fans and the nighttime crowd, “Let’s make this real!”
He added, “This is really some wild stuff here. In fact, hard to believe it’s real.”
Starship is a fully reusable rocket that NASA plans to use to land astronauts on the moon as early as 2025. However, Musk also hopes to deploy a fleet of Starships to create a city on Mars, hauling equipment and people there.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2022
For now, the initial flights would carry Musk’s internet satellites, called Starlinks, into orbit.
“There will probably be a few bumps in the road, but we want to iron those out with satellite missions and test missions” before putting people on board, Musk cautioned.
