Which is the illustration, and which is the actual Starship Hopper test rocket? The real rocket is on the left and take note of the Starman standing by one of the fins. (Elon Musk via Twitter)
For weeks, photographers have been snapping pictures of a retro-looking, shiny stainless-steel rocket thats been taking shape at SpaceXs launch site in South Texas and tonight, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk declared that assembly of the first Starship short-hop test rocket is complete.
Musk tweeted a picture of what looks to be a roughly 120-foot-tall Starship Hopper, composed of three sections that were put together at SpaceXs Boca Chica facility.
This is an actual picture, not a rendering, Musk wrote. But the rocket does look eerily like the illustration that Musk shared several days earlier or, for that matter, the pointy-topped rockets that were all the rage in the 1940s.
Starship is the latest incarnation of the spaceship formerly known as the Interplanetary Transport System, Mars Colonial Transporter, the Big Falcon Rocket or the BFR.
Musk says the refuelable Starship, when paired with a huge rocket booster known as the Super Heavy, could be used for transcontinental point-to-point trips on Earth, satellite constellation deployment, voyages around the moon and to the lunar surface, and journeys to Mars and back.
A new type of stainless-steel alloy is being used because thats the best way for the craft to shed heat as it zooms through the atmosphere. Starship will look like liquid silver, Musk wrote.
The craft that has been taking shape in Texas is meant to fly short hops to practice launches and landings, just as SpaceXs Grasshopper rocket platform and its successor, the F9R Dev, were used as test beds for Falcon 9 booster landings in the 2012-2014 time frame.
Although Musk declared that assembly was finished, theres more work still to be done. For example, shock absorbers have to be installed on the feet of the landing legs. The engines on the rocket will also be replaced with honest-to-goodness, methane-fueled Raptor engines.
Engines currently on Starship hopper are a blend of Raptor development and operational parts, Musk explained last weekend. First hopper engine to be fired is almost finished assembly in California. Probably fires next month.
Short-hop tests could begin in February or March. This is for suborbital VTOL tests, he said in one of tonights tweets. Orbital version is taller, has thicker skins (wont wrinkle) and a smoothly curving nose section.
Musk said he plans to provide a detailed update on the Starship architecture in March or April. The first scaled-up, orbital-class prototype should be done around June, he said.
The aim is to have the Starship and the Super Heavy booster ready for passengers by the mid-2020s, in order to send Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and an entourage of artists around the moon and set the stage for Mars trips.
SpaceX has clearly picked up the pace of Starship development in the past month, and the fact that the company is more than halfway through a $500 million funding round could have something to do with that.
Its interesting that Starship assembly has been taking place outside in full view of SpaceX paparazzi. Heres a sampling of pictures from the past month:
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Elon Musk says SpaceX has assembled shiny Starship test ...
- Elon Musk | Biography & Facts | Britannica.com - August 20th, 2018 [August 20th, 2018]
- Elon Musk Details Excruciating Personal Toll of Tesla ... - August 20th, 2018 [August 20th, 2018]
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- Elon Musks Ultimatum to Tesla: Fight the S.E.C., or I ... - October 8th, 2018 [October 8th, 2018]
- Future Mars Colonists Could Fly Rockets They 3D Printed Right on the Red Planet - October 29th, 2018 [October 29th, 2018]
- Elon Musk: First Boring Company Tunnel Will Open December 10 - October 29th, 2018 [October 29th, 2018]
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk: The 2018 60 Minutes Interview - CBS News - December 11th, 2018 [December 11th, 2018]
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- Elon Musk: "I have no respect for the SEC" - December 11th, 2018 [December 11th, 2018]
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- Elon Musk says Tesla would consider buying idled GM plants - December 11th, 2018 [December 11th, 2018]
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- Elon Musk released a photo SpaceX's test hopper rocket ... - January 12th, 2019 [January 12th, 2019]
- Elon Musk shows off SpaceXs massive Starship test rocket ... - January 13th, 2019 [January 13th, 2019]
- CNET Says Tesla CEO Elon Musk Was Disruptor Of The Year - January 21st, 2019 [January 21st, 2019]
- Elon Musk blasts SEC, says no one oversees his tweets - CNN - January 21st, 2019 [January 21st, 2019]
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- Elon Musk: Tesla vehicles able to drive themselves by end of ... - February 5th, 2019 [February 5th, 2019]
- Elon Musk gears up for Model Y crossover as Tesla makes ... - February 5th, 2019 [February 5th, 2019]
- Elon Musk: Starship could make migrating from Earth to Mars ... - February 18th, 2019 [February 18th, 2019]
- Tesla's biggest problem is not Elon Musk's Twitter - Business ... - March 3rd, 2019 [March 3rd, 2019]
- Elon Musk changes Twitter name to 'Elon Tusk' amid SEC ... - March 3rd, 2019 [March 3rd, 2019]
- Johnny Depp Claims Amber Heard Cheated on Him With Elon Musk ... - March 3rd, 2019 [March 3rd, 2019]
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- Elon Musk Doesnt Need to Be Tesla CEO, Top Shareholder ... - March 6th, 2019 [March 6th, 2019]
- Hive: Elon Musk News, In-Depth Articles, Photos & Videos ... - June 5th, 2019 [June 5th, 2019]
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- WeWork's CEO drama has one industry insider calling it an 'Elon Musk situation' - Business Insider - October 1st, 2019 [October 1st, 2019]
- Elon Musk Just Unveiled Wild Starship Plans For "The Moon, Mars, And Beyond" - ScienceAlert - October 1st, 2019 [October 1st, 2019]
- 50 US corporations have CEO-worker pay gaps of more than 1,000 to 1 - Fast Company - October 1st, 2019 [October 1st, 2019]
- Watch Elon Musk unveil his latest plan for conquering Mars - Business Insider - October 1st, 2019 [October 1st, 2019]
- Elon Musk should send people to Mars on a keto diet to save money, according to a doctor who studies ketosis - INSIDER - October 30th, 2019 [October 30th, 2019]
- Elon Musk's hearing over Thai cave diver 'pedo guy' slur to begin amid 'con man' investigation - ABC News - October 30th, 2019 [October 30th, 2019]
- Tesla is unveiling a 3rd version of its solar roof this week, Elon Musk says - Business Insider - October 30th, 2019 [October 30th, 2019]
- Peter Thiel says Elon Musk is a 'negative role model' because he's too hard to emulate - CNBC - October 30th, 2019 [October 30th, 2019]
- To many, the strategy adopted by Elon Musk and Tesla seems chaotic but its actually brilliant - Scroll.in - November 23rd, 2019 [November 23rd, 2019]
- Elon Musk Just Tweeted a Response to Ford's New Electric Mustang Announcement, and It's Most Excellent - Inc. - November 23rd, 2019 [November 23rd, 2019]
- Elon Musk Says They're Working On Plugging The 4,400-Mile Supercharger Gap Between Europe And Asia - Jalopnik - November 23rd, 2019 [November 23rd, 2019]
- It Took Elon Musk Exactly 5 Words to Reveal What He Looks for in Every New Hire (and It's Not a College Degree) - Inc. - November 23rd, 2019 [November 23rd, 2019]
- Elon Musk says the Tesla 2020 Roadster 'maybe won't need a key at all' - Business Insider - November 23rd, 2019 [November 23rd, 2019]
- Elon Musk Ordered to Stand Trial in Cave Explorers Defamation Case - The New York Times - November 23rd, 2019 [November 23rd, 2019]
- Elon Musk Just Retweeted A Ford Announcement And It Was A Classy (And Hugely Strategic) Move - Forbes - November 23rd, 2019 [November 23rd, 2019]
- Watch Elon Musk lose it after Tesla Cybertruck Armor Glass ... - November 23rd, 2019 [November 23rd, 2019]
- Did Elon Musk approve this? U.S. company sending cannabis and coffee to space aboard a SpaceX mission - The GrowthOp - December 13th, 2019 [December 13th, 2019]
- Tesla has announced major overhaul of sales and delivery teams - Business Insider - December 13th, 2019 [December 13th, 2019]
- Elon Musk revives his plan to power the United States entirely on solar - Inverse - December 13th, 2019 [December 13th, 2019]
- Elon Musk Reveals Best Place To Get 'Great Deals' For Fixing, Upgrading Cars - International Business Times - December 13th, 2019 [December 13th, 2019]
- Folks Are Going Wild Over Elon Musk Sitting Next to Ikumi Nakamura at The Game Awards - Comicbook.com - December 13th, 2019 [December 13th, 2019]
- Vergecast: Tesla Cybertruck first ride, Elon Musks bad tweets trial, and the departure of Googles founders - The Verge - December 13th, 2019 [December 13th, 2019]
- Elon Musk says Twitter is nonsense. Why does he use it to break Tesla news? - Los Angeles Times - December 13th, 2019 [December 13th, 2019]
- Was Elon Musk Really in 'Rick and Morty'? - Showbiz Cheat Sheet - December 18th, 2019 [December 18th, 2019]
- Elon Musk appeared at The Game Awards to support girlfriend Grimes - Business Insider - December 18th, 2019 [December 18th, 2019]
- Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler Tie the Knot - Is Elon Musk Getting Worried Yet? - TheStreet - December 18th, 2019 [December 18th, 2019]
- Elon Musk Works For Tesla For Free But Thanks To A Highly Unusual Compensation Plan He Could Earn $100 Billion - Celebrity Net Worth - December 18th, 2019 [December 18th, 2019]
- Elon Musk Is Talking About Powering All of America with Solar - Futurism - December 18th, 2019 [December 18th, 2019]
- Why Elon Musk's SpaceX Is Launching Cannabis and Coffee to Space in 2020 - Inc. - December 18th, 2019 [December 18th, 2019]
- This decade in Elon Musk: SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company, and more - The Verge - December 18th, 2019 [December 18th, 2019]
- Jason Castriota is taking on the 300 mph record -- and Elon Musk - Los Angeles Times - December 30th, 2019 [December 30th, 2019]
- Can you guess what Elon Musk's favorite movie and Netflix series were in 2019? - USA TODAY - December 30th, 2019 [December 30th, 2019]
- How Elon Musk Evolved from Nothing to the Most Successful - Interesting Engineering - December 30th, 2019 [December 30th, 2019]
- Be wary of Elon Musk despoiling the vault of heaven - The Guardian - December 30th, 2019 [December 30th, 2019]
- Elon Musk Dismisses Induced Demand, A Phenomenon First Witnessed In 1866 - Forbes - December 30th, 2019 [December 30th, 2019]
- Elon Musk aims for 2020 completion of underground Las Vegas project - Las Vegas Review-Journal - December 30th, 2019 [December 30th, 2019]
- Elon Musk's Tesla journey started as an investor - The Times - January 19th, 2020 [January 19th, 2020]
- All aboard the Starship! Elon Musk aims to send 10 lakh people to Mars by 2050 - Hindustan Times - January 19th, 2020 [January 19th, 2020]
- The pop princess and the billionaire: how Grimes and Elon Musk became the worlds strangest power couple - Telegraph.co.uk - January 19th, 2020 [January 19th, 2020]
- Elon Musk Says His Favorite Movie of 2019 Was "Parasite" And The Concept of Irony is Officially Dead - Bleeding Cool News - January 19th, 2020 [January 19th, 2020]
- Did The Book Primal Branding Inspire Elon Musk With Tesla? - InsideEVs - January 19th, 2020 [January 19th, 2020]
- Elon Musk's Tunnel Company Seeks to Expand Its Reach in Las Vegas - Engineering News-Record - January 19th, 2020 [January 19th, 2020]
- Elon Musk keeps getting owned by the PA Treasury's Twitter account - Mashable - January 19th, 2020 [January 19th, 2020]
- Elon Musk is nearly halfway done with his Las Vegas loop - The Hill - January 19th, 2020 [January 19th, 2020]
- Elon Musk has had the viral song from 'The Witcher' stuck in his head for at least a week - Business Insider - January 19th, 2020 [January 19th, 2020]
- Elon Musk keeps traveling to Texas to work on SpaceX's new Starship rocket. A local thinks the CEO now uses a historic home as a crash pad take a... - January 19th, 2020 [January 19th, 2020]
- Jack Dorsey asked Elon Musk how he would run Twitterhere's what Musk said - CNBC - January 19th, 2020 [January 19th, 2020]
- Elon Musk is still thinking big with SpaceX's Starship Mars-colonizing rocket. Really big. - Space.com - January 19th, 2020 [January 19th, 2020]
- Jay Leno And Elon Musk Spotted Driving And Filming Tesla Cybertruck - Grand Tour Nation - January 29th, 2020 [January 29th, 2020]
- Shes Taking on Elon Musk on Solar. And Winning. - The New York Times - January 29th, 2020 [January 29th, 2020]
- Japanese billionaire Maezawa pulls out of dating show that promised the moon - Eyewitness News - January 30th, 2020 [January 30th, 2020]
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- Tesla's Elon Musk Must Fail To Win: It's A Critical Part Of The Process - InsideEVs - January 30th, 2020 [January 30th, 2020]