9PM Eastern, 6PM Pacific (about an hour from now). https://www.spacex.com/webcast Refreshments will be lit.
fashionably late, live video now online at the link. No Elon yet. some nice renderings And Elon is on stage. Looks rough sound not working right, there it is... He seems fried.
"We'll do a bunch of test launches before putting any people on board. Funding is really the question... Global broadband will be a key source of revenue. Private customers payments are welcome:
He founded "ZOZO" 20 years ago. He bought all the seats on the first trip to the moon, not just one... ...but he's taking artists with him. From all around the world. dearmoon.earth
Q and A time NY Times: is the design set? Musk: the broad design is, yes. Aesthetics were a major force in the design. Hover flights next year. High altitude flights in 2020. Tests of booster then too. 1st orbital flights possible in 2 to 3 years. He's not sure if they'll do a test shot around the moon before sending people. Probably. "That would be wise." "We're not disclosing the amount of money he's paying. He's ultimately helping the average citizen to travel to other planets." ABC: What happened to the 2 psgrs that were gonna go on Falcon Heavy Musk: it's the same person. On FH we would have only had room for 2 people. BFR has room for 100. On this we decided maybe it's wise to have about a dozen. He's offered to provide the other seats to artists. Japanese news: How much $? Yusaku: "Can't say." Musk: "For the artists, it's free." CBS: "Past deadlines have not been met, what makes you sure about 2023?" Musk: "We're definitely unsure. You have to set some kind of date: the things go right date. Reality differs, there are so many uncertainties." Spaceflight Now: "Where will it launch and land? Has he made a downpayment at this time" Yusaku: "yeah, I did, already." Musk: "yeah it's the real deal. He made a significant deposit. It will make a material difference on the development of BFR. He put his money where his mouth is." For short hops we'll be doing it in TX near Brownsville. We might change the name. "Heart of Gold?" We might launch from a floating platform for the other flights. (Other reporter): what about the stuff that goes inside. Musk: for interior we have some concepts. Depending on the mission there will be different configurations. To the moon probably still like cabins... yeah. common area. what is the most fun you can have in zero G? Safety wise, we'll build on the NASA crew design. More engineering to have a fully recyclable system for long journeys: closed loop. Quartz: what percentage of company effort is going into BFR? Musk: this is still quite a small portion of spacex resources, less than 5% currently. This will change significantly. The Verge: What do you look forward to. How much money is it going to take to develop BFR? Yusaku: I love art, I look forward to seeing what artists create. Musk: I think it's roughly 5 billion. LA Times: What's your estimate of the development costs? Musk: that's what I was talking about. 5 Billion. I don't think it's more than 10 or less than 2. Thanks guys for coming out. (?): what about lunar surface missions? What about your billionaire friends? Musk: I think it would be very exciting to have a moon base alpha. It's 2018 why is there no damn base on the moon? We should have one. And we should go there a lot. BFR is designed to land on any surface in the solar system. Propulsive landing is the way to go. It's really the only way to go. Bouncy castle landings won't sell well. You wouldn't want to land on Venus. It would be great if we had regular scheduled flights to the moon. Reuters: Let's say you hit 2023 and you talk about regular trips. What about ramp up? Boeing has said the first humans will go to mars on a Boeing rocket Musk: Game on! We're pedal to the metal. Yusaku has suggested maybe I come along. Maybe we'll both go. yeah. End: 10:30.
It's absolutely bonkers but I love that they are trying it. Also if the BFR ever reaches orbit it will instantly have more internal pressurized space than the entire ISS.
I'm just happy that someone out there is doing the "boldly going where no one has gone before" kind of thing.
I'm just happy he reads the same books and watches the same TV we do. Space 1999 and Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy references not to mention Iain Banks.
Not that routine. They're laying off 10% of their employees. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/11/spacex-plans-to-lay-off-10percent-of-its-workforce.html
Interesting. I've machined inconel, not something that I would have expected to be used in a rocket engine, but there's nothing about it that would make it unsuitable. It's kind of like making silverware out of titanium instead of stainless steel, it works, but is a bit of overkill.
Overkill is good when you want to reuse the engine over and over. And over. Like SpaceX would like to.
Yeah, but there are alloys which would work equally as well, they just don't look as pretty as inconel.
Looking pretty is important too, when you're selling a commercial product. Who's gonna pay to ride in that ghetto looking 'Ratchet Rocket?'
SpaceX might be in the manned spaceflight business by this summer. https://arstechnica.com/science/201...sa-review-now-set-for-test-flight-on-march-2/
And they did it! Skip to about 53:50 to see the launch. I was surprised by how quickly the stage two nozzle quit glowing after the engine was cut-off. I figured it would kept glowing for a bit longer than what it did.
SpaceX is prepping their prototype rocket for tests. https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starship-launch-pad-transport/amp/
