Elon Musk has revealed that SpaceX is launching a ‘revolutionary rocket’ that will change life on Earth forever.
The billionaire shared that the new rocket, named Starship, will be launching this year and will turn us into ‘a multi-planet civilisation’ for the first time in Earth’s history.
Musk made these revelations during an interview with Fox News following the safe return of NASA’s stranded astronauts.
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Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore launched to space in June 2024 in what was meant to be an eight-day mission.
However, that stretched out over nine months after multiple faults with their spacecraft, Boeing’s Starliner, proved to be too dangerous to attempt the return trip.
Instead, Williams and Wilmore had been waiting at the International Space Station to be picked up by the SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The astronauts finally returned to Earth yesterday (March 18), splashing down just off the coast of Florida.
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In his interview, Musk shared his congratulations to the SpaceX and NASA teams who worked on returning the astronauts ‘safely home’.
And the Tesla boss also shared some exciting news about the future of space travel, discussing the upcoming launch of ‘truly a revolutionary rocket’.
Musk said: “Starship is the first rocket that has the potential to make life multi-planetary, make us a multi-planet civilization for the first time in the history of Earth and that’s truly profound.”
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On the SpaceX website, it read: “As the most powerful launch system ever developed, Starship will be able to carry up to 100 people on long-duration, interplanetary flights.
“Starship will also help enable satellite delivery, the development of a moon base, and point-to-point transport here on Earth.”
Why does Elon Musk want to colonize Mars?
So, why Mars? Musk has long had his sights set on colonizing Mars as it is one of Earth’s closest neighbors.
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It’s expected that Starship will be able to travel to the Red Planet in six months and it is hoped that it will be capable of refueling there before making the return trip.
According to the SpaceX site: “Mars is about half again as far from the Sun as Earth is, so it still has decent sunlight. It is a little cold, but we can warm it up.
“Its atmosphere is primarily CO2 with some nitrogen and argon and a few other trace elements, which means that we can grow plants on Mars just by compressing the atmosphere.
“Gravity on Mars is about 38% of that of Earth, so you would be able to lift heavy things and bound around. Furthermore, the day is remarkably close to that of Earth.”