SpaceX is betting $2 billion on Starship – E24

Elon Musk’s aerospace company expects to spend $2 billion on Starship development during the year. The goal is to reach space orbit within one year.

The first test of the Super Heavy Booster missile took place on April 20, which ended in self-destruction. SpaceX writes that during the year it will increase its investment by $ 2 billion in the development of the rocket CNBC.

My expectation for the next flight is that we will reach space orbit, Elon Musk said during a Twitter Spaces discussion on Saturday.

The founder believes that the probability that the Starship will reach its goal within the year is about 80 percent, but he is pretty sure that it will happen in 12 months.

The missile cannot be controlled

Elon Musk notes that several problems arose during the test run of the Super Heavy Booster, which will be optimized for the next launch.

The rocket took off with only 30 of the 33 Raptor engines. Musk says they themselves chose not to start the last three engines, because they couldn’t stand the strain of the superpowers.

After the rocket had been in the air for 27 seconds, SpaceX lost contact with another engine. After 85 seconds, they can no longer control the missile either.

In addition, Musk says it took about 40 seconds for the missile’s AFTS system to fire up. This system causes the missile to destroy itself if it flies in the wrong direction, and it is imperative that the system be repaired before the next flight.

On the other hand, SpaceX is satisfied with how well the rocket holds together, as well as having passed a milestone called “Max Q.” It is the moment when the atmospheric pressure is at its highest on the rocket.

– The result was as expected, and maybe it was also a little higher than my expectations, Musk says.

It does not need to increase funding

SpaceX has secondary investments about twice a year, which gives employees and other shareholders the opportunity to sell shares. Musk believes that SpaceX does not need to increase funding for the Starship program.

– As far as I know, we don’t need to raise additional funding for SpaceX, he says.

Currently, SpaceX has ten more Starship models, as well as seven Super Heavy Boosters.

– The goal of these space missions is to collect information. We don’t have loads or anything like that — we just want to learn as much as we can, says Musk.