SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Friday detailed his vision to transform Starbase into a possible photography hotspot with old Starships lined closer to the fence and enabling space enthusiasts to capture pictures with them.
What Happened: “We plan to move older Starships close to the fence, so people can take pics with them if they want,” Musk said. The CEO was responding to a user on his social media platform, X, formerly Twitter.
The user noted that people could previously view the rockets at Starbase but it is becoming difficult now as the company’s tech becomes highly proprietary.
All development and manufacturing of the Starship currently takes place only at Starbase in Texas. However, last month, Musk took to social media and said the company aims to build two Starship towers at Cape Canaveral in Florida, hinting at plans to launch Starships from the state.
While one of the two towers is expected to be at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A, the location for the second is still under consideration, he said.
"We’re aiming to build two towers at the Cape for Starship, one at 39A and another tbd (we don’t have final approval yet).”
Why It Matters: As of today, however, all the last four flight tests of the Starship were launched from Starbase.
While the spacecraft failed to reach space in the first flight, it reached space and exploded in the second test flight. During the third flight test, the spacecraft broke apart when re-entering Earth’s atmosphere from space.
However, the fourth flight test on Thursday was a success, with the company checking all its test flight goals including reentry through Earth’s atmosphere and a soft splashdown of the spacecraft in the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX is expected to have at least six flights of the Starship this year, as per Musk’s latest estimate from March.
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