The vision behind SpaceX, founded in 2002, was to reduce the cost of space travel. The company stood steadfast by its vision as it introduced reusable rocket technology and lowered the price of space travel. Now, the Starship is set to become its crowning achievement. Having reached orbital velocity recently, it flew around Earth for the first time. Musk took to social media and posted on X, stating, “Starship could eventually live up to its name by flying beyond our solar system.”
A modified version of the Starship, the Starship HLS, is being touted as the first spacecraft to land astronauts on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Musk made strong remarks about the Starship HLS, saying he thought it could go interstellar.
“This Starship is designed to traverse our entire solar system and beyond to the cloud of objects surrounding us. A future Starship, much larger and more advanced, will travel to other star systems,” Musk wrote on X.
The Starship made its third flight last week. The overall endeavor was successful; however, the spacecraft failed to make a soft splashdown over the Indian Ocean. Apart from the hard splash, SpaceX lost contact with the Starship upper stage. However, the most positive thing about the complete trial was that SpaceX’s Starlink internet connection held remarkably steady, meaning SpaceX could share remarkable footage and invaluable data for future experiences.
The overall test flight can be deemed successful with all its ups and downs. It was a crucial step in bringing humans to the moon once again. NASA has already announced that the Artemis III Moon landing will be done in 2026. On the contrary, SpaceX would launch nine times this year and may be ready sooner than anticipated for its moon landing. If Starship does achieve this accomplishment, it would be a generational achievement because the sheer size of the spacecraft would make it a remarkable feat if it manages to land on the moon.
Going interstellar, however, is a different story. To reach Proxima Centauri, a spacecraft with the latest technology would take 18,000 years or approximately 2,700 human generations. Elon Musk commented that SpaceX would make humanity interstellar, but he also said that Tesla Level 5 would be fully automated, and we all know how that went.