Elon Musk tweets a video of SpaceX's Starship super heavy engine last Saturday, Dec. 18.
Starship by Elon Musk
Elon Musk is working on a vehicle that could revolutionize space travel.
The Starship, as it'll be called, will be a fully reusable transportation system capable of transporting up to 100 people to Mars.
According to the BBC, Elon Musk's private aerospace business SpaceX was founded with the idea of making life multi-planetary. He claims that relocating humans to other worlds, such as Mars, could save civilization in the event of a calamity on Earth, such as a massive asteroid collision.
NASA's Artemis mission, which intends to create a long-term human presence on the Moon, will also use Starship.
The US space agency gave SpaceX a $2.89 billion contract in April to improve Starship into a spacecraft capable of sending astronauts to the Moon this decade.
Starship Super Heavy
"Each Raptor 1 engine above produces 185 metric tons of force. Raptor 2 just started the production & will do 230+ tons or over half a million pounds of force," the CEO wrote underneath the Tweet.
Starship Super Heavy engine steering test pic.twitter.com/VG4RQAGuyk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2021
That's great news, especially because a large number of Raptors will be needed.
According to Space.com, each Starship will take 39 Raptors, 33 for the huge first-stage booster known as Super Heavy, and six for the upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship.
SpaceX's primary deep space prototype vehicle, the Starship, is being constructed to one day transport humans to the moon and, eventually, Mars.
The Raptor vacuum, sometimes known as RVac, is a rocket engine designed primarily for space maneuvering.
The vacuum engines were developed to function better in the extremely demanding conditions of space. The Raptor engines are the heart and the force of SpaceX's Starship, which is aiming to return humans to the moon.
According to CNBC, SpaceX is also aiming to use Starship to launch up to 400 satellites in a single attempt as part of the deployment of its Starlink constellation.
Starlink's internet service might reach millions of units in a short period of time, necessitating the launch of its enhanced version V2 into orbit to cope with the increasing demand.
SpaceX Bankruptcy
On Dec. 1, Elon Musk tweets that, in the event of a severe global recession, there is a possibility for SpaceX to go bankrupt.
If a severe global recession were to dry up capital availability / liquidity while SpaceX was losing billions on Starlink & Starship, then bankruptcy, while still unlikely, is not impossible.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2021
GM & Chrysler went BK last recession.
“Only the paranoid survive.” – Grove
This incident came after news of an unverified email from Musk to the SpaceX staff discussing the possibility of bankruptcy if the business does not get its Starship launches correctly next year, according to Interesting Engineering.
Musk reportedly told SpaceX staff in the comprehensive email that the difficulties with the Raptor engine production were much more serious than previously believed, and that the business needs to focus all efforts to recover from the tragedy.
At the very least, it appears like some things are finally getting back on track as the CEO a video of a successful Starship Super Heavy steering test on Twitter.
However, Elon Musk's tweets could just be a diversifying tactic.
It's still unclear whether SpaceX is back on track. After all, the video could just be a ruse to comfort worried investors following the email breach.
Nevertheless, in any case, it's good news for the company.
