SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter on Christmas Eve to share a photo of the “Starship” rocket prototype.
Starship is none other than the rocket previously known as “BFR” which SpaceX will be using to send people around the Moon –with Yusaku Maezawa being the very first – and then to Mars and on other international flights.
According to Musk, the rocket is covered in stainless steel as it was found to perform better than carbon fiber at the high temperatures that occur during reentry. He also stated that the stainless steel is too hot to paint so it will have a stainless mirror finish instead, for “maximum reflectivity”.
The rocket will begin test flights in 2019 where we will see it launched straight up and then brought back down for landing. According to Musk, the test flights will be using SpaceX’s “Raptor” next generation engines.
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