Elon Musk’s reusable Falcon 9 rockets will dramatically lower the cost of space travel and make it more accessible
Elon Musk tweets SpaceX’s plans to build rocket cores for 300 missions over the next five years
PUBLISHED : Monday, 14 May, 2018, 4:42pm
UPDATED : Monday, 14 May, 2018, 4:42pm
By Ethan Rakin
After successfully launching the Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket last Friday (May 11), Elon Musk has shared via Twitter that it still has about “300 missions over five years” left in its lifespan.
The workhorse rocket is the most advanced in the Falcon series developed by SpaceX, the space tech company owned by the tech billionaire.
Eight minutes after the launch, a 16-storey booster that was the lower part of the rocket, successfully landed back onto a drone ship.
The upper stage continued into deep space and deployed the first geostationary communications satellite for Bangladesh called Bangabandhu-1.
According to Musk’s tweets, SpaceX will probably “build 30 to 40 rocket cores” for the Falcon 9 Block 5 to cover about 300 missions over the next five years. What that means is dramatically lower cost that will make space travel cheaper and more accessible in the very near future.
By then when it’s time to retire the Falcon 9, the Big Falcon Rocket or BFR, a next-generation reusable launch vehicle and spacecraft capable of transporting anybody to the moon and beyond will take over.
SpaceX will prob build 30 to 40 rocket cores for ~300 missions over 5 years. Then BFR takes over & Falcon retires. Goal of BFR is to enable anyone to move to moon, Mars & eventually outer planets.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2018
Most Popular
Viewed
- 1
![An artificial intelligence system backed by facial recognition which can used in mobile payments is demonstrated at the 3rd World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit on November 26, 2016. Photo: Simon Song]( "An artificial intelligence system backed by facial recognition which can used in mobile payments is demonstrated at the 3rd World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit on November 26, 2016. Photo: Simon Song")
- 2
![By nurturing a raft of successful apps, Bytedance has gathered a force of hundreds of millions of users and now poses a threat to China’s largest internet operators.]( "By nurturing a raft of successful apps, Bytedance has gathered a force of hundreds of millions of users and now poses a threat to China’s largest internet operators.")
- 3
![More than half of all luxury consumers in China live outside the top 15 cities, and they are young and well educated, report finds]( "More than half of all luxury consumers in China live outside the top 15 cities, and they are young and well educated, report finds")
- 4
![Apple, Amazon deny report China used tiny chips to hack into their networks]()
- 5
![Less than a year after Ritesh Agarwal brought his business to China, travellers can choose from more than 1,000 Oyo-branded hotels and 87,000 rooms in over 170 cities. Photo: Bloomberg]( "Less than a year after Ritesh Agarwal brought his business to China, travellers can choose from more than 1,000 Oyo-branded hotels and 87,000 rooms in over 170 cities. Photo: Bloomberg")
Shared
- 1
![An artificial intelligence system backed by facial recognition which can used in mobile payments is demonstrated at the 3rd World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit on November 26, 2016. Photo: Simon Song]( "An artificial intelligence system backed by facial recognition which can used in mobile payments is demonstrated at the 3rd World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit on November 26, 2016. Photo: Simon Song")
- 2
![By nurturing a raft of successful apps, Bytedance has gathered a force of hundreds of millions of users and now poses a threat to China’s largest internet operators.]( "By nurturing a raft of successful apps, Bytedance has gathered a force of hundreds of millions of users and now poses a threat to China’s largest internet operators.")
- 3
![Ocean Park raises its game and stays relevant by embracing technology]()
- 4
![More than half of all luxury consumers in China live outside the top 15 cities, and they are young and well educated, report finds]( "More than half of all luxury consumers in China live outside the top 15 cities, and they are young and well educated, report finds")
- 5
![Binance founder Zhao Changpeng is playing a game of regulatory arbitrage to grow the world’s No 1 cryptocurrency exchange wherever it is welcome]( "Binance founder Zhao Changpeng is playing a game of regulatory arbitrage to grow the world’s No 1 cryptocurrency exchange wherever it is welcome")
Commented
- 1
![Hong Kong’s property market is showing signs of slowing down as a slew of factors have caused prices to fall recently. Photo: AFP]( "Hong Kong’s property market is showing signs of slowing down as a slew of factors have caused prices to fall recently. Photo: AFP")
- 2
![India’s northeastern state of Sikkim now has its first airport, Pakyong. Photo: Reuters]( "India’s northeastern state of Sikkim now has its first airport, Pakyong. Photo: Reuters")
- 3
![A map of China is seen through a magnifying glass on a computer screen showing binary digits. A report that malicious computer chips were inserted into servers by Chinese intelligence to hack into networks showed the risk of cyberespionage to US companies and the government, according to US lawmakers. Photo: Reuters]( "A map of China is seen through a magnifying glass on a computer screen showing binary digits. A report that malicious computer chips were inserted into servers by Chinese intelligence to hack into networks showed the risk of cyberespionage to US companies and the government, according to US lawmakers. Photo: Reuters")
- 4
![Lenovo shares fell as much as 22.8 per cent in early Hong Kong trade on Friday. Photo: Bloomberg]( "Lenovo shares fell as much as 22.8 per cent in early Hong Kong trade on Friday. Photo: Bloomberg")
- 5
![A QR code is displayed at the HKMA faster payment ceremony to promote the launch of the Faster Payment System to start interbank transfer from Sunday, at Two International Finance Centre (IFC2) in Central. 28SEP18 SCMP / K. Y. Cheng]( "A QR code is displayed at the HKMA faster payment ceremony to promote the launch of the Faster Payment System to start interbank transfer from Sunday, at Two International Finance Centre (IFC2) in Central. 28SEP18 SCMP / K. Y. Cheng")
You may also like
3D printers can now create human tissue, so what will future bring?
In partnership with: HKT PREMIER
Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka headlines Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open
Sponsored by: Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open
Comments: