Elon Musk hints at ‘radical change’ at Big Falcon Rocket
Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, has tweeted that a “radical change” is coming to the Big Falcon Rocket. This giant rocket is currently under development and should be completely reusable.
Musk reports on Twitter only that there is talk of a new design that he is very enthusiastic about. He describes it as ‘wonderfully counterintuitive’. In response to a user’s question about whether the Big Falcon Rocket’s design has changed again or whether he was just talking about the most recent design, Musk says there’s been a “radical change‘. The SpaceX CEO did not provide any details about what exactly this change entails.
It wouldn’t be the first time the design has been modified. For example, in September it became clear that SpaceX will use the BFR for the tourist flight around the moon planned for 2023 and that, among other things, the engine configuration of the second stage of the rocket had been changed. It now consists of seven identical Raptor engines instead of the previous configuration with two different engines. Furthermore, the spacecraft was extended and, for example, canards were added, small wings at the front of the spacecraft.
Elon Musk also reports that SpaceX no longer plans to recycle the Falcon 9’s second rocket stage as well. The company continues to land the first stages of the Falcon 9 rockets vertically and return to Earth intact so that they can be reused for new launches. Soon the first Falcon 9 launch will follow with a first rocket stage that has already been used twice before.
Instead of completely reusing the Falcon 9, SpaceX is speeding up plans for the Big Falcon Rocket, Musk said. The plans to get the BFR operational more quickly means that another plan will also fail: testing a mini version of the BFR.
The first orbital flight of this 118-meter-high rocket could take place in 2020. According to the official schedule, the intention is that two BFR ships will go to Mars in 2022 and that astronauts will also fly to the red planet in 2024. However, it appears that that schedule is being pushed back by two years. The aforementioned radical change to the design may also affect the scheme.