Private space flight pioneer Elon Musk shared a video Friday of the tangible progress being made on SpaceX's newest craft, the Starship.
"Was up all night with SpaceX team working on Starship tank dome production (most difficult part of primary structure)," Musk tweeted. "Dawn arrives...."
"Still going," Musk can be heard to say as the video shows workers putting together the shiny dome at the construction site in Boca Chica, Texas. SpaceX is also building spacecraft in Cocoa, Florida.
Progress is being made on the Starship despite recent setbacks, such as the top of the Starship exploding during a November cryogenics test in Texas. Fire also destroyed a welding shed in Cocoa in July, although SpaceX claims neither accident delayed its production schedule.
"Starship will be the world's most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry in excess of 100 metric tonnes to Earth orbit," according to the SpaceX website. "Drawing on an extensive history of launch vehicle and engine development programs, SpaceX has been rapidly iterating on the design of Starship with orbital-flight targeted for 2020."
"Part of [SpaceX's] appeal and success has been in not having a big standing army like we're used to with government programs. They're lean, they're agile, they work their people very hard." Space Florida executive Dale Ketcham told WOFL. "And they actually do stuff. They don't talk about [how] they're going to build stuff in five years. They start building."
"They clearly over the last decade have been the most disruptive force in space flight for a generation, if not ever," Ketcham added.
SpaceX was founded in 2002 with the stated purpose of enabling "humans to become a spacefaring civilization and a multi-planet species by building a self-sustaining city on Mars."
Since then the company has made tremendous strides in the field of reusable rockets, landing three of its Falcon Heavy booster rockets back on earth in one piece after its first commercial launch in April 2019. SpaceX has also placed 60 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, designed to provide worldwide internet service.
During its maiden voyage, the Falcon Heavy delivered a payload consisting of a red Tesla Roadster with a spacesuit-clad dummy named Starman behind the wheel.
SpaceX founder Musk was also the co-founder of PayPal and the mapping service Zip2. He is also the co-founder and CEO of the electric products manufacturing company Tesla.
Tesla recently unveiled its Cybertruck, an electric pickup fitted with "armor glass" designed to resist breakage. However, during a live-streamed demonstration, lead designer Franz von Holzhausen was able to fracture both the driver's side and rear passenger side windows by throwing a steel ball.
"[The ball] didn't go through," Musk said. "Ah, not bad. A little room for improvement."
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