Tech

SpaceX chief Elon Musk ‘highly confident’ his Starship will reach orbit this year

Published

2 years ago

February 11, 2022

Anthony Lucas

Elon Musk has revealed that he’s “highly confident” his new SpaceX Starship, designed for voyages to the moon and Mars, will reach Earth orbit for the first time this year

The billionaire’s comments come despite a host of technical and regulatory hurdles yet to be overcome.

Mr Musk, who is the SpaceX founder and CEO addressed reporters and fans at his company’s “Starbase” building located in Boca Chica, Texas for a presentation that combined a high-tech pep rally with big-screen videos and a question-and-answer session.

His presentation came nine months after the private California-based space venture achieved the first successful launch and touchdown of a Starship prototype rocket in a test-flight after four previous landing attempts ended in explosions.

LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 21: Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk arrives at “Revenge Of The Electric Car” Premiere held at Landmark Nuart Theatre on October 21, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Vespa/WireImage)

Musk, who is also the boss of EV maker Tesla, acknowledged difficulties SpaceX has faced in developing the “Raptor 2” engines for its Super Heavy rocket, a reusable next-generation launch booster designed to carry the Starship spacecraft to orbit.

He cited problems with melting inside the thruster chambers of the engines from intense heat.

“We’re very close to solving that,” and expected to scale up production to about seven or eight of the engines a week by next month and produce a new Starship and a booster every month by year’s end.
Musk highlighted.

“I feel at this point highly confident that we will get to orbit (with the Starship) this year,”
said Musk.

Such a time frame would mark an ambitious feat, even for an uncrewed orbital test flight of the Super Heavy/Starship combo, the next step up from SpaceX’s current workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, which Musk said has flown 144 successful launches and 106 return landings.

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Is GenerativeAI transforming education?

Published

3 days ago

May 3, 2024

ticker NEWS

Educators today are facing an uphill battle, so what’s the solution?

Today’s educators are passionate, but they’re up against diverse classrooms and outdated teaching methods.

In this episode, Trevor Furness, Chief Revenue Officer of Octopus B-I discuss their efforts to transform education. #funding futures

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How AI is leveraging Amazon’s fast production

Published

4 days ago

May 2, 2024

Nathan Langridge

Amazon reported better-than-expected results for the last quarter, surpassing analysts’ estimates.

Amazon reported better-than-expected results for the last quarter, surpassing analysts’ estimates, driven by strong performance in its cloud computing and AI.

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Tech

Tesla is slashing prices to stay competitive

Published

2 weeks ago

April 21, 2024

Reuters

Tesla cut the U.S. prices of its Model Y, Model X and Model S vehicles by $2,000 each, days after the first-quarter deliveries of the world’s most valuable automaker missed market expectations.

Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle (EV) maker lowered the prices for its Model Y base variant to $42,990, while the long-range and performance variants are now priced at $47,990 and $51,490, respectively, according to its website.

The basic version of the Model S now costs $72,990 and its plaid variant $87,990. The Model X base variant now costs $77,990 and its plaid variant is priced at $92,900.

Tesla North America also said in a post on X said it would end its referral program benefits in all markets after April 30.

Referral program allows buyers to get extra incentives through referrals from existing customers, a strategy long used by traditional automakers to boost sales.

Musk has postponed a planned trip to India where he was to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announce plans to enter the South Asian market, Reuters reported on Saturday.

On Monday Reuters reported, citing an internal memo, that the EV maker was laying off more than 10% of its global workforce.

Earlier this month Reuters reported the EV maker had canceled a long-promised inexpensive car, expected to cost $25,000, that investors had been counting on to drive mass-market growth.

The EV maker reported this month that its global vehicle deliveries in the first quarter fell for the first time in nearly four years, as price cuts failed to stir demand.

Tesla is to report first-quarter earnings on Tuesday.