New images of Elon Musk's damaged Mars 'Starship' prototype show the extensive damage the rocket suffered after it fell due to strong winds.
It was supposed to reach the stars, but the nose cone of the Mars-bound rocket tumbled down to Earth on Wednesday instead thanks to the fierce winds that whipped through Texas, where the prototype is held.
The rocket, known as the 'hopper', was once a gleaming bullet shaped rocket, but ended up looking like a stump after the nose cone was knocked off.
On Thursday operations resumed to fix the rocket and a protective half dome cap was put on top of the rocket.
Aftermath: The nose cone of Elon Musk's Mars rocket prototype known as 'hopper' was knocked off on Wednesday by strong winds rolling through Texas
On Thursday USA Construction operations resumed and a half-dome cap was put on top of the rocket until a new nose cone will be placed on top
The severely damaged nose cone section of the hopper pictured above at the Boca Chica Beach site where Elon Musk's SpaceX prototype Mars rocket is held
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The crushed nosecone of the Starship 'hopper' prototype in a picture posted to Twitter
The upper section of the rocket was already detached from the booster when it blew it over, it is believed.
However, Musk said the damage is easy to repair - as the nose-cone was simply a hollow structure welded together to give the craft the appearance of a real rocket.
'I just heard. 50 mph winds broke the mooring blocks late last night & fairing was blown over. Will take a few weeks to repair,' Musk said in a tweet.
'Actual tanks are fine,' he later added.
A closer look at the damaged nose cone pictured above on Thursday in Brownsville, Texas
The massive nose cone pictured lying on its side after it crashed to the ground in the wind
A zoomed out view of the Brownsville, Texas space site shows the rocket after a half-dome cap was put on top of it
Before the fall: The SpaceX prototype Starship hopper stands at the Boca Chica Beach site in Texas on Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019, seen from Texas Highway 4.
One space enthusiast for Spadre.com who saw the damage wrote on a YouTube video showing the damage: 'Starship upper fairing was completely destroyed in an overnight windstorm at SpaceX South Texas launch site at Boca Chica.
'Winds gusting in excess of 50mph toppled the nose cone, crushing it upon impact.
'The lower portion including fuel tanks were undamaged.
'The nose cone fairing contained no critical components and should be re-constructed quickly, little if any delay in launch tests are expected.'
'I just heard. 50 mph winds broke the mooring blocks late last night & fairing was blown over. Will take a few weeks to repair,' Musk said in a tweet.
Last month Elon Musk revealed images of the 120-foot tall Starship hopper test rocket prototype.
The maverick billionaire entrepreneur unveiled his retro-styled spacecraft which has drawn comparisons to sci-fi films from the 20th century.
Twitter users pointed out the similarities of Musk's creation with the contraption Tintin used in the 1954 adventure 'Explorers on the Moon'.
Others said the sleek design and prominent fins closely resemble spaceships depicted in 1950s/60s films, Wallace and Gromit and even Toy Story.
SpaceX founder Musk shared the first real images of the prototype from its Texas launch site and reassured his followers it is 'not a rendering'.
'This is for suborbital VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) tests,' Mr Musk explained.
'Orbital version is taller, has thicker skins (won't wrinkle) & a smoothly curving nose section.'
This particular model will be used to test short launches and landings.
Twitter users pointed out the similarities of Musk's creation with the contraption Tintin used in the 1954 adventure 'Explorers on the Moon' (pictured)
The undamaged nosecone on Jan 2nd at the Boca Chica Beach site, near Brownsville, Texas
Earlier this month, the billionaire said SpaceX was aiming to carry out test flights within four weeks, but admitted it could be as long as eight weeks when unforeseen issues are factored in.
Responding to questions from space enthusiasts, Mr Musk said that the first orbital prototype should be ready by June.
The SpaceX founder also added that the real, finished version would '[obviously] have windows, etc.'
Musk also later retweeted this video filmed by a passer by showing the prototype rocket
Elon Musk has revealed images of his fully-assembled 120-foot tall Starship hopper test rocket (pictured)
This work is taking place at both SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, and the company's test site in South Texas, near the border city of Brownsville, where the first flights will take place.
After its unveiling on social media the tech tycoon's Starship drew immediate comparisons to fictional rockets.
One user, known as John Drury, pointed out the similarities to the Toy Story rocket which is hope to 'the claw' and, briefly, Buzz and Woody.
He tweeted: 'Lol wow. Reminds me of the rocket ship in Toy Story'
One twitter user also said: 'I love SpaceX and their people are amazing but it does look like a Wallace and Gromit rocket but I'm sure it will be immense'
After its unveiling on social media the tech tycoon's Starship drew immediate comparisons to fictional rockets. One twitter user said: 'I love SpaceX and their people are amazing but it does look like a Wallace and Gromit rocket but I'm sure it will be immense' (pictured)
Atomic illustration of a man and woman riding a rocket in space from the 1940s bears a striking similarity to Musk's 2019 rocket which he says will reach space later this year
Musk may have been inspired by the 1950 film 'Destination Moon', where a group of actors discuss a model space rocket (pictured). The films surprisingly accurate prediction of space travel won an Academy Award for Best Special Effects
The latest images provide a clearer view of the two components previewed by Musk at the end of last month, showing engineers in cherry-pickers at work on the nose cone and another large piece of the system.
A large American flag can be seen plastered on the side of one of the huge metal cylinders.
The progress comes as SpaceX ramps up work on the test hopper ahead of planned flights later this year
Musk says this spacecraft will perform suborbital flights and a taller version with 'thicker skins' will take passengers to Mars
The maverick billionaire entrepreneur continues to explore ways of one day sending people to places as far as Mars. he previously posted this mock-up image
SpaceX's prototype starship that is being called 'test hopper' stands at the Boca Chica Beach site, near Brownsville, Texas on January 2
The svelte 120-foot-tall Starship design is similar to that of 1950s sci-fi favourite Destination Moon
Starship – previously known as BFR, Big Falcon Rocket, or the Big F***ing Rocket – is key to Musk's plans to send humans to Mars.
Musk tweeted out the first photo at the end of December, captioning it simply, 'Stainless Steel Starship.'
In a series of tweets that followed, however, the CEO elaborated on the plans for the test vehicle.
The first crewed Red Planet mission for the rocket and 100-passenger Starship could come as early as the mid-2020s if development and testing go well, Musk has said
WHAT IS ELON MUSK'S 'BFR'?
The BFR (Big F***ing Rocket), now known as Starship, will complete all missions and is smaller than the ones Musk announced in 2016.
The SpaceX CEO said the rocket would take its first trip to the red planet in 2022, carrying only cargo, followed by a manned mission in 2024 and claimed other SpaceX's products would be 'cannibalised' to pay for it.
The rocket would be partially reusable and capable of flight directly from Earth to Mars.
Once built, Musk believes the rocket could be used for travel on Earth - saying that passengers would be able to get anywhere in under an hour.
This particular model will be used to test short launches and landings. Earlier this month, the billionaire said SpaceX was aiming to carry out test flights within four weeks
Elon Musk revealed his 'hopper' spaceship that could one day take man to the moon earlier this week and claims it could eventually take people to Mars
Just last month, the SpaceX boss doubled down on his earlier claims that he would likely be among the interplanetary travellers who make the trip to Mars, despite there being a 'good chance' that he'll die there.
Tickets on Elon Musk's spaceship to Mars will cost around $200,000 per person.
SpaceX shared new details about the 387ft rocket in September, saying it hopes to begin unmanned launch tests of the spacecraft in late 2019.
In the future, Starship will be able to carry out lunar missions as well as long-distance flights to Mars and beyond.
The firm hopes to stage an uncrewed flight to Mars in 2022, then a manned flight in 2024.
In between those missions, SpaceX has planned for a private mission with a passenger on board in 2023.
'We would like to put large cargo on the surface of the moon by 2022,' SpaceX chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell said recently.
'And we have our eyes on the prize to send people to Mars in 2024.'
THE BILLIONAIRE SPACE RACE
Jeff Bezos in front of Blue Origin's space capsule
Jeff Bezos' space tourism project with Blue Origin is competing with a similar programme in development by Space X, the rocket firm founded and run by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Virgin Galactic, backed by Richard Branson.
Bezos revealed in April 2017 that he finances Blue Origin with around $1 billion (£720 million) of Amazon stock each year.
The system consists of a pressurised crew capsule atop a reusable 'New Shepard' booster rocket.
The richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos is pursuing Blue Origin with vigour as he tries to launch his 'New Glenn' rocket into low-Earth orbit by 2020.
Whilst Bezos is yet to leave the atmosphere of Earth, despite several successful launches, Elon Musk's SpaceX programme has already sent the Falcon Heavy rocket into space.
On February 6 2018, SpaceX sent the rocket towards the orbit of Mars, 140 million miles away.
On board was a red Tesla roadster that belonged to Musk himself.
Elon Musk with his Dragon Crew capsule
SpaceX have won several multi-million dollar contracts from Nasa as the space agency hopes to use the rockets as a fast-track for its colonisation of the red planet.
Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic recently successfully conducted a test flight of the Virgin Galactic’s Unity spaceplane.
The flight accelerated to over 1,400 miles per hour (Mach 1.87).
Calling space 'tantalisingly close', Branson also said last year that suborbital space in test flights could be happening by this spring.
More than 700 affluent customers to date, including celebrities Brad Pitt and Katy Perry, have reserved a $250,000 (£200,000) seat on one of Virgin's space trips,
The billionaire mogul also said he expects Elon Musk to win the race to Mars with his private rocket firm SpaceX.
Richard Branson with the Virgin Galactic craft
SpaceShipTwo will carry six passengers and two pilots. Each passenger gets the same seating position with two large windows - one to the side and one overhead.
The space ship is 60ft long with a 90inch diameter cabin allowing maximum room for the astronauts to float in zero gravity.
A climb to 50,000ft before the rocket engine ignites. Passengers become 'astronauts' when they reach the Karman line, the boundary of Earth's atmosphere, at which point SpaceShipTwo separates from its carrier aircraft, White Knight II.
The spaceship will then make a sub-orbital journey with approximately six minutes of weightlessness, with the entire flight lasting approximately 3.5 hours.
https://hienalouca.com/2019/01/25/pictured-elon-musks-badly-damaged-mars-starship-prototype/
Main photo article New images of Elon Musk’s damaged Mars ‘Starship’ prototype show the extensive damage the rocket suffered after it fell due to strong winds.
It was supposed to reach the stars, but the nose cone of the Mars-bound rocket tumbled down to Earth on Wednesday instead thanks to the ...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
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