At a SXSW event in the US, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that it is their intention to conduct short test flights in the first half of 2019 with the company’s Mars rocket, also known as BFR. It’s this type of the first rocket that must be able to bring people to Mars.
Musk adds, “We are progressing steadily.” Part of the rocket must be ready for first test flights in early 2019. “I think we should be able to carry out very short flights sometime in the first half of next year.”
During these first flights, nobody will actually be in the spaceship, but in the goal is to bring people to Mars. A couple of yers ago Musk predicted that in 2022 a flight to Mars should take place for the first time. How much it will cost to travel to Mars is not yet known, but according to Musk a flight should cost less than a flight with the Falcon 1, the first rocket of the Falcon series. That flight cost between 5 and 6 million dollars. The privately-funded venture, announced in September 2017, aims to send a cargo mission to the Red Planet by 2022. SpaceX’s ultimate objective is to plant the seeds to put a human colony on Mars.
The rocket has the code name BFR and is larger than the Falcon Heavy rocket that was successfully launched in February. The Falcon Heavy is the world’s most powerful operational rocket at the moment.
