SpaceX: Elon Musk Shares Staggering Video That Shows True Size of Rockets
Elon Musk has shared a video that helps visualize the sheer scale of SpaceX’s rockets, and the results are awe-inspiring. The CEO retweeted a video on Wednesday from YouTube channel Corridor Crew, which uses visual effects to show the size of the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and BFR rockets in real-life situations.
The video, which uses 3D models produced by Reese Wilson, shows the sheer scale of the company’s rockets that it’s using to fulfill its space exploration ambitions. While the Falcon 9 has been sending satellites into space and the Falcon Heavy completed a test flight with the Tesla Roadster, it’s the upcoming BFR that will transport humans to Mars as soon as 2024. Musk described the video as “cool,” while astronomy writer Phil Plait wrote that it was amazing: “The SF/X are really really good. I’ve been to the SpaceX factory twice, and have seen the landing leg on the main floor and the booster outside. They’re WAY bigger than you’d think.”
The Falcon 9, used by SpaceX for the vast majority of its missions, stands at 230 feet tall with a diameter of 12 feet and a mass of 1.2 million pounds. The Falcon Heavy, which launched Musk’s personal red Roadster electric car into space on its first test mission in February, is essentially multiple Falcon 9s strapped together, so the height is the same but the width stands at 40 feet and the mass at 3.1 million pounds. The Falcon Heavy is currently the world’s most powerful operational rocket, but NASA’s Saturn V still holds the overall record.
It’s the BFR that will stun with its size. The rocket is set to start transporting cargo to Mars as soon as 2022, and it will take a lot to do this. It’s going to stand at 348 feet tall, with a total mass of 9.7 million pounds and a diameter of 30 feet. Alongside missions to Mars, the rocket will power trips around the Earth, with company president Gwynne Shotwell claiming that it will fly the rocket “like an aircraft.”
The first BFR test mission is set to take place in the first half of next year, Musk claimed at the South by Southwest event in Austin, Texas, in March.
It may not be long before we get to see the sheer scale of the rocket in reality.
