SpaceX, the upstart start-up rocket company founded by famous techwealth kingpin Elon Musk, is to build and test-fly a "Grasshopper" hover rocket based on the massive first-stage fuel tank of the company's Falcon 9 vehicle, capable of carrying ten tonnes of cargo or seven people into orbit. C-SPAN has the full Elon Musk National Press Club presentation.
Musk told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington that such a system based on Space X's existing Falcon 9 rockets would reduce launch costs by '100-fold' and make possible longer distance missions, such as to Mars. 'The pivotal breakthrough that is necessary ... to make life multiplanetary is a fully and rapidly reusable orbit-class rocket,' Musk said.
'It's a very tough engineering problem. I wasn't sure it could be solved, and then just relatively recently, in the last 12 months or so, I came to the conclusion that it can be solved, and Space X is going to try to do it.' More from CBSNews and France24.
Musk told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington that such a system based on Space X's existing Falcon 9 rockets would reduce launch costs by '100-fold' and make possible longer distance missions, such as to Mars. 'The pivotal breakthrough that is necessary ... to make life multiplanetary is a fully and rapidly reusable orbit-class rocket,' Musk said.
'It's a very tough engineering problem. I wasn't sure it could be solved, and then just relatively recently, in the last 12 months or so, I came to the conclusion that it can be solved, and Space X is going to try to do it.' More from CBSNews and France24.
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