Elon Musk reveals new Mars rocket, expects first missions in months

Elon Musk’s rocket designed to go to Mars is expected to launch its first mission in months, the billionaire tech entrepreneur said last weekend as SpaceX unveiled the Starship rocket. 

Musk showed Starship to reporters at the SpaceX development site in Boca Chica, Texas, according to Reuters. 

{mosads}The news outlet reports that animations predicted the rocket’s first orbital flight could happen in months and missions to space with humans aboard could follow the next year.

“The critical breakthrough that’s needed for us to become a space-faring civilization is to make space travel like air travel,” Musk, who is also the chief executive of Tesla, reportedly said.

The 387-foot-tall Starship is designed to carry as many as 100 people for long-duration interplanetary flights.

Starship will be the most powerful rocket in history, capable of carrying humans to the Moon, Mars, and beyond pic.twitter.com/LloN8AQdei

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2019 

NASA also has a goal of sending humans to the moon by 2024 under its Artemis program, and Reuters notes the agency is using SpaceX to help figure out the logistics of landing and refueling rockets. 

NASA awarded SpaceX and Boeing Co. a total of $6.8 million in contracts to build competing rocket and capsule systems to launch astronauts into orbit from the U.S.