Elon Musk isn’t letting his latest explosion stop him from launching another starship into space, as the SpaceX founder has reportedly committed $2 billion towards developing a new rocket.
On April 20, SpaceX launched a starship that exploded shortly after the launch. The Super Heavy booster reportedly failed to disengage from the starship, causing the explosion within only minutes of the rocket taking off.
While many saw the explosion as a failure, Elon went on to congratulate SpaceX on the outcome. "Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship!" the billionaire tweeted. “Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.”
Apparently, Elon is planning to launch another starship into space later this year. He discussed his plans on Saturday on a subscribers-only Twitter platform, saying that the April launch went “slightly” better than expected.
"The outcome was roughly in what I expected, and maybe slightly exceeding my expectations, but roughly what I expected, which is that we would get clear of the pad," Elon wrote.
The business man went on to reveal that he doesn’t plan to raise external funds to finances the new rocket, which will cost $2 billion. It appears the billionaire will be financing it himself alongside SpaceX.
"We do not anticipate needing to raise funding ... we don't think we need to raise funding," he said.
Elon added that he anticipates the next rocket will go up before the end of 2023, and that SpaceX will have one in orbit within the next year. "I think close to 100% change of reaching orbit within 12 months," he said.
SpaceX and Elon’s space exploration has been controversial, with critics taking issue with the amount of resources – financially and otherwise – that go into the rocket launches as well as the negative impact it can have on the environment.
However, the billionaire has defended his ambitious projects. He’s implied that his space exploration was the key to saving humanity, considering how damaged the Earth has become due to pollution and climate change.
“It’s been now almost half a century since humans were last on the moon,” he said in 20221. “That’s too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the moon — again, like a big permanently occupied base on the moon. And then build a city on Mars to become a spacefaring civilization, a multi-planet species.”
However, Elon has reportedly been facing financial difficulties since buying Twitter for $44 billion in November. Not only has he admitted the social media platform is hemorrhaging millions per day, but Elon lost his place as the world’s richest person shortly after the takeover.
Nonetheless, Elon remains confident that he can’t fund the newest $2 billion starship without external help and that he’s going to have a rocket in orbit sooner than later.
Sources: CNBC, Business Insider,