The company’s goals for this rocket are big: Musk hopes it will make missions to the moon and Mars. Last year SpaceX announced it had its first paying moon passenger for the Starship rocket. But the company has promised us moon tourists before. While they were never named, two people apparently paid deposits for trips to the moon aboard the Falcon Heavy rocket by the end of 2018. Those plans were scrapped in favor of waiting to put tourists aboard the Starship, so don’t hold your breath for an on-time departure this time around either.
SpaceX has test fired the updated Raptor engine designed for its Starship rocket. Three Raptors will be fixed to a Starship for low altitude tests later in 2019; the final version of the rocket will have seven of the engines with a further 31 on a booster. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said he wanted the Starship to reach the moon with paying passengers, that the Raptors had been “radically redesigned” and used methane and liquid oxygen.