Elon Musk Renames Big Falcon Rocket To 'Starship' (theverge.com) 124
On Twitter, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that the transportation portion of the company's Big Falcon Spaceship (BFS), will now be called Starship, while the booster portion will be called Super Heavy. The Verge reports: Plans for the 387-foot Big Falcon Rocket were officially revealed back in September. Eventually, the company hopes that it will replace the company's existing Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon rockets. The craft is currently being developed at the Port of Los Angeles, at an expected cost of $5 billion and will be capable of taking up to 100 tons of cargo or 100 passengers as far as Mars.
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the company hopes to start doing uncrewed launch tests of the new rocket in late 2019. If all goes well, Musk believes that this could be followed by an initial uncrewed flight to Mars in 2022 with a crewed flight taking place as early as 2024. A mission to fly around the moon with a private passenger on board is planned for 2023. However, given that the Falcon Heavy took nearly twice as long to complete as expected, and that only five percent of SpaceX's resources are currently spent on the Starship, it's best to view these plans as an aspiration.
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the company hopes to start doing uncrewed launch tests of the new rocket in late 2019. If all goes well, Musk believes that this could be followed by an initial uncrewed flight to Mars in 2022 with a crewed flight taking place as early as 2024. A mission to fly around the moon with a private passenger on board is planned for 2023. However, given that the Falcon Heavy took nearly twice as long to complete as expected, and that only five percent of SpaceX's resources are currently spent on the Starship, it's best to view these plans as an aspiration.
Did Musk really call it "big falcon"? (Score:5, Informative)
Musk just called it the "BFR" in a reference to the BFG weapon in the Doom games, many years ago. ... trying to sound dull and respectable.
Only recently did Gwynne Shotwell start calling it the Big "Falcon" Rocket, because
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I kind of liked BFR, which they had stuck with it, but oh well, the name need to be commercially viable for massmarket I guess
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Big Falcon rocket
In any case, if you say that quickly, without fully articulating, it sounds just like the real phrase :-)
Re: Did Musk really call it "big falcon"? (Score:1)
Hell if Hoshi sato does the communications, book me a ticket ritgt now :)
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Speak for yourself, Anonymous Coward.
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Should have gone with Comparatively Colossal Carrying Projectile.
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Should have gone with Comparatively Colossal Carrying Projectile.
CCCR. The initials (in cyrillic) for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
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Send those APK and Trump spammers to Mars (Score:1)
Their comments is everywhere. /.?
5 billion to save
Well there's that and the mod down stuff you don't agree with. Are those less than 100 all in all?
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Re: Send those APK and Trump spammers to Mars (Score:2)
We haven't even set foot on Mars and already you want to deliberately pollute it?
Big F (Score:1)
He realized cuss-words are awkward as rocket names when he sobered up. [slashdot.org]
Re:Big F (Score:4)
It was not a cuss name exactly. It was merely an initialism than *hinted* at a cuss name. That's the joke.
Like DVD, KFC or BP, the term BFR doesn't formally stand for anything. Not at least until Miss Prim and Proper started calling it the Big Falcon Rocket. Hard to believe she is an engineer and not an accountant.
Re:Big F (Score:5, Informative)
Like DVD, KFC or BP, the term BFR doesn't formally stand for anything.
That's funny. I was going to correct you with the meaning of those acronyms we all know, and when looking for sources I found that you're actually right. Thanks for the info.
Re:Big F (Score:5, Funny)
That's him! The person who checks their facts before posting! Get him off the internet!!! :-)
Re: Big F (Score:2)
I was going to correct you with the meaning of those acronyms we all know ...
Well then allow me to correct you; they aren't acronyms. NASA, Scuba, and Laser are acronyms, while DVD, FBI, and KFC are initialisms. If it's pronounced as individual letters rather than as a word, it's not an acronym.
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Well then allow me to correct you; they aren't acronyms. NASA, Scuba, and Laser are acronyms, while DVD, FBI, and KFC are initialisms.
Wrong. I am not sure there is a word called initialism. When letters are spelled out they are called abbreviations. If they are enunciated as a word, they are acronyms.
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https://data.grammarbook.com/b... [grammarbook.com]
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I didn't know this distinction either (we do not even have the equivalent word for "initialism" in my mother tongue), thanks!
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Like DVD, KFC or BP, the term BFR doesn't formally stand for anything.
That's funny. I was going to correct you with the meaning of those acronyms we all know, and when looking for sources I found that you're actually right. Thanks for the info.
While that is technically correct (the best kind), I find it really annoying when a company says "we're going to keep using this well-known abbreviation, but now it's no longer an abbreviation". It's a distinction without a difference.
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KFC was short for Kentucky Fried Chicken for most of the company’s existence. Same with BP = British Petroleum. Both companies eventually rebranded officially to just the initialisms as part of attempts to revive somewhat moribund fiscal performance.
KFC’s attempts to get away from chicken haven’t really been successful - they seem to have mostly backtracked. I wouldn’t be surprised if another rebrand officially brings them back to Kentucky Fried Chicken.
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> Like DVD, KFC or BP, the term BFR doesn't formally stand for anything.
DVD, KFC, and BP no longer have official meanings, but they all were legit initialisms at first -- Digital Video Disc, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and British Petroleum, respectively. Just because something doesn't mean anything now, doesn't mean it never did.
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Seriously, you Americans sound like you're seconds away from dressing in bomb belts and raping children, when you talk like that.
Those are jobs you Europeans leave to the refugees.
Exaggeration (Score:1)
Doesn't term 'starship' implies interstellar capability?
Oh, wait, I've heard something similar before: autopilot.
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And autopilot is a pilot assist technology, not a self-flying/driving solution. If the pilot browses the internet or sleeps on the controls while the autopilot is active - he will be fired immediately.
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Re:Were going to the stars baby (Score:2)
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Doesn't term 'starship' implies interstellar capability?
Does it imply interstellar capability less or more than "astronaut"?
Oh, wait, I've heard something similar before: autopilot.
'Autopilot' implies interstellar capability?
So, should the company building the rocket ... (Score:5, Funny)
... now be known as the Starship Enterprise?
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It's either that or Jefferson Starship.
Hard to tell.
Re:You get the best Ideas, (Score:2)
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when your high. :)
When my high what?
Re:Ya man.. (Score:2)
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Now the stage is set for the Alan Parsons Project.
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Is he going to build his first city on Rock and Roll?
Re:Starship Elonprise. (Score:2)
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SpaceX employers are hereby known as "Starship Troopers"
Heinlein reference? (Score:1)
I this why Nasa, (Score:2)
Annoying (Score:3)
Much as I like spaceX, I hate when companies take well established names for cool things and use them for less cool products.
A "starship" is sell understood to be a craft that travels between stars, not something that can launch a payload to another planet.
Similarly "jump drives" "US robotics" , "hover boards", and the ford "fusion" all are in that category.
The new rock is a heavy-lift rocket. Call it what it is or by some generic name "Neptune", Odin or something. Its cool enough as it is without exaggerating .
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and don't forget the (mis)use of the word "organic" when talking about veggies.
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Agree totally. In fact I liked ITS because that was already a cool sounding, functionally correct name for the product.
By naming things excessively or falling to name inflation ("starship" and "super heavy") they are limiting space travel for future psychology I think.
If they play any Jefferson Starship music during the launch video, I may sell my stock :(
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Much as I like spaceX, I hate when companies take well established names for cool things and use them for less cool products.
Similarly "jump drives" "US robotics" , "hover boards", and the ford "fusion" all are in that category.
Why the Ford Fusion specifically? Just about any car name would probably fit your hatred standards it seems.
Why not the Ford Mustang? I mean, it isn't actually a horse!
What about the Chevrolet Corvette? It's not even a ship!
The Dodge Dakota or Chevrolet Colorado - they don't even resemble a state!
The Honda Element has all sorts of elements in it!
Anyway, why the Fusion?
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Re: Annoying (Score:2)
Leaving aside the response you already got about the ford fusion ... what the heck is wrong with "jump drive"? I honestly can't figure out what your objection is to that one ...
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Leaving aside the response you already got about the ford fusion ... what the heck is wrong with "jump drive"? I honestly can't figure out what your objection is to that one ...
You've obviously never played Traveller.
Re: Annoying (Score:2)
Correct. Is he really objecting to the name based on some part of a board game that most people never even heard of?
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"jump drive" has been used in a variety of science fiction to refer to some sort of instant interstellar transportation, presumably though some sort of worm-hole like mechanism. Maybe its only from older scence fiction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Ahhhh, TSLA short position not doing well? (Score:2)
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yeah! Where's the big antenna?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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You forgot the most obvious example, another one from Musk: Autopilot.
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Mr. World, stop trying to bribe Mr. Wednesday.
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Much as I like spaceX, I hate when companies take well established names for cool things and use them for less cool products.
A "starship" is sell understood to be a craft that travels between stars, not something that can launch a payload to another planet.
I'm ambivalent. On the one hand, words mean things. On the other hand, perhaps the people who are actually doing things have more of a right to terminology than science fiction has. Besides, it's clear that 'Starship' is its name and not a technical term.
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Headline Incorrect (Score:2)
He actually renamed the transport payload to 'Starship'. The rocket itself was renamed to 'Super Heavy'.
Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon rockets.
The Dragon is a capsule payload, not a rocket.
I'm wondering if there might be some confusion between 'Falcon Heavy' and 'Super Heavy', particularly given the latter was formerly known as 'Big Falcon Rocket'. Therefore, its name contains 'heavy' and once contained 'falcon'. I wouldn't expect the editors of TFA to not make that error.
100 Tons and What Do You Get? (Score:2)
100 tons to Mars, wow. Worth noting that's after orbital refueling. If a cargo drop mission is planned for 2022, people had better get on actually making the stuff they'll be dropping; SpaceX isn't making all the stuff required for a Mars habitat, they're depending on others to do that.
I was actually thinking yesterday about them sending a (small) tunnel boring machine to Mars, digging a tunnel underground, putting in some blast doors for an airlock and at the tunnel entrance, and using that as a habitat. I
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100 Tons and What Do You Get?
Mighty frustrated and and covered with sweat? [songfacts.com]
Waverider? (Score:1)
I wonder if SpaceX are looking at Waverider designs for BFR re-entry.
With a strongly negative dihedral, you can contain the shock wave under the "wings" and use it as a lifting surface - "compression lift".
To change your lift direction you roll the vehicle around the inside of the shock cone.
Since the purpose of such "wings" is to contain the shock rather than generate lift directly, they don't need much thickness, just (a lot of) heat resistance - maybe even something as flimsy as a woven mesh. ...which me
Not expensive enough (Score:3)
The craft is currently being developed at the Port of Los Angeles, at an expected cost of $5 billion
Compared to NASA's version the Space Launch System that is reported as costing $35billion.
Doesn't SpaceX have any feelings for subcontractors? How are they supposed to make a living when a new, non-governmental, outfit starts making competing rockets that are just as good, reusable and 7 times cheaper to develop and up to 10 times cheaper to launch?
Re:Not expensive enough (Score:4, Informative)
The engineering community is full of whispers and rumors about how low the bar for safety and rigor is at Musk's companies. Everything they do seems to be hacked together on Elon's whims and never really proven.
Riiight. You're so full of shit your eyes are brown. SpaceX can't hide their failures and their successes are also a matter of public record, and there are vastly more successes than failures.
Corners were cut so hard that SpaceX launched their 18th rocket this year to complete mission success, their 63rd launch attempt overall, reusing a first stage for the second time, and recovered that first stage a second time. They've launched more rockets this year than their competitors launch in three years, for 1/5th as much money, while recovering first stages and reusing them, which their competitors have never done in the history of rocketry.
Oh noes. Muh corners.
Starship Super Heavy (Score:2)
So the spaceship portion is Starship, and the launcher is Super Heavy, so together at launch (from Earth), it's Starship Super Heavy. When using it to ferry passengers across the globe, it will give new meaning to making an SSH connection.
Re: Starship Super Heavy (Score:2)
The trick is knowing which corners you can cut without causing accidents, and which you cannot. Master that, and you can provide the same reliable launch services as the competition at a fraction of the cost, and gain a dominant share of the industry. Which they have. Perhaps theyâ(TM)ll screw it all up tomorrow; OTOH if they didnâ(TM)t have a pretty good idea about what they were doing they would not have got as far as they have.
I bet this has to do with Robyn Denholm (Score:1)
I bet this is one of the consequences of Musk stepping down as Chairman. The new board probably found BFR unprofessional because of the subtle meaning and forced him to rename it.
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You realize that Tesla doesn't make rockets, right? SpaceX is a completely different company with nothing in common with Tesla other than Musk. Robyn Denholm isn't the chair of SpaceX and so her appointment shouldn't have any bearing on SpaceX's naming conventions.
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Apparently I had a lack of sleep that day. Or I was just so itching to make a point about Elon stepping down as Chairman that I rushed to post.
Jefferson Airplane (Score:2)
Starship ? (Score:5, Informative)
Dud he add a warp drive or hyperdrive or some other FTL method?
Its not a starship until it can get to another star system
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Dud he add a warp drive or hyperdrive or some other FTL method?
Its not a starship until it can get to another star system
So basically the same logic as his "Autopilot" ...name it way more than it can do.
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Dud he add a warp drive or hyperdrive or some other FTL method?
Its not a starship until it can get to another star system
Look like a bait...oh well.
Someone on tweeter already mentionned that point to which Elon replied "Later versions will"
Link : https://twitter.com/mwolman98/... [twitter.com]
If I may add, a warp drive/hyperdrive/FTL isn't a requirement to reach another star. I'm not saying that a viable way to reach another star exist, but if Elon does have some design to accelerate and (more importantly) decelerate a "starship" to reach another star, I'll be very interested to see it.
I was hoping for "Rocinante" (Score:3)
When you call something a 'starship' it should actually be, you know, a starship.
From the guy that calls cruise control (Score:2)
Autopilot...
Starship implies a ship that can go between stars. Well at least he is aiming for the stars :D, but can a rocket really be called a ship?
This is like naming things hoverboards and AI, which do not and are not.
-off my lawn.
"I have the best hyperbole ever, believe me!" (Score:1)
The existing ones are probably capable of launching small payloads out of the Solar System using
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"Unicode mangling" mangled the quote. Here's a cleaned version:
Correction (Score:1)
In related news ... crew announcments. (Score:2)
Musk also announced the initial crew [wikipedia.org] and alternate crew [wikipedia.org] selections.