Elon Musk Is Very Confident Super Heavy Rocket Will Fly This Year, After Many Fails

JAKARTA - Elon Musk said on Thursday, February 10 that he is "very confident" that his new SpaceX Starship will reach Earth orbit for the first time this year. However, there are still a number of unresolved technical and regulatory hurdles for the craft designed to travel to the Moon and Mars.

SpaceX's billionaire founder and CEO invited news media and supporters to his company's "Starbase" facility in Boca Chica, Texas, for a presentation that combined a high-tech spirit rally with big-screen video and live Q&A opportunities.

It comes nine months after the California-based private space venture accomplished the launch and landing of the first Starship prototype rocket. The successful test flight came after four previous landing attempts ended in explosions.

Musk acknowledged the difficulties SpaceX faced developing the "Raptor 2" engine for its Super Heavy rocket. This rocket is a next-generation, reusable booster designed to put the Starship spacecraft into orbit. He mentioned the problem with melting in the engine bay due to the intense heat.

But he said, "we're very close to getting it done," and expects to increase production to about seven or eight engines a week by next month and produce a new Starship and booster every month by the end of the year.

"I feel at this point very confident that we will orbit (with Starship) this year," Musk said, as quoted by Reuters.

Such a timeframe would mark an ambitious feat, even for the unmanned orbital test flight of the Super Heavy/Starship combo, the next step up from SpaceX's current Falcon 9 rocket, which Musk says has flown 144 successful launches and 106 return landings.