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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk teases new Starship photos and “heavy metal” BFR

Drawn in by Teslarati photographer Pauline Acalin’s most recent photos of Port of LA Falcon 9 recovery operations SpaceX is in the midst of, CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter on December 8th to discuss titanium grid fins and – more importantly – answer a miscellaneous handful of questions about the status of BFR’s development.

Marked lately by rapid-fire, wide-reaching changes to BFR’s general structural composite, Musk at long last confirmed what some suspected – now known as Starship/Super Heavy, the BFR program has officially moved away from carbon fiber composites as the primary material of choice for the rocket’s structure and propellant tanks, instead pivoting to what Musk described as a “fairly heavy metal”.

But cool pics of the demo Starship that will fly suborbital hops coming in ~4 weeks.

Days after its launch from Florida

SpaceX’s #Dragon cargo spacecraft was successfully installed on the Earth-facing side of the International Space Station’s Harmony module at 10:36 a.m. EST. While there are now six spaceships attached at the station, the Dragon will spend about five weeks there and return to Earth in January 2019 with more than 4,000 pounds of research, hardware and crew supplies.

China Preps for Launch of Historic Mission to Moon’s Far Side on Friday

China is getting set to launch the first-ever surface mission to the moon’s far side.

The robotic Chang’e 4 mission is scheduled to launch atop a Long March 3B rocket on Friday (Dec. 7) at around 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT; 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 8 local China time).

If all goes according to plan, Chang’e 4’s lander-rover duo will touch down within the moon’s South Pole‐Aitken (SPA) basin after a 27-day flight, then study both the surface and subsurface of this region. [China’s Moon Missions Explained (Infographic)].

SpaceX Launch to Space

Click on photo to start video.

LIVE ROCKET LAUNCH! Tune in to see us send approximately 5,600 pounds of research and supplies to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket is slated for 1:16 p.m. EST from from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Don’t miss the countdown to liftoff!