Elon Musk, a man prone to ludicrous deadlines, has birthed another: test flights of his Mars spaceship next year.
“I think we’ll be able to do short flights, up and down flights, some time in the first half of next year,” he told an audience at the South by South West (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas.
He said it was vital humans reached the Red Planet before the next “probable” world war.
A Mars colony, he said, would reduce the chance of an extended new Dark Ages if a nuclear conflict was to wipe out life on Earth.
But, aware of his reputation, he added: “Sometimes my timelines are a little… y’know.”
The BFR has recently started development and i doubt its fast completion .SpaceX is currently working on getting the Falcon 9 Block 5 ready. the Block 5 will be almost indefinitely reusable. But all this is very very exciting . Cant wait for the test flight of BFR.
More pressing to Mr Musk, and the investors that enable him, might be the backlog of orders for the Model 3, Tesla’s “affordable” new car. The company is still way behind on its production targets.
