Elon Musk and SpaceX are dead set on establishing a base on Mars. And on the Moon. But first the famous, eccentric CEO and aerospace company are building a base here on Earth in Boca Chica, Texas. Really. It’s called Starbase, and the private aerospace company gives a brief visual overview of the “Gateway to Mars” in the inspiring video below.
SpaceX recently posted the video showing off Starbase to YouTube, with literally zero context. The aerospace company posted the same video to Twitter as well, simply noting the site will serve as the Gateway to Mars. (Incidentally, the more we say “Gateway to Mars,” the more we think of Stargate.)
In the video SpaceX shows a time-lapse of inchoate Starship prototypes moving through the production process. Starship, a 160-foot-tall rocket, is the company’s hope for much, if not all of its future goals in space. The rocket, along with its “Super Heavy” booster, measures an astounding 363 feet tall. And, once the fully formed rockets start rolling off the assembly line, each one—that’s in a “crew configuration”—will be able to transport 100 people from Earth into orbit. Per flight.
Despite the video’s brevity it shows some key production steps and Starship components. At just ten seconds into the video, for example, the rocket’s “Raptor” engines are on display. (According to Space.com Super Heavy will have 33 of the super-powerful engines, and Starship itself will have six.) Following the engines the video glimpses Starbase’s “high bay” structure; a spartan 265-foot-tall tower that shields Starships and Super Heavy boosters from the elements during assembly.
Speaking of assembly, the video ends with a giant crane placing a Starship prototype on top of a Super Heavy prototype. It’s hard to get a sense of scale, even with the relatively tiny cars in the video, but, needless to say, the rocket is huge. As in, as tall as the Saturn V rocket that took astronauts to the Moon. And while the jumbo SpaceX rocket isn’t quite ready for showtime yet, orbital flights should be coming soon. Along with a “futuristic bar” at the top of the high bay that people will get to via catapult. Because going interplanetary doesn’t sound extreme enough on its own?
