Musk wants to fly you anywhere in the world in less than an hour.
SpaceX continues to move toward developing passenger rockets. A plane ride from New York City to Shanghai usually takes about 15 hours – and it could be 29 hours with connecting flights. However, SpaceX says it could get you there in less than an hour with the so-called point-to-point travel. How realistic is this approach to long-haul travel, though?
Two years ago, Elon Musk revealed proposals for one of his most ambitious projects to date – intercontinental rocket flights for passengers. According to Musk, the Big Falcon Rocket (officially shortened to BFR) will be able to fly most long distance trips for under 30 minutes and to anywhere on earth in under an hour, with the cost roughly equivalent to an economy flight on a passenger jet.
The fully reusable system includes a booster stage and a spaceship that can carry about 100 passengers, able to fly a whole range of missions, from trips between world capitals like New York and Mumbai, and flying astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station in low Earth orbit and to the moon and Mars in deep space. The reusable rockets would have a maximum speed of 27,000 km per hour (16,777 mph).
An animated video released by SpaceX shows passengers embarking on the spacecraft by taking a boat to a floating launch pad. Once in orbit, the rocket would split from its booster and vertically land on another launch pad. Through re-usable rockets, Musk plans to dramatically bring down the cost of travel.
In addition, it is believed that if the obstacles to point-to-point space travel can be overcome, the service would represent an annual market of more than $20 billion.
However, some concerns about the technology’s safety have risen.
According to Money CNN.
