Lifeboat Foundation

It was just last month that Elon Musk took to Twitter to unceremoniously announce that he was changing the name of the crew module and rocket booster of SpaceX’s BFR rocket program to “Starship” and “Super Heavy,” respectively. Now, in another spontaneous update from Musk via Twitter, we’re getting our first good look at the Starship section in all its stainless steel glory.

In the early morning hours, Musk tweeted out an image of the top section of the spacecraft with the simple caption “Stainless Steel Starship,” before following up with a few additional details about the progress of the program.

Elon Musk said SpaceX is building a “test hopper” spaceship in Texas that could launch by March or April. The vehicle may help the company reach Mars.

Three days later, on Dec. 24, astronauts Bill Anders, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell became the first people to see the Moon’s far side, did a memorable reading from Genesis and took this famous Earthrise photo. Discover more about our #Apollo50 anniversary: https://go.nasa.gov/2EImzGq

Blast back to the past: https://go.nasa.gov/2EGhX3v

We’re returning to the Moon, to stay, and nine American companies will work on developing technologies to get there. Watch the latest episode of Watch this Space with NASA’s Administrator Jim Bridenstine to learn how we’re going forward to the lunar surface.

Lockheed Martin engineers wear the goggles to help them assemble the crew capsule Orion—without having to read thousands of pages of paper instructions.

2018 was a huge success! We launched a mission to “touch” the Sun, stuck another nearly flawless #MarsLanding, marked our #NASA60th anniversary of opening our doors for business, welcomed NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and began #Apollo50 celebrations! That’s just some of what happened This Year @ NASA — there’s even more at http://www.nasa.gov/2018.

In other words, they’re launching 🚀 to suborbital space! Liftoff aboard the Blue Origin #NewShepard reusable rocket is no earlier than 9:30 a.m. EST, Tuesday, Dec. 18. You can watch live on NASA Television: https://go.nasa.gov/2Es92Sc

SpaceX, Arianespace, and United Launch Alliance all are on the docket.