San Francisco: Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has posted a new picture on Twitter showing installation of the rear wings on Starship Mk1, revealing a serious departure from the original design unveiled by SpaceX almost exactly a year ago.
“Adding the rear moving fins to Starship Mk1 in Boca Chica, Texas,” he tweeted.
Musk confirmed that the current design will involve several legs attached to the rear of Starship, separating the fin-leg combination shown in previous tripod-fin renders, Teslarati reported on Sunday.
As per report, Musk said that he had not completely ‘bought into’ the updated design, motivated by analyses that indicated that separating the legs and fins would actually be a lighter solution than combining them.
Similar to the 2018 design, the 2019 version of the Starship will have two actuating wings.
He also explained how the company is working relentlessly to get the spacecraft as close to a finished product as possible.
Last week Musk also tweeted construction updates for the Starship rocket. One of the images shown the vehicle, Starship Mk1, which is being assembled at SpaceX’s South Texas facility near the village of Boca Chica, in the background, standing behind a building that contains a variety of parts and other equipment.
The second photo he posted is of a large metal disc being lowered onto Mk1’s body. That he captioned as “Area 51 of Area 51”.