SpaceX CEO Elon Musk previewed plans for the company's huge reusable Starship rocket Thursday which he hopes to eventually fly to Mars.
Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla (TSLA), spoke from the company's launch facility in southern Texas with the fully assembled rocket in the background.
"Starship is capable of getting a million tons to Mars and creating a self sustaining city," Musk told an assembled crowd. "Mars is a fixer upper of a planet," he added. But "one day we could make Mars a planet like Earth."
Musk didn't offer specifics on when the first test flight will happen. The company is still awaiting FAA approval, which may come as early as March.
The fully assembled rocket stands 120 meters (393.7 feet) tall, almost 30 feet taller than the Saturn 5 rockets used to launch Americans to the moon more than 50 years ago.
The ship will have more than twice the thrust generated by the Saturn 5 according to Musk (17 million pounds vs. 7.5 million). That will allow it to boost 100 tons of cargo to low earth orbit and smaller loads to the moon and beyond.
The company is also slated to fly Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on a trip around the moon in 2023. Maezawa has said he wants artists and designers to accompany him on the trip.
SpaceX's Falcon rockets, which are a little more than half the height of the Starship, have become the default U.S. launch vehicle for maned missions. The company is also routinely using them to launch its Starlink constellation of low-earth-orbit satellites used to provide broadband services anywhere on the planet.
This week the company said more than 40 of the satellites from its most recent launch will be lost due to a massive solar storm.
