BFR FLIGHT TEST TO BEGIN IN 2019
BFS FIRST ORBITAL FLIGHT IN 2020
SpaceX will be testing BFS sometimes late next year and possibly start first orbital flight tests in 2020!
SpaceX has confirmed that the two large propellant tanks now present at its Boca Chica, Texas facilities will likely to be the last major ground tanks needed to enable the first test flights of the upper stage of its next-gen BFR rocket, known as the Big Falcon Spaceship (BFS). Expected to begin as soon as late 2019, SpaceX executives have recently reiterated plans for a campaign of hop tests for the first full-scale spaceship prototype, in which the ship will follow in the footsteps of its Falcon 9-based Grasshopper and F9R predecessors.
While there may have been some slight uncertainty before, this official statement confirms beyond the shadow of a doubt that SpaceX is actively and rapidly preparing its South Texas property for a future of BFR-related tests, spaceship hops, and perhaps even launches.
Big Falcon Spaceship is 2nd stage of the BFR system, the spacecraft is 55m tall, and weights more than 85 ton when empty, powered by 7 powerful raptor engine, the spaceship will eventually take first manned mission to Mars sometimes after 2025, could be as early as 2028.
BFR rocket booster which will undergo similar tests in 2020, is capable of delivering between 150 and 175 tons of cargo in to LEO, or 100 tons to Mars. SpaceX plans even larger version of this rocket sometimes in future, if there’s a demand, no specs on the larger version of BFR yet, but it is likely to be similar in specs to MCT or Mars colonial Transport, capable of lifting between 250 and 300 tons in to LEO or delivering up to 160 tons of useful cargo to Mars.
BFR will eventually become the workhorse of SpaceX fleet, and Elon Musk hopes to reduce to launch costs from present $50 million for Falcon 9 launch, which comes down to around $2200 per kilogram in to LEO, to around $1000 or less with BFR. Elon Musk hopes to achieve economy of scale, and reduce the cost of getting things in to LEO.
In 2016, Musk pegged SpaceX’s launch cost for a BFR-style fully-reusable rocket at less than $1M per launch for booster and spaceship maintenance alone, or $3.3M per launch with amortization and propellant estimates included.
The tests will serve as a stepping stone to the ultimate goal of sending humans to Mars. Musk said in an October 2017 Reddit “ask me anything” session that tests will start “with a full-scale Ship doing short hops of a few hundred kilometers altitude and lateral distance,” stating because the tests are “fairly easy on the vehicle, as no heat shield is needed, we can have a large amount of reserve propellant and don’t need the high area ratio, deep space Raptor engines”.
The facility is a key part of SpaceX’s future plans. While the company currently leases three launch facilities from the United States government, the privately-owned Boca Chica spaceport would mean the company would have full control over its launch plans. At the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, in March, Musk suggested that an orbital launch of the BFR could come as soon as 2020.
I’ll be making a BFR video soon, I just need more data and latest specs, as SpaceX tends to revise designs a fair bit. In my humble opinion, it’ll instrumental for SpaceX to be the first to launch BFS and BFR, to prove to NASA the BFR is viable and a lot cheaper than SLS, currently being developed by the Boeing. Although SLS will have some parts that are re-usable, it is estimated each launch will cost in the region of $500 million, when compared to BFR’s probable $55-80 million per launch, NASA will have only one choice, BFR.
American Pie: The Movie 
