Billy Markus, known on social media as Shibetoshi Nakamoto, who teamed up in 2013 with Jackson Palmer to create the iconic meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin, has taken to his account on the X platform to share his joy over Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s most recent major achievement.
Shibetoshi Nakamoto shared a video related to the launch of Starship this weekend. Other members of the crypto community have also shared their excitement on X (formerly known as Twitter), among them Bitcoiner and JAN3 boss Samson Mow.
We might just become a spacefaring species after all. 🚀 pic.twitter.com/ZFhwiuBTui
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) October 13, 2024
Markus comments on booster landing
Billy Markus commented on a piece of the video, where, after the launch of the Starship, the booster stage was caught by a pair of robotic arms on the SpaceX launchpad south of where the launch had been made.
IT WAS CAUGHT ARE YOU KIDDING ME SO INCREDIBLY COOL pic.twitter.com/FJI9eMIfUR
— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) October 13, 2024
This was the fifth test flight for the Starship. Sixty-five kilometers above Earth, the massive booster (71 meters long) separated from the ship and came back down, while the Starship itself went around the planet at the speed of roughly 17,000 miles per hour and then splashed down in the Indian Ocean, in accordance with the initial plan.
When falling back to the Earth, the booster used three of its engines to slow its escalating descent and moved towards “mechazilla” launch tower. There, it was caught and then held fast by mechanical arms, called “chopsticks.”
Elon Musk strives to make humanity interplanetary species
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who runs not only Tesla, SpaceX and X, but also several other innovative tech companies, has publicly stated many times that the only way he believes we can ensure the long-term survival of humanity is by making it an interplanetary race.
This, he clarified, can ensure that in case of any extraterrestrial catastrophe such as an asteroid hitting the Earth or a nuclear conflict between countries, at least the portion of humanity located on other planets will survive. The first target set by Musk for SpaceX is the red planet, Mars.
The SpaceX boss hopes that in two years, when Earth and Mars get closest to each other, SpaceX will launch crewless Starships to Mars. Provided that the ships land safely, in another two years, the first Starships with crews will fly to Mars to establish a sustainable city on its surface.