Will a Tesla car or truck transport a SpaceX rocket by the end of 2029?
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A SpaceX rocket has transported a car to space. Seems about time for Tesla to return the favor.

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Does towing a dragon capsule count?

How about a starlink satellite (complete with its hall thrusters so that it at least has a form of rocket propulsion)?

https://picryl.com/media/ksc-2011-7522-f61d27

Which parts of a rocket count here? Rockets are too big to transport assembled. The Falcon 9 is transported to the launch pad in three parts, the first stage, the second stage, and the payload and fairing assembly.

predictedNO

@ahalekelly Needs to be a whole rocket. The Tesla stunt would have been much less impressive if it were just a fender or something.

@IsaacKing Rockets are too big to transport assembled. Resolve NO

predictedNO

That's not true! The space shuttle was transported assembled to the launch pad. Anything is transportable in theory, you just need a stable enough platform.

SpaceX could also make a smaller rocket.

predictedNO

@IsaacKing Space Shuttle was transported without the fuel tank or boosters, that's roughly equivalent to transporting just the second stage + payload fairings of the Falcon 9. Each booster weighed 5x as much as the shuttle, the shuttle itself was only 5% of the total wet mass of the shuttle system.

SpaceX only has plans to make bigger rockets, not smaller. Starship can only be transported by barge, it's far too wide for the road. I would put the odds of SpaceX making a smaller rocket by 2029 at around 1%. And even just the two halves of the Falcon 9 fairing assembled are too wide for a road.

Maybe they could tow the transporter-erector the couple hundred feet from the final assembly building to the launch pad with a Tesla Semi, I suppose that would qualify?

predictedNO

@ahalekelly Yeah I'd count something like that. As long as one or more Tesla vehicles are providing the majority of the power and traction that's moving the rocket, that's good enough.

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