The new SpaceX prototype rocket is getting closer to liftoff and could signal a breakthrough in space exploration. The massive, fully-reusable Starship rocket, which could have its first test flight in a few months, was developed to take people and cargo to the moon and Mars. Starship is also expected to be used to launch SpaceX’s next wave of Starlink internet satellites. Straight Arrow News contributor Newt Gingrich says exploring the cosmos has never been more viable. He predicts that Elon Musk and SpaceX will get us closer to Mars with their new rocket in 2023.

It’s actually going to be able to go to the moon, land, and take off from the moon. It’s designed ultimately to go to Mars. And I think as a result of this, which they’re going to test in the very near future, we’re going to see a breakthrough in the cost of moving things into space. Probably a drop in cost that may be as much as a factor of 100. 

The result is going to be a routine, regular, everyday process, sort of the beginning of a reliable space transportation system. It’s like watching going from the Wright Brothers and their little bitty airplane, which initially flew shorter than the wingspan of a Boeing 747, to 20 or 30 years later, having the beginning of commercial aviation. 

Well, we’re about to see the beginning of a reliable commercial space system, and a system that has the sheer power to get us both to the moon and to Mars, and to the asteroids. And that’ll be the beginning of mining and space, the beginning of exploring Mars, and the beginning of developing, real scientific work and potentially real industrial work on the moon. 

So 2023 may be the biggest year in space, and the turning point in human beings being able to operate off of the planet, at a reasonable price and with constant regularity.