Here's your first look at Elon Musk's Hyperloop test track
Mike Nudelman/Business Insider
SpaceX has finally begun construction of its one-mile Hyperloop test track at its headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
Reddit user 42finder posted an image Thursday of the Hyperloop test tubes located across from the company's headquarters. SpaceX confirmed it was building the track.
Elon Musk's Hyperloop pod contest has been a long time coming.
Musk's company SpaceX, which is organizing and hosting the contest, originally announced the competition in June 2015. At the time, the company said that the final round of the contest would take place in Summer 2016. However, in July the company said that it was pushing back the contest to January 2017.
The Hyperloop, of course, is a futuristic transport system that carries passengers in capsules at speeds reaching more than 500 miles per hour.
Musk first proposed the idea back in 2013 and made his research public so others could pursue developing the concept. While Musk is not commercially pursuing the Hyperloop, SpaceX is sponsoring the contest to find the perfect Hyperloop pod design.
Teams that previously qualified will have the chance to shoot their pod down the company's one-mile test track.
According to contest documents obtained by Business Insider, the test track will be six feet in diameter, one mile in length, and will have a 12-foot long "foam pit" at the end of the track in case the pod's braking system fails.
Mike Nudelman/Business Insider
Check out what some of the teams' pods look like here.
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