Hello, we are TheSpaceXFans and welcome to TheSpaceXShow, the place where you can stay
up to date with everything SpaceX.
To kick off this video, there is news of the company called Intuitive Machines selecting
SpaceX to launch a lunar mission to the Moon.
This article on their website says “Intuitive Machines continues its mission to build a
cislunar economy with its third mission (IM-3) to the Moon that will launch on a SpaceX Falcon
9 Rocket.
The IM-3 mission includes a Nova-C class lander to land 130kg of payloads on the lunar surface.
It also has excess capacity on the launch vehicle that accommodates 1000kg of payloads
on a rideshare dispenser ring that deploys into a lunar transfer orbit.”
There is an article posted about 2 new ships spotted being outfitted for possible Falcon
9 fairing recoveries.
It says “A photo was shared in a Facebook Group that appears to show 2 vessels in the
midst of being outfitted.
The post shared a tip that SpaceX purchased these two ships for operations on the east
coast.
One of the vessels clearly brands a SpaceX logo, while the other is being worked on and
sharing the same color scheme.”
Gavin Cornwell posted a Tweet about this saying “I can confirm that SpaceX is building two
brand new ships.
Bob and Doug are designed as an all-purpose solution to tow and support droneships offshore
and also recover fairing halves.
The ships have been under construction in Louisiana since May and are due in Florida
very soon.”
Michael Sheetz posted a Tweet saying “NASA's Inspector General says delays in spacesuit
development are another factor making a 2024 astronaut Moon landing impossible.
With $420M spent and another $625M expected, suits won't be ‘ready for flight until April
2025 at the earliest.’”
Musk responded and said “SpaceX could do it if need be.”
Tom Mueller responded to Michael Sheetz’ Tweet with “I think we developed Falcon
9 and cargo Dragon for less than $1B.” Musk then responded and said “Yeah.”
Over in Boca Chica, here is a view of the orbital tank farm construction.
The yellow structure at the launch site continues construction and is now being painted black.
Work on the other structure at the launch site for the launch tower also continues.
The cryo tank shell work continues at the propellant production site too.
A cryo tank shell was rolled out to the launch site.
There was also this label spotted on the cryo tank shell.
The cryo tank shell was also hooked up to the crane for sleeving.
You will likely know about the whole HLS awarding fiasco with the GAO recently denying the protests
from other bidders.
Christian Davenport posted this Tweet saying “Blue Origin just not giving up on the HLS
program.
Says the GAO’s decision highlights issues that “will prevent the U.S. from landing
on the moon” and says it is concerned about SpaceX needing 16 launches, with limited flight
readiness reviews, to get Starship to the moon.”
Musk responded to that and said “16 flights is extremely unlikely.
Starship payload to orbit is ~150 tons , so max of 8 to fill 1200 ton tanks of lunar Starship.
Without flaps & heat shield, Starship is much lighter.
Lunar landing legs don’t add much (1/6 gravity).
May only need 1/2 full, ie 4 tanker flights.”
Musk also posted another Tweet about this, saying “However, even if it were 16 flights
with docking, this is not a problem.
SpaceX did more than 16 orbital flights in first half of 2021 & has docked with Station
(much harder than docking with our own ship) over 20 times.”
Somebody posted a Tweet saying “All the things that we humans tend to fight for seems
so small and petty compared to the very thought of taking first steps on Mars.”
Musk responded with “What really matters for the longevity of civilization is making
life multiplanetary on a sustained basis.”
The ground support equipment tank, GSE-7 was recently stacked in the Mid Bay.
The heat shield tiles on the Starship 20 nose have a bunch of markings as they prepare it
for orbit.
Crews continue to work on Super Heavy Booster 4 on the launch mount as it prepares to move
back to the production site.
The Booster 4 prototype has since been moved off the orbital launch mount.
2 sections for Super Heavy Booster 5 have already been spotted.
To finish up today’s video, thanks to Brendan Lewis, we have an updated Starbase production
diagram.
As always, I have to say thank you to Mary, known as BocaChicaGal, who is out in Boca
Chica all day, every day, filming the amazing content.
Also, thanks to the NASASpaceflight team working hard behind the scenes on their great videos,
livestreams and other space content.
That’s it for this episode of TheSpaceXShow, I hope you enjoyed the video, if you did,
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Thanks for watching and have a great day!