There have been numerous upgrades in the entire spacecraft after the first failure. SpaceX,
has learnt a lot from their mistakes and for their second orbital flight of Starship, they have made
over a "1000 upgrades" in the spacecraft. Many companies are awaiting to see a successful
launch of the Starship as they have signed several deals with SpaceX
regarding the use of their Starship. In fact, NASA is also the one in queue.
The previously used reusable starship's Ship 24 and Booster 9 were completely destroyed by
its self-destruct system which was expected to work even faster. Somehow, SpaceX manages
to understand the problem with the Spacecraft and that's why they sent the command to destroy it.
In the newly built Starship 25 and Super heavy booster 9, they made many
changes that are going to blow up your minds. It's well known that the company had faced a huge
destruction at the launch site which was exactly the main problem they have been facing.
The company was already having the upcoming prototypes for the upper stage
and boosters for the Starship, so they didn't fear commanding the Starship for self-destruction.
20th April, only one thing came to SpaceX's fans after hearing this date. And, that was
the failure of the most awaited starship project. The SpaceX fans, as well as the company's CEO,
have full faith that the company is going to make the next Starship flight very soon.
But, that is not going to be easy. It's always necessary to learn from your mistakes and
SpaceX proved this. They have made numerous upgrades in the next prototypes so that they
don't face the same issues again. During the first flight, they mainly
faced two issues, which were the separation of Starship Upper stage and the Super Heavy
Booster and the second one being the less engines working and producing less power.
The Starship was supposed to separate after 3 minutes of flight but it kept on joined with the
booster upto 4 minutes. This problem was a big one and for this the company's CEO, Elon Musk,
has planned to use the hot staging technique for the upcoming launch.
The company has planned to continue firing the Booster's engines and at the time when
they'll start to turn them off, the upper stage engines will start to fire up. This
will also provide a centrifugal force which in turn would result in an easy separation.
But, there is a big problem with this… stay tuned till the end to uncover that.
The second major problem was with the booster engines. It was that 30
out of 33 engines were working and the other 3 experienced a power cutoff.
The multiple raptor engines which were used in the booster were the V2 raptor engines
with 250 bar pressure and 280 tons thrust. At the time, S25 and B9 were under development,
there was also a secret weapon which was under development. And that was,
none other than Musk's stated Raptor V3 engine.
The raptor V3 engine has performed well in his tests and achieved a record breaking 350-bar
combustion chamber pressure and 269 tons of thrust during a 45-second McGregor test ignition.
Moving back to the upper stage, Ship 25. It is just an upgraded version of the Ship
24 Starship. No specific changes have been made to it. As the Ship 24 has heat tiles,
so does this. But, as it is SpaceX's build, it must have a better design and looks.
Ship 25 is covered with heat tiles all the way to the windward side. And you know why the heat
tiles are aligned this way? It is just because to ensure that no more destruction happens to
the Spacecraft. Yes…
The heat tiles provide an extra safety to the entire vehicle so that it can
easily return to the atmosphere of earth without eventually catching a fire.
The Ship 25 had already gone under many tests including the first proof
tests starting from November 1, 2022. It passed three tests in which all its tanks
were filled with the liquid nitrogen back in November 2022. The same test was again
performed well by the S25 in May 2023. On June 14, the tanks of the upper stage
prototype were loaded with the propellants so that its ignition initiation test must start.
In this upgrade, they activated the Raptor engines with liquid oxygen turbopumps.
They also performed the test for this upgrade but they didn't test out the extreme level of
ignition because that test needed to be aborted due to some reasons. The test was re-performed
on 21 June and was completed well. And to the very present, on 26 June,
the prototype had finally completed its static fire test and this time,
all its 6 raptor engines performed well. The static fire test was eventually done at the
launch area at 00:27 UTC. All its six raptor engines, of which three are sea level raptor
engines and the rest 3 are raptor vacuum engines, were turned on for just 6 seconds of time.
Ship 25 is on its suborbital pad B at the moment and was transferred here right at the
time when its test campaign began. So, this was just the upper stage,
I guess? Right? Now, it is the turn for the most upgraded part of the Starship,
its highly upgraded part both physically and technically, The SUPER HEAVY BOOSTER 9.
The most notable upgrade in the booster 9 is the removal of its hydraulic power units. Well, what
is it? All the 33 raptor engines of the booster 7 were powered with the thrust vector control which
was initially powered through hydraulic units. Now, in the booster 9, it is changed to the
electric controls. The electric control system also provides an exclusive easy movement of the
13 out of 33 raptor engines. This is because the 13 engines are mobile and might help change
the direction of the entire vehicle. The outer 20 engines are completely fixed
and they will provide a better upward thrust than before after the upgrades are done.
Many of the hardware parts have been changed with the booster. The liquid methane pipes which are
required for the gimballing of the engines are now relocated to the thrust puck.
This in turn, would simplify the process of reassembling the 33 raptor engines and
thus saving more time. More and more technical upgrades have been done in the Super Heavy Booster
9. Various vents modification is also done. If everything went well with the Booster 9 testing
and its combination with the S25, then this will become the SpaceX's first booster to reach the
orbit with the Starship as Booster 7 was blown up in the mid sky without reaching the orbit.
You remember, I told you to watch till the end as there was one major problem the company can
face while using the hot staging process? And, it was with the booster. The Raptor sea
level engines in the Ship 25 are so powerful that it might affect the Booster's body because as
planned, they will turn them on with the booster attached to the upper stage.
And so, for this, the company has been planning to develop a shield over the
booster to protect it from the fire of 6 Raptor engines of the upper stage.
It's still not disclosed whether all the six engines will be fired at the
same time for hot staging or not. The upgrades at the launch pads are also
must as the first flight gave it a severe damage and so it requires design changes as well.
For that, the company has come up with an idea of building a water steel plate at
the bottom of the Orbital Launch Mount, so that it cools down the beat exhausted
by the 33 powerful raptor 2 engines. It's not an easy task to do in a period of just
2 months, but the company proves that anything is possible and that's what they did. Ready with
all the equipment, Ship 25 already shipped to the launch pad just the booster shipping is left.
FAA permission is also required and that might be also given very soon.
What we are ending this video with is the news that both Ship 25 and Booster
9 are going to be the very first ones to actually possess hot staging.
Let's have a talk in the comments on the newly established V3 raptor engines, and do you want
a separate video on V3 raptor engines? Let me know in the comments!!