Hello, we are TheSpaceXFans and welcome to TheSpaceXShow, the place where you can stay
up to date with everything SpaceX. Today we have quite a bit of SpaceX related news to
take a look at starting with a recent Falcon 9 launch. The Turksat 5A satellite lifted
off on Thursday evening or Friday morning depending on your timezone to kick-start SpaceX’s
launches this year. The booster used for the mission, B1060, flying for the 4th time, then
landed successfully on the droneship Just Read The Instructions. Something interesting
to also mention, this was SpaceX’s 50th flight of a previously flown booster. There
are a couple of tweets to look at from reporter Christian Davenport about the Crew-1 mission.
His first tweet says “NASA tells me the agency is looking at “potentially extending
the Crew-1 time on” the ISS in order to ensure continued US presence. Dates still
in flux, but If Crew-2 were to launch in April and Crew-1 were to come home in May that would
not leave much room in the schedule.” Then he also tweeted “If there’s a launch delay
that could make things real tight. As a result: “NASA is investigating several activities
that would provide us with more margin for the handover,” NASA says, including extending
Crew-1, which would be a real test for Crew Dragon.” The first SpaceX rideshare mission
in which dozens of small satellites will be launched together was expected this coming
week. However, there has been a slight mishap with integration of some of the satellites.
2 of the DARPA satellites scheduled to be launched on this mission were damaged at SpaceX’s
payload processing facility. The launch has now been delayed by a whole week by the looks
of it, whether the delay is related, I’m not sure. SpaceNews posted another article
about a contract which SpaceX was awarded previously but had to be paused due to a dispute
from other companies. The article says “Following a series of contract protests, the Space Development
Agency again awarded SpaceX a $149 million contract and L3Harris a $193.5 million contract
to each build four satellites to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles”.
As we saw last episode, tomorrow we can hopefully expect the departure of the Dragon 2 cargo
capsule which flew the CRS-21 mission. There is yet another article from SpaceNews about
the FCC granting SpaceX permission for a polar launch of Starlink satellites. It says “the
FCC will allow SpaceX to launch 10 Starlink satellites into polar orbit on an upcoming
mission, but deferred a decision on a much broader modification of SpaceX’s license.”
Looking at some Boca Chica bits, as always, work is continuing around the orbital launch
pad area. On Friday, Tankzilla was rolled back to the production area. Concrete work
has been going on at the entrance to the construction yard. At the old gas well lot area, a new
structure has been spotted. I want to share some fun info; Everyday Astronaut tweeted
about the restaurant area and how cool it is with the Mark 1 flaps, he thought it was
a tiki bar. Elon Musk responded and said “That’s actually our restaurant, but SpaceX is building
a futuristic bar at the top of the high bay with 360 degree windows & a glass floor looking
down on the rocket factory.” In response he was asked “Really, how does one get to
this bar when complete?”. Musk responded with “Catapult high into the air & land
on the roof with a base jumping parachute (the only way to travel).” He was also asked
elevator? And Musk said that too. Tim Dodd also asked who it would be available to, asking
“Probably employees and guests only, right?” Musk responded and said “I super support
public spaces around our production & launch sites, wherever it can be done safely and
securely. When covid passes, we will open up our restaurant to the public & figure out
ways to allow limited access to the High Bar.” Adding to it with “Was also thinking that
SpaceX Boca should hold fun parties and give tours for the community from time to time.”
Taking a look at another tweet, somebody asked Musk “Would it be possible to build a self-contained
Sabatier plant inside of a Starship so you don't need astronauts to set them up? So basically
like a permanent gas station on Mars, and have multiple landings for redundancy?”
Elon Musk responded and said “Yes, that would be the best way to do it. A large solar
field or reactor is needed for power, and then some ice mining droids or long maneuvering
drills are needed for the H2O. These are probably the trickier bits.” A new Raptor engine
was delivered, this is serial number 45. The 2nd prototype to fly to 150 metres, SN6 has
been chopped up and is now pretty much just an aft section. On Wednesday, SpaceX performed
the first static fire test of the SN9 vehicle. We were expecting another static fire on Friday
but it appeared to have been aborted. Looking at the Cameron County website, some new dates
have been posted for road and beach closures for testing. There’s tomorrow, Monday 11th,
Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th. I’m thinking that tomorrow we can expect a 2nd static fire
and Tuesday they may attempt to fly this prototype. Taking a quick look at the temporary flight
restrictions posted by the FAA, there are some dates for this coming week. There is
a TFR posted for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Whilst the altitude is stated as unlimited,
I think it’s unlikely we’ll see anything but a 12.5km flight. SN10 is now standing
in the high bay without the crane attached. SN15’s common dome section was seen moved
outside with lead-ins. The section was also moved into the mid bay, so the section in
the mid bay I thought was SN12 is actually SN15. Here’s a quick view of SN11 with SN15
next to it. Final thing for this video, thanks to Brendan Lewis again is an updated status
diagram for the Starship and Super Heavy prototypes. Quite a lot has been done to progress the
prototypes recently. It goes without saying but these updates wouldn’t be possible without
Mary, or BocaChicaGal going out every day to film this stuff so thank you. Also a thank
you to the NASASpaceflight team working behind the scenes on the videos, livestreams and
other great space content. That’s it for this episode of TheSpaceXShow, I hope you
enjoyed the video, if you did, make sure to hit the like button and leave a comment down
below. If you want to stay updated with SpaceX info, make sure to subscribe and press the
bell icon to get notified when I upload. Thanks for watching and have a great day!