Hello, we are TheSpaceXFans and welcome to TheSpaceXShow, the place where you can stay
up to date with everything SpaceX.
Today, we have a bunch of Starlink updates to kick off the episode, starting with the
Starlink-17 launch.
You can see on TheSpaceXFans website that lift off is expected on Saturday at 12:25pm
UTC or 7:25am EDT.
There was a tweet to do with some black pipe looking objects on the Starlink satellites
that were aboard the Transporter-1 mission.
Somebody asked what they were suggesting they might be lasers for communicating with one
another.
Musk responded and confirmed that they are indeed lasers.
Those 10 Starlink satellites are the first to be launched into polar orbit and Musk responded
to an article tweeted about it.
He said “These also have laser links between the satellites, so no ground stations are
needed over the poles.”
Somebody else tweeted about the laser confirmation and there was a response of “this is how
they communicate, their whole concept of operations”.
There was then a response to that tweet and from what I believe the abbreviations mean,
they were talking about SpaceX’s original concept of operations.
If I’ve got those abbreviations right, that first sentence says their original plan was
to have Starlink satellites communicate via lasers until SpaceX launched a thousand satellites
without said capability.
Then they said “Only now they are reinvigorating the concept of meshing satellites and that
will probably remain exclusive to the polar orbital planes until the sats in 55° planes
are replaced.”
Musk responded to this with “yup”.
Then in response to his own tweet, Musk posted “All sats launched next year will have laser
links.
Only our polar sats have lasers this year & are v0.9.”
There were a series of Tweets from space reporter Michael Sheetz.
The first of these said “SpaceX director David Goldman spoke with FCC officials late
last week, to discuss the company's proposal to modify some of the Starlink satellites
to lower altitudes and give a presentation with an update on the network's progress.”
Then he responded with a tweet saying “SpaceX says it plans to increase Starlink's download
speeds from ~100 Mbps currently to 10 Gbps in the future.”
Plus he also tweeted “SpaceX dismissed Amazon's protest of the modification as "attempts to
stifle competition", saying Amazon makes "misleading claims of interference".”
Musk responded with “It does not serve the public to hamstring Starlink today for an
Amazon satellite system that is at best several years away from operation.”
Then finally there was another tweet which said “SpaceX also emphasized an "ongoing
commitment to space safety," saying its operations are transparent to other satellite operators,
implemented automated collision avoidance, and Starlink satellites passively decay (i.e.,
fall out of orbit) faster due to "higher drag".”
To finish the standard SpaceX updates, there’s an article about an announcement from Axiom
Space.
The article says “The crew of the first entirely-private orbital space mission will
include the second oldest person to launch into space, the second Israeli in space, the
11th Canadian to fly into space and the first former NASA astronaut to return to the International
Space Station.”
Moving on, an interesting new truss like structure has been spotted being worked on in the production
yard.
Also spotted in the yard, this is apparently a Super Heavy pathfinder aft bulkhead.
Workers have been spotted inspecting the SN5 prototype.
On Tuesday, they pressure tested SN7.2 to test the new 3mm steel.
Musk responded to a tweet from LabPadre about it to which he said “Passed initial pressure
test.”
Next we can probably expect it to be pressure tested to the point of failure.
SN9 has yet to fly after we were expecting it to happen on Monday.
Michael Baylor posted a tweet asking wen hop.
Then in a tweet that caused a lot of confusion, Musk responded on Tuesday and said “We’re
hoping for FAA approval of a test flight tomorrow afternoon.”
Road closures were posted for testing on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and we were hoping for
SN9 to fly.
However, nothing happened on Monday even though the road did get closed at one point and then
Tuesday we saw SN7.2 tested.
There was also another closure scheduled for today but that has since been cancelled.
Looking at the temporary flight restrictions from the FAA, with no flight, Monday and Tuesday
were pulled.
New TFR dates were posted for tomorrow and Friday so hopefully we could see SN9 fly as
soon as tomorrow now.
Since getting flaps the SN11 nosecone was rolled outside as they prepare it for stacking
with the barrel section.
Also work continues on the SN11 tank as they get closer to attaching the body flaps.
Looking at Super Heavy booster number 1 progress, Jack Beyer posted a tweet with shots he took
of the thrust dome.
He said “Oh hey, Super Heavy Booster Number 1’s Aft Dome.
Looks like spots for four Raptors?
Neat.”
A new Super Heavy BN1 stack was also moved out of a tent.
It was then lifted and stacked in the high bay with the rest of the booster number 1
prototype.
As well as that, another booster section was lifted and stacked.
As always, a thank you to Mary, known as BocaChicaGal for being out all day every day to film Starship
stuff for us fans.
Also a thank you to the whole NASASpaceflight team working behind the scenes on the 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!