Hello, we are TheSpaceXFans and welcome to TheSpaceXShow, the place where you can stay
up to date with everything SpaceX.
Today’s episode should be the final video before the Demo 2 mission, so we will start
with that.
Then we have Starship updates, with SN4, SN5, SN6 and SN7, so lots of Starships today.
Let’s head straight in and get up to date…
Beginning with Demo 2 where SpaceX recently tweeted a cool video to commemorate the launch
pad.
Obviously LC-39A is one of the most historic launch pads and so SpaceX tweeted the caption
“Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon will lift off from Launch Complex 39A – the same place
Saturn V launched humanity to the Moon and from where the first and final Space Shuttle
missions lifted off”.
NASA have also tweeted “NASA and SpaceX officials have given the “go” for the
launch on a mission that will return human spaceflight to the U.S.”
There was also a series of tweets from Irene Klotz, an editor for Aviation Week.
There was recently an interview with Elon Musk in which Musk explained the biggest risk.
He said "The part that I would worry most about would be reentry, which won’t happen,
hopefully, for a few months from now.
With Dragon 1, we have a simple conic on the leeward side—essentially the back shell—of
the spacecraft, so it’s really quite symmetrical, with no particular protuberances or anything.
Whereas with Crew Dragon, because we have the escape thrusters side-mounted into the
back shell that creates an asymmetry.
If you rotate too much then you could potentially catch the plasma in the super Draco escape
thruster pods and could potentially cause either control disturbance or potentially
overheat things.
We’ve looked at this six ways to Sunday, so it’s not that I think this will fail.
It’s just that I worry a bit that it is asymmetric on the back shell & you could have
a strange sort or roll coupling as you come in if you turn too much.
I think this is low risk, but that’s what I would put as my biggest concern.”
I have been reading that there could be bad weather which may postpone the launch.
SpaceX themselves tweeted yesterday that weather was only 60% favourable.
However, if everything goes to plan, this vehicle should lift off today at 8:33pm UTC
or 4:33pm EDT.
Over to Boca Chica now where engineers have been doing further work on Starhopper.
Apparently what they’ve installed on the top here is a marine radar.
Also they appear to have installed something else onto a pole with other equipment such
as cameras.
In the construction yard, a few things were spotted including this new roll of stainless
steel.
This is 304L stainless steel and is used for very specific parts of the rocket.
Back in March Elon Musk was asked about the new 301 stainless steel switch.
Musk responded to say “Some parts will use 304L, as it has higher toughness at cryo temps.
Will move to internally developed alloys probably at the end of year.”
When Musk said internally developed alloys probably by the end of the year, he’s not
referring to this I don’t believe.
Apparently 304L is a very commonly used stainless steel but I’m no expert.
Also over by the new ring fabrication building there is a new tent going up.
I don’t remember seeing this tent before, but here’s the latest view of its construction.
Moving onto SN4 which is continuing to be prepared.
Last episode I talked about a possible hop soon, but turns out I was wrong.
From the same Aviation Week interview, Musk mentioned that the priority is Demo 2.
He said "I have redirected SpaceX’s priorities to be very focused on the crew launch."
Going on to say "As as rough guess, I think we’re a few weeks away from a hop."
So it looks like we’re going to have to wait before we get to see this machine fly.
However, here is a great shot by Mary of the engine, Raptor SN20 which should perform the
hop.
Also spotted by SN4 is this interestingly welded block of steel.
Whilst I have no idea what this may be for I have read many suggestions as to its purpose.
It was also connected to this interesting metal box.
So, some have suggested maybe a counter-weight to the offset thrust that will be produced
by the engine.
Others have said maybe to simulate the weight of the upper rings and nose cone.
Finally on SN4, let’s take a look at the TPS tiles where we saw last episode that one
had gone missing.
This looks to me to be the stud welded approach to attaching them.
In my personal potentially inaccurate opinion, maybe stud welding is not the best.
I mean if the tiles are falling off without the vehicle even moving, seems like another
attachment method would be better.
Now, let’s take a look at SN5, SN6 and even SN7, yep that’s right SpaceX now have 4
prototypes which have sections.
There’s really not much new stuff to look at but here’s the latest view of SN5 in
the high bay.
You can also see the SN5 nose cone ring stack was still sitting there.
Until this happened, where the ring stack just decided it wanted to actually be a nose
cone instead of a nose cone ring stack.
This was apparently caused by the wind, and so you can see the need for the high bay.
SpaceX then used a crane to pretty much turn it back into a ring.
Maybe they’re going to just try and buff out the bends.
You can see here that they're still working on the nose cone and have polished it further.
For SN6, as we saw last episode, the ring stack for the tank is still sitting beside
SN5 in the high bay.
Then the lower bulkhead for the thrust section was also recently moved outside for sleeving
with rings.
As expected the ring stack was then sleeved with the bulkhead to create part of the SN6
thrust section.
Then finally, the newest member of the family has been spotted, SN7.
Still in the early stages, it’s crazy to see a stacked ring section for yet another
Starship.
It was somewhat expected with the SN4 delays, but looks like SpaceX could need to expand
their facility even more soon.
As always an enormous thank you goes to Mary, BocaChicaGal for the amazing footage and to
NASASpaceFlight for sharing it.
Also I want to thank SPadre for their great shots and livestreams of the area.
You’re all doing amazing and greatly appreciated work.
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!