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Today amongst other things I’ll explain to you, what’s going to go on inside the SpaceX Starship on the upcoming 15-kilometer flight in detail.
Packed with information and animations to illustrate it, we’ll cut it open and look at all the parts in detail.
How does fueling work? when exactly are the COPV’s used and what exactly is a liquid cooled nozzle on a Raptor engine?
And finally, we’ll give Cargo Dragon v2 a good look before the upcoming CRS-21 launch!
This caption was done by Splitsecond Mom
My name is Felix, and I am your host for today’s episode of What about it!?
And as always, there’s been a lot going on in the Space industry lately,
so let’s dive right in!
Starship Updates
Hello WAI Family, SpaceX is teasing us!
When I put my Starship 15-kilometer flight stream online on Sunday there were 350 people waiting instantly.
24 hours before it was supposed to launch.
Trust me, we feel the same way on the What about it!? team.
We can’t wait anymore.
That’s why we decided to launch it anyway.
So stick with me until the end, this will be a good one!
Mauricio from RGV Aerial Photography has done it again and right at the perfect moment too.
His Aerial footage is still the best out there, when it comes to analyzing what exactly is happening on the ground.
Check out his Patreon, become a flight supporter and follow him on Twitter for almost daily picture releases!
And of course, we’re looking at the South Texas launch site again.
The place, where we’ll hopefully see the first real Starship launch in human history this week!
Everything down there is in crunch mode and has been for the last 18 months or so.
Starship Serial Number 8, the first flight worthy prototype.
With a first set launch window ranging from November 30th to December 2nd there was a chance, it could have lifted off early this week.
This is now most likely going to be late this week.
Michael Baylor from Nasa Spaceflight managed to get a response that made the bubble pop.
Just a static fire on Monday and flight no earlier than Wednesday.
NO STATIC FIRE. TEST CANCELLED
And if it doesn’t perform on the launch day, SpaceX is on the safe side by now.
Starship Serial Number 9 is fully assembled.
While SpaceX was busy at the launch site, getting Serial Number 8 flight ready,
a second team at the construction site finished the backup plan.
Starship Serial Number 9.
More mature engines, more robust wiring, different stacking approach, this time at the construction site to make the nose cone seal better.
In a nutshell, if SN8 fails, SN9 will have a better chance.
If SN8 succeeds, SN9 might even be able to top it.
If you’re a SpaceX fan, you don’t have to wait long to get your next moment of glory.
Starship Serial Number 9 will be the first prototype to be transferred to the launch site in one piece.
Another testament of their confidence.
And whatever it is, they’re working on at the orbital launch mount, it seems to be coming along nicely.
It’s been puzzling the community for a while now.
The new construction effort next to the orbital launch mount, supposed to give SpaceX the ability for a first Starship flights into space.
The fuel lines from the tank farm have been extended almost all the way to the end of the launch site now
and the large building next to the launch mount is growing larger every day.
And we're not smarter every day.
In a written re-evaluation released to the public in June 2020, SpaceX is describing the latest planned expansions at the orbital launch site.
SpaceX is loosely categorizing the efforts in Boca Chica into three phases.
What you’re looking at here, is phase 1& 2.
Starhopper and Starship tank sections doing small to medium hops.
We’ve all seen it and for the most part it worked out nicely.
The infrastructure that was needed for this phase was not that much and so the environmental impact was rated rather low.
Now we’re slowly entering phase 3.
Larger flights up to 15 kilometers and later orbital flights.
For this the needed infrastructure naturally has to grow too.
It’s just a very crude schematic, but it shows very well, what SpaceX is planning.
The new launch mount.
Two commodity storage areas and a new crane staging area.
Looking at RGV Aerial photography’s footage again, we can extrapolate what’s planned and where.
In theory, there should be a tank farm right next to the launch mount.
In the evaluation it’s called “new commodity storage area”.
It should be here.
On the other side, facing the road we have yet another commodity storage area and a large crane staging area.
And we can learn a few very interesting things from this.
At least according to this mockup, SpaceX is planning two new tank farm areas close to the new launch mount,
the staging crane will not be close to the launch mount contrary to all the earlier concepts done by SpaceX
and we actually get a very crude model of what the orbital launch mount is supposed to look like!
Angled surfaces covering the outside and, in the middle, what looks to be a flame diverter.
If this still is SpaceX’s plan, it would certainly be much safer!
Now, Musk has already tweeted after the release of the re-evaluation document in which this concept can be found,
that SpaceX is not planning a flame diverter for the orbital launch mount right now, but that this might turn out to be a mistake.
So, really everything can still change!
Thank you, Corey for providing us with these renders!
Make sure to follow him on Twitter for many more awesome renders!
Was SpaceX originally planning the orbital launch mount with a flame diverter and then has changed the plans?
And if so, what motivated them to make this change?
Or will there be a diverter after all?
One possible reason for leaving out a diverter would definitely be that SpaceX is not planning this for Boca Chica.
A fully built Starship and Super Heavy launch from the orbital launch mount.
Lighting 28 Raptor engines without any sort of diverter will most likely not work
after the problems we’ve already seen with only three Raptors firing for Starship Serial Number 8’s static fires.
28 of these beasts would have more than 9 times the thrust.
SpaceX building a flame diverter or not will undoubtedly give us a clue as to what’s planned for Boca Chica.
If you want to read more about it, a link to the FAA re-evaluation can be found in the video description!
For the second part of today’s Episode we’re just not going to wait any longer.
I can’t wait anymore.
The WAI team can’t wait anymore and many of you can’t either.
We’re going to launch Starship Serial number 8 on our own with a little help from Nick Henning and C-bass Productions!
Go follow them on Twitter and if you can, become a patron!
It helps them immensely!
We’re going to look at the upcoming launch in-depth, cut open the Starship, and look at what’s going on inside, while the Starship is in flight.
There have been many questions in the past, so let’s try to get rid of as many as we can before the actual launch,
so you understand as good as possible, what’s happening while watching it with me!
This is Starship Serial Number 8 on the test pad.
The latest SpaceX Prototype and our candidate for the 15-kilometer flight.
Nick, Cory and I have been working on a full flight sequence to show you, what happens on the inside during a flight.
Let's open it up, and see, what we find on the inside!
On the bottom we have the thrust section.
Engine Skirt with COPV’s and engines inside, connected directly to the thrust puck and the aft dome.
Then comes the LOX tank.
Inside of it we can see the downcomer.
It’s a large steel tube connecting the methane tank on top with the engine section.
Right between the lox and the Methane main tanks we have a so-called header tank.
In this case the methane header tank.
On top we have the main methane tank followed by the fairing skirt with more copv’s inside and the nose cone.
All the way on top inside the nose cone we have the second header tank for the liquid oxygen.
So, what exactly happens before launch and while the Starship is on the test stand.
How are the tanks filled up and what kind of preparations are done?
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Roughly 45 minutes prior to launch fueling starts.
First the lox tank to give it stability through pressure.
It will need to hold the whole starship including the filled methane tank up in a moment.
Once fueling in the lox tank has started, the valves for the methane tank are opened up as well and the fueling of the header tanks is starting too.
Nitrogen has also been fueled into the lower COPV’s, because they will be needed soon.
This fueling process lasts until only minutes before launch.
But for the 15-kilometer flight the Starship will not be completely filled up.
It only has 3 engines and Starship including propellant would be around 1320 tons of weight.
So, we can expect the tanks to be filled up around a third of their maximum capacity.
Once done the fuel lines on the bottom are closed and the Starship is physically disconnected from the tank farm.
Engine chill begins.
Liquid oxygen is released into the pipes of the engines at a low flow rate to let them cool down slowly.
By letting the engines cool down slower, the stress on the material is kept at a minimum.
Now, we’re approaching T-0.
Right before ignition the COPV’s inside the engine bay are opened up to spin up the raptor fuel turbopumps.
And that can be seen as a kickstarter.
The pressure inside the COPV’s is much higher than in the main tanks and this gives the turbopumps the right amount of spin to be able to start up.
Once ignition has occurred, the Raptor Turbo Pumps take over and start sucking oxidizer
and fuel out of the main tanks at a ratio of 78% liquid oxygen and 22% liquid methane.
We’re talking 300 bar chamber pressure and an exhaust velocity of 2 miles per second here.
An incredible engine!
That’s a total flow rate of roughly 900 kilograms per second or almost a ton per engine
of which only 200 kilograms are methane and around 700 are liquid oxygen.
So, the LOX turbopump has a flow rate of more than three times that of the methane turbo pump.
Immediately after the preburners inside the turbo pumps have ignited,
the methane turbo pump starts sending liquid methane through the engine bell to start cooling it down.
Where on a Merlin engine the bell is cooled only by radiation,
the Raptor engine bell is cooled down using the very cold methane to prevent it from overheating.
In addition to that the Starship has an autogenous pressure system.
Meaning that it repressurizes the main tanks with the help of gaseous oxidizer and propellant directly from the engines.
This enables SpaceX to get rid of the otherwise needed helium pressurization system used for example on the Falcon 9.
600 tons of thrust propel the Starship upwards.
The tanks on Starship Serial number 8 will only slightly be filled for the 15-kilometer flight,
but even that is enough to launch it to a height of 15 kilometers.
Once main engine cut off occurs, the Starship drifts upwards to 15 kilometers.
Reaching the apogee, the Starship will make first use of its RCS thrusters to swing over and get into skydive mode.
Throughout the fall we might see more RCS firing from the COPV’s to adjust for a not yet perfect flap control.
At a height of around 400 to 350 meters above the pad the Starship will enter the final landing phase.
With the help of its RCS system and the Raptor engines set to maximum gimbal level the Starship swings around.
At this stage the Raptor engines are not fueled through the main tanks,
as the propellant in there is not at the bottom of the tanks and thus can’t be accessed.
Instead, the engines tap into the much smaller header tanks for this final burn.
And at this low speed the flaps are useless and so the Starship only uses RCS thrusters
and the thrust vector control from the Raptor engines for flight corrections until it hopefully sticks the landing.
Again, massive thanks to Nick and Corey for their work!
Incredible animations!
Do you have more questions about the internals of Starship Serial Number 8?
Write them down in the comments and I’ll try to answer as many of them either right away or on an upcoming Episode!
Cargo Dragen V2 CRS-21 ready for lift off!
Last but not least for today’s Episode we’re going to take a look at the upcoming CRS-21 launch featuring the first ever Cargo Dragon v2 capsule!
Lately a lot of attention has been given to the new Crew Dragon capsule and rightfully so.
It’s been a major milestone for SpaceX, the US and the rest of the world.
With two successful launches in the books by now, let’s take a good look at the upcoming CRS-21 mission
and Crew Dragon’s sister, Cargo Dragon v2
This is it.
The Cargo Dragon v2 slated to launch on SpaceX’s commercial resupply service mission 21 on December 5th.
And it’s a major step forward in every regard.
A completely new spacecraft frame based on the same Dragon v2 design that Crew Dragon utilizes.
Planned for 5 reuses, which is two more than the old Cargo Dragon design,
it will be able to launch cheaper and carry more supplies for the International Space Station.
Very similar to a crew Dragon on the outside, it is a very different vehicle on the inside.
Capable of carrying 50% more cargo per flight than the old cargo dragon and including an unpressurized cargo section in the trunk.
Changed avionics, different external trunk design, different power supply, thermal control
and software design are only a few of the changes done compared to Crew Dragon.
Needless to say, this is a very important mission for SpaceX and NASA.
And even the cargo shows the dawn of a new space age.
Packed full of cargo and science meant to catapult humanity to the Moon and to Mars,
even the ISS is getting ready for a new chapter in spaceflight.
Bioasteroid, a follow up mission from Biorock, meant to study biological resource extraction on Mars and on Asteroids.
Hemocue, a science experiment to give the ability to diagnose Astronauts in Space.
What’s normal on Earth is something we can’t do in space yet.
Blood screening on the ISS.
Nanoracks is sending a privately built airlock to the ISS.
Featuring a detachable compartment, it will enable the Astronauts on the ISS to separate much larger volumes of nanosatellites directlyfrom the ISS
and with external payload mounts it will be capable of hosting external payloads on the airlock itself.
And that’s only a tiny fraction of what’s going to be on CRS-21.
SpaceX is expanding spaceflight capabilities almost on a monthly basis with new milestones in rapid succession.
I will of course stream the launch hopefully on Saturday and watch it together with you.
Make sure to set your reminders.
This will be yet another first in 2020!
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Last but not least, today’s team shout out goes to Susi for absolutely outstanding efforts in the captions team!
I relayed many messages from you directly in the comments to her in the past few weeks.
She’s the one to thank for Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and French captions.
As a former translator, she pours her heart into this, enabling many more to watch our episodes.
Everyone, please leave her a comment.
You’re incredible.
Thank you, Susi!