SpaceX is finally building the orbital Starship!
When will it launch? China is closing in on the western launch industry!
And why is it so hard to found a launch provider?
Astra’s fight for a reliable Rocket!
Let's find out!
My name is Felix, and I am your host for today’s episode of What about it!?
And it feels so good to be saying this again after 3 weeks!
We're in the middle of our move preparations for Florida, for those who do not know!
Naturally, this takes up just a bit of our time.
So, bare with us while we make the biggest upgrade in WAI history.
Being on location!
SpaceX, of course, has been equally busy with their Starship development,
and an incredible amount of things have happened since we did our last video three weeks ago.
On March 16th, SpaceX workers accomplished another Starship stack.
Booster 4 and Ship 20 likely got together for the last time.
As predicted by the WAI team and me for almost 4 months now, Ship 20 and booster 4 will never fly.
It's old. As funny as it sounds, the most advanced, fully reusable rocket prototype to date is already obsolete.
There are multiple reasons for Musk's decision.
On March 21st, he stated the most obvious one.
Raptor 2. The first Starship orbital flight will be with Raptor 2 engines, as they are much more capable and reliable.
39 flight-worthy engines are supposed to be ready by next month.
Wait. This month. And that’s not an April’s fool quote.
Two more Raptor 2 engines have recently been delivered to the Starbase production site.
Even though you can’t see the entire engines in these sneaky pictures from Chief,
you can tell that those are Raptor 2 engines by the changed Gimbal design.
The joint is missing as it’s installed on the Rocket with Raptor 2 and not on the engines as with Raptor 1.
This is booster 7. It's the successor to booster 4, and it's got all the bells and whistles.
Capable of holding 33 Raptor engines, new header tank design for landing burns, new and updated COPV design with a chine placement along the sides.
If you're wondering why SpaceX changed the orientation, watch my last episode.
It's all about lift!
And Booster 7 has made its way to the launch site just yesterday.
Chief was on site and took these images.
Next we can expect cryogenic proof testing and after that is done and SpaceX is confident with all the changes made on the design compared to
Booster 4, SpaceX might use Booster 7 for the orbital flight.
All these changes are fundamental.
New engine, different tank setup, different aerodynamic concept.
Technically this booster largely is a new design.
That’s the reason for SpaceX not flying 420.
It simply doesn’t make sense.
Many have asked why SpaceX won't at least just launch 420 and get some valuable data out of it.
Why not test reentry, get some booster telemetry, test the engine setup?
It would be fun, right? The answer to all this is relatively simple.
It's not even sure if 420 could reach orbit at all.
Raptor one is an unreliable question mark.
An early prototype design. The engine setup is entirely different, especially with the new header tanks.
The Ship 20 heat shield is the first of its kind.
Never built like this before. Tiles are falling off regularly.
I’d be the first to say, heck, give it a go!
I would have loved to see it fly, but it simply doesn’t make sense from SpaceX’s perspective.
So, what’s next? How will SpaceX continue?
When can we see some flight action again?
We’ll have 39 flightworthy engines built by next month, then another month to integrate, so hopefully May for orbital test.
That's a pretty straightforward answer, but we all know that Prototyping is hard to predict.
Originally the orbital test flight was planned for last year.
On top of that, the FAA still hasn't greenlit SpaceX's plans for Starbase either.
The deadline for the ongoing review was recently extended to the end of April, and this is the third delay in a row.
It would fit Musk’s prediction of an orbital flight in May,
but he also stated before that even SpaceX doesn't have much information on how the evaluation is going.
The FAA seems to be very tight-lipped, and the only thing SpaceX can do right now is building and wait for them to state the verdict.
And that's what they're doing.
What would we do without Chief, the WAI cam operator?
On-site every day for team WAI, he takes pictures that are hard to grasp.
This is Ship 25's aft dome section while being flipped.
Freshly sleeved with ring segments, the aft dome shows an extraordinary amount of changes and improvements.
Those flower-like supports, for example, are entirely new and responsible for weight distribution.
To be more precise, they're part of the RVac mounts.
Ship 25 will fly to orbit. There's no doubt after these pictures.
RVac stands for Raptor Vacuum.
In the middle, you can see the fuel connections for the regular sea-level engines, and surrounding those, there are the three RVac mounts.
In his Tweets, Musk spoke about 39 Raptor 2 engines being ready and integrated by May.
33 for the booster and 6 for the ship.
Now, look at this. This is a pathfinder.
It's the fairing section of a Starship, and it has an opening right in the middle.
And it’s for something big. It's a unique tool for a special milestone.
Payload deployment. Now you might be wondering why the elongated design.
Starlink. Giant Starlink, to be precise.
This is a Starlink Satellite as we currently know them.
Roughly 3.2 meters by 1.6 and 20 centimeters thick.
60 of them are stacked and packed in a Falcon 9 fairing.
A very unique design approach.
Noone has ever dispensed Satellites like this.
SpaceX is aiming for 60 launches this year alone.
70% of the payload mass put into orbit by the entire planet this year will be launched by SpaceX, and most of it will be Starlink satellites. One stack at a time.
Now, SpaceX seems to be changing the separation process and, maybe even more importantly, the size of the satellites.
The current method has the whole stack separated as one massive payload, which splits into a swarm of satellites.
Due to the payload capability of Starship, which succeeds that of a Falcon 9 at least by the factor of 6 for Starlink Satellites,
SpaceX can do things differently.
Owe from SpaceX 3D Creation Eccentric has done an incredible job, showing the newly discovered Dispenser system at work.
This is what's hidden inside the Payload pathfinder filmed by Chief.
And this is what it could look like installed into a fairing.
Giant Starlink satellites slotted inside a revolver dispenser.
And this is how it could work.
Again, an absolutely unique design.
No giant payload doors for this Starship version.
Instead a unique tool. I had an episode… I don't know… almost 2 years ago,
when I called the Starship a swiss knife and talked about whole nosecone designs, SpaceX could specialize in different tasks.
Et voila! Here we go.
And more and more and more! This is the future of Starlink.
Just throw ‘em out there! Great job, SpaceX!
Musk is talking about 4200 operational Starlink satellites in 18 months.
Two-thirds of all active satellites of Earth.
Now, I don't think that the v2 Starlink satellites would necessarily be as large as Owe depicted them here.
It would also be possible for two stacks to be fitted into the dispenser.
The satellites would still be much larger, but there would be more.
We’ll have to wait and see, what SpaceX actually does,
but seeing the workers build the pathfinder for such a system gives us a good idea about future plans.
What do you think? Will we see such a system used this year?
What’s your thought on the dispenser concept?
Let me know in the comments!
Us moving our operations to Florida and right next to SpaceX's efforts at the Cape is a direct result of your help.
Every like, subscription, Patron, or channel member has pushed us a little further and enabled us to turn a dream into reality.
Thank you so much for all your help and for making us improve the channel more and more to what it is today!
You all rock so much!
China is not standing still either, quickly becoming number 2 in the global launch market.
And to solidify their position, they've just launched a new rocket design which has more than one first for the Chinese space program.
Long March 6a. This is it. The maiden flight on March 30th, so only days ago, marked the beginning of a new chapter for the Chinese space program. Hybrid rockets.
Long March 6a is becoming a member of a growing long march rocket family.
This, for example, is the Long March 5B.
A liquid fuel heavy-lift monster, rivaling the Delta 4 Heavy and Falcon Heavy by payload capacity.
25 tons to low Earth orbit. Large, expensive, and powerful.
An updated version will send Chinese astronauts to the Moon in the future.
But you can't always send the largest rocket you have, and that's where Long March 6 and 6a come into play.
Long March 6 has already flown and deployed payload several times.
No failures. 8 flights between 2015 and 2021.
It's a classic liquid-propelled kerolox rocket with a payload capability of roughly one ton.
So, it’s much smaller than the Long March 5b.
And this is where the A variant comes into play.
Four solid rocket boosters with a maximum thrust of 4800 kilonewtons do the trick in combination with two YF 100 engines instead of one compared
to the long march 6 and leave it a much more capable rocket than the 6 as demonstrated on March 29th.
According to the Chinese aerospace science and technology corporation or CASC, the two satellites on board were launched into space successfully.
China is venturing to space, and they're not intending to be left behind.
And we’re on to a newcomer! This launch happened two weeks ago, and due to me being busy with our Florida plans,
I couldn't talk about this yet.
But I believe that this was a significant launch, so let's look at what happened in detail!
Astra Space, a California-based rocket startup founded in October of 2016 and currently with around 100 employees, is working hard,
and hard work is paying off. The road to success is paved with failure for almost all rocket launch startups.
Six so far for Astra. This is normal when a young team ventures out to design a new rocket.
If this process of figuring out how to build a rocket takes too long, though, it’s easy to just run out of money and trust from future partners.
At some point, the rocket needs to deliver.
And in Astra's case, the clouds are moving away, and the stars are becoming more and more visible.
Launching out of Kodiak, Alaska, Astra has done it again.
Payload separation and the Portland state university must have been incredibly happy about this result.
Incredibly happy because it could also have been this.
Arguably one of the coolest looking failures in space flight history.
On August 28th of last year, Astra launched or tried to launch Launch vehicle 0006 with mixed results.
An engine failure shortly after launch caused the rocket to slide sideways.
Miraculously the rocket then ascended towards space.
At an altitude of 37 kilometers, the rocket then experienced another anomaly, and the flight ended after about 2 and a half minutes.
Then came Launch vehicle 0007, and everything started to look brighter for Astra.
Successful launch and delivery of Space test program 27AD2 for the US Space Force.
But if you think nothing could have gone wrong after this… let's look at LV0008.
NASA was next. The Elana 41 mission consisting of four CubeSats, was launched.
So far, so good. Then came Fairing separation, and a wiring error caused the separation mechanism to fire in the wrong order.
On top of that, the thrust vector system, responsible for course corrections, had a software issue.
Mission Failure.
As said, the road to orbit for a young launch provider can be incredibly tough to figure out.
Finally, on March 15th, Astra relentlessly tried again with Launch Vehicle 0009 and the Astra 1 mission.
Everything went perfectly. No anomalies, no problems, and a beautiful launch for Astra Space.
Dedication pays off, and hard work leads to success.
Coming up, Astra Space has three more launches for NASA in their books in April and May, one more for Spire Global in Q2,
two more for Planet Labs and their Flock Earth observation satellite constellation, and last but not least,
Spaceflight Inc has booked a multi-launch contract from Kodiak Alaska between 2022 and 2025 already.
If Astra Space can prove that their launch vehicle is reliable, there’s a bright future ahead of them in the SmallSat launch business.
Their trick to compete? Be cost-efficient and send up to 500 kilograms of payload to LEO at a competitive price point.
Good luck, Astra! It's a joy to see you succeed!
Today's video is supported by Brilliant.
I've said these words many times, so let's find out why Brilliant was my first and still is my monthly sponsor.
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Watching videos and reading text is a great way to gain a basic understanding of subjects, but to take your comprehension to the next level,
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Brilliant is all about interactivity.
Their classes and lessons are full of experimenting and experiencing the topics on your own.
And this is the most effective way of actually understanding and not just memorizing something.
How does heat flow work? One of the most critical topics when designing a rocket engine.
What is pressure, and how do different forces react to each other?
Ever seen a Starship blow up?
What is a reflection, and why are some surfaces reflective and others not?
Starlink streaks in the night sky.
Almost every topic in STEM is somehow connected to the Space Industry.
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Today, instead of the usual supporter shout-out, I want to take the time and thank the entirety of the WAI family.
Holding our US Visa in our hands after almost two years of preparation and over 400 pages of visa application made us realize more than ever that
the WAI family made all this happen for us.
Without you and countless others motivating us every day, sending us gifts, coming to meet-ups, shaking hands,
working on the team with ideas, and even managing WAI plus.
And, of course, supporting us on Patreon and here on YouTube as Channel members, all this wouldn’t have happened.
We want to let you know that you’re changing our lives.
You're turning our dreams into reality, and for that, we can not thank you all enough.
You're an incredible bunch of people, and it's a pleasure to be working for and with you!
You rock!
And don't worry, on the next episode, it’ll, of course, be my pleasure to butcher all the names of the new WAI family members as usual!