Hello, we are TheSpaceXFans and welcome to TheSpaceXShow, the place where you can stay
up to date with everything SpaceX.
We have a small piece of SpaceX news to look at first in this video.
An article was posted recently by SpaceNews with SpaceX being awarded a new contract.
The company will be given $150 million to launch as many as 28 satellites for the Space
Development Agency.
It says the agency estimates the satellites will be ready to launch in late 2022.
We have a few bits in Boca Chica, the construction around the orbital launch pad is continuing.
Here’s a closer look at some of the work.
Some shipping containers were also seen being placed over there.
A new mobile office building was placed next to the bunker structures.
For this video, we have a lot of tweets related to Super Heavy, starting with somebody who
tweeted an animation of Super Heavy landing to Elon Musk.
Musk responded with some big info regarding the booster by saying “We’re going to
try to catch the Super Heavy Booster with the launch tower arm, using the grid fins
to take the load”.
In response he was asked a bunch of questions such as “What implications does this have
for droneship landings?
Or will all Starship droneships essentially be fully fledged ocean spaceports, including
launch mount?”
He responded to that and just said yes.
In another tweet, Musk was asked “Will precision/stability of landing be the same or even better than
with legs?”
He responded with “Saves mass & cost of legs & enables immediate repositioning of
booster on to launch mount — ready to refly in under an hour”.
There was another tweet where somebody asked him “Too much material stress on the landing
legs for it to land on the pad by itself?”
He responded to that and said “Legs would certainly work, but best part is no part,
best step is no step”.
Somebody commented on the previous question and tweeted “Or he wants to "undesign" the
legs…”
Musk once again just responded with yes.
People have raised concerns about catching the booster with the launch tower using the
grid fins.
Somebody in a thread tweeted “Yeah, you could build shock absorbers into the launch
stand’s arms without having to worry about any weight penalty.”
Musk responded with “exactly”.
Finally for the Super Heavy tweets, somebody made and posted an animation of how the launch
tower could work to catch the booster.
Musk gave some more information on the launch tower by saying “Rocket motion is primarily
vertical, so you want the top open”.
So now, looking at Starship pieces, the new nosecone was seen moved outside recently.
It was not long before it was moved back inside.
With Starships progressing, some new flaps were seen arriving.
For SN8, some large pieces such as the nosecone still remain on the landing pad.
Looking at some SN9 related tweets now, Musk was asked about the header tank problem that
caused SN8’s demise.
More specifically he was asked “What exactly had to be addressed to keep the CH4 tank from
losing pressure?”.
Musk responded with “SN9 will press CH4 header tank with helium.
Long-term solution is under debate.
Not clear what is lightest/simplest.”
In response to the switch to helium, Everyday Astronaut also tweeted “Woah, you made a
switch TO helium that quickly between SN8 and SN9?!?
Amazing that you can just make adjustments on the fly…”
Musk responded and said “Production is hard, prototypes are easy.
Building ~1000 Starships to create a self-sustaining city on Mars is our mission.”
SN9 recently completed a couple of proof tests and is now being prepared to fire the engines.
As always, taking a look at the road and beach closures on the Cameron County website, the
dates remain unchanged.
We still have a primary date of tomorrow when I’m hoping they will perform a static fire.
However, with backup dates on Tuesday and Wednesday, we can possibly expect a bunch
of tests this coming week.
SN10’s nosecone was still hanging out in the high bay as they worked on the tank section.
Since then, SN10’s nose has been stacked and we now have another full size Starship.
Musk was asked about the possibility of seeing SN9 and SN10 both sitting on the pad together
in the next few weeks.
He said yes, which is super exciting.
We saw SN11’s tank section stacked last video and looks like the first piece of SN12
is also in the mid bay now.
Thanks to Brendan Lewis once again for creating an up to date Starship & Super Heavy status
diagram.
We now have 2 fully stacked Starships and a whole bunch of other prototypes in the works.
I always finish my videos by saying thanks to Mary, or BocaChicaGal for her time and
dedication filming the awesome Starship stuff.
Plus a thanks to the NASASpaceflight team working hard behind the scenes to bring us
the best space coverage.
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!