This Episode is brought to you by World of Warships.
We’re on the final stretch to SpaceX’s orbital Starship launch!
At the same time, SLS is getting ready for NASA’s Moon Shot!
Crazy, right? Let’s dive right in!
My name is Felix, and I am your host for today's episode of What about it.
SpaceX’s Starship is waiting impatiently at the Boca Chica Starbase for a launch!
Meanwhile, the SpaceX workforce is applying final upgrades to the launch hardware in preparation for the largest Starship milestone yet!
Starship Updates
It’s hydraulics time at Starbase, Texas!
And this is excellent news indeed!
These are all sorts of hydraulic actuators that got delivered to Starbase, Texas, in recent days.
And they are needed for a highly daring task.
These are required if SpaceX intends to catch a Starship Super Heavy booster on the first flight.
If not, they would not be needed.
Their purpose is to move the bar on which a booster is being caught out of mid-air up and down.
Without these, the chopsticks can stack a booster and a Starship, but they can’t catch them.
On August 15th, in the middle of the night, SpaceX workers performed fit checks with these actuators.
LabPadre had the cameras pointed at the workers, so we got a good view of what exactly they did.
There was no final installation yet.
On August 16th, work began upgrading the chopsticks for the catch attempt.
The information that SpaceX actually might attempt a booster catch came from their FCC filing last month.
In this, they described how exactly the first orbital Starship flight would play out.
Ship 24 will fly up together with booster 7. After separation, the Starship will continue on a ballistic trajectory,
likely separate one or multiple Starlink satellites, and then reenter above the pacific ocean and perform a soft water landing north of Hawaii.
Booster 7 will head back towards Boca Chica.
Now, if everything works out and the telemetry SpaceX receives from the booster looks OK,
the idea described in the FCC filing would be to attempt a catch on the first flight.
So, SpaceX outfitting the Chopsticks with actuators is a sign in this direction.
SpaceX might want to risk it and attempt a catch on that first orbital flight.
Bam!
We’re not far away from the launch anymore.
The only thing missing now is the finish line of the Static fire campaign.
Since SpaceX canceled most of their road closures for this week,
there was a slight delay on the expected Super Heavy static fire planned for the center engines.
After the rollback on August 12th, which Chief captured in fascinating close-up footage, the booster got transferred into the Mega Bay,
where SpaceX is right now installing the 13 center engines.
Elon tweeted out this stunning video on August 13th.
Burning the midnight oil, working on the center engine installation.
That’s SpaceX. No time wasted.
If we look at a still of the first frame of his video, we can see that at this point, the 20 outer engines were already uninstalled,
and at least 7 or 8 of the center ones were already installed.
That’s a day after rollback.
Under my retweet on Twitter, someone stated that it would likely take SpaceX weeks to install these engines.
And that assumption would be correct if we were talking about any other launch provider.
In SpaceX’s case, the whole launch system is optimized for fast processing and maintenance.
This is not the first time they have done this so quickly.
Seeing them repeatedly install engines so fast shows how well the system is already optimized for these kinds of tasks.
And what always amazes me the most is that besides that first orbital Starship flight, SpaceX is working on a myriad of other tasks simultaneously.
This is Booster 10’s forward dome.
It got sleeved on August 16th, and Chief watched them do it.
This is the High Bay and Ship 25 in it.
SpaceX has recently stacked the payload section, and now they’re busy applying final welds.
After that, it will be stacked onto the engine section, and another Starship will almost be ready for the second flight.
SpaceX is working on new stretch-formed domes.
The main difference here to the current design Starship and Super Heavy dome is that it’s simpler and flatter,
giving SpaceX more room inside the hull to work with.
Especially on the Starship forward dome, this is very useful as it will provide them with more Payload bay space!
And Mauricio from RGV Aerial Photography was able to take this picture.
SN28 FWD. It is the first-ever stretch-formed dome with a ship designation on it.
Even though SpaceX still has to test the new dome design with a test tank,
this one is already intended to be installed in Ship 28 and precisely in the spot I just mentioned.
The ship forward dome, giving SpaceX more fairing space!
Mind blown. This is not nearly all that SpaceX did on site since the last update.
Watch WAI Plus and become a Patron for daily updates that we couldn’t possibly fit into these main channel videos!
Next, we’re talking Kennedy Space Center, where we took fresh pictures for everyone!
So, as said in the beginning, this video is brought to you by World of Warships.
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Back to Florida! Love the place and so happy we moved here in April.
It allows us to take pictures whenever we need to and to get into SpaceX’s and NASA’s business for all of you!
These pictures are from August 17th.
SpaceX rolled out Tower segment number 7 on August 15th!
Only one week after segment number 6 was rolled out!
That’s record time!
This is Segment number 7 at the pad on August 17th.
SpaceX needed to extend the boom on their Liebherr crane to be able to stack even taller.
As we took the picture, the crane was already in motion for the stack!
Two more segments after this one, and SpaceX will have brought Mechazilla 2 to full height!
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Keep in mind that SpaceX stacked the very first segment on June 21st.
That’s not even two months ago.
If we project this into the future and add that the Mechazilla 2 segments already have much more hardware installed compared to Mechazilla 1 when
it was stacked, chances are good that the tower could be done by the end of this year.
That’s incredible speed compared to other launch providers,
where building a large launch tower can take years—not even talking about one that will possibly catch rockets.
I also have a small correction here from the last episode.
I compared the large spherical Methane tank to the GSE Tanks from Starbase,
to find out if SpaceX would build a tank farm in Florida as they did in Texas.
And we had the wrong numbers. Sometimes that happens, so here’s the correction from the last episode.
I compared the tanks to give you a feeling for them.
How many of those spherical tanks will SpaceX need for a Starship launch?
Will there be a tank farm? And I said that one Spherical tank would replace 3.65 GSE tanks.
That was slightly wrong. One spherical tank has a volume of 3.87 million liters,
and one GSE Tank fits 2.03 million liters making the spherical tank around 48% larger in volume.
So, one Spherical tank from Pad39A roughly has the size of two GSE Tanks from Texas and not 3.65 times the size.
This should still be enough for a Starship launch.
So there is a change in the numbers but no change to the theory that SpaceX will likely not build a Tank farm at Pad39A comparable to the one in Texas.
Now, let’s switch over to another giant rocket!
SLS is about to launch out of Kennedy Space Center on its first Moon mission!
Nasa is making it happen! After 11 years of development and millions of hours of work time accumulated,
Artemis 1 has arrived at Pad 39B ahead of its Moon launch on August 29th.
Blastoff of the uncrewed mission is scheduled no earlier than 8:33 am eastern time.
SLS will bring the Orion spacecraft on its trajectory around the Moon to test the vehicle's system for future human missions.
Several webcasts are scheduled for the trip, so brace for loads of Artemis content after the lift-off.
We are going. No, I mean _we_ are going!
WAI has been accredited as one of a select group of media teams to report about the launch on site.
Yes! :)
Stefanie and I are going to several NASA experiences, including the press conference and the launch.
As we have done since we arrived in Florida, we’re getting closer and closer to the people in charge.
Artemis 1 is a new milestone for us as it is for the spaceflight community at large.
And Artemis 2, the first mission to send a new crew to the Moon after more than 50 years since Apollo, is scheduled for 2024!
SLS is pure power. The largest rocket yet to take flight until SpaceX launches the full Starship stack for the first time and a must-see for space
enthusiasts worldwide. To get Orion to the Moon, which is nearly 1000 times farther than where ISS resides,
The Capsule must reach almost 40000 kilometers per hour.
Much faster than the speed needed to achieve a Low Earth Orbit.
4 RS25 engines and two five-segment solid rocket boosters will push the 98-meter-tall rocket with a force of 8.8 million pounds at lift-off.
To give you a feel for it, that’s about 160000 Corvette engines.
Its solid rocket boosters will consume 5 tons of fuel per second alone.
Add another 2.8 million liters of fuel in 8 minutes from the four RS-25 engines, and you have a Rocket, taller than the statue of liberty,
going towards space.
In short, that’s something you shouldn’t miss if you’re into rockets.
Mark it in your calendars, tie a knot into your favorite handkerchief or just talk to Siri about it.
Watch with us on August 29th at 8:33 am eastern or 12:33 pm UTC!
We are going, and you’re with us!