This episode is sponsored by Surfshark
Today we’ll take a detailed look at the most significant milestone at SpaceX’s Starship factory yet.
Starship 20 and booster 4 have be en stacked at the orbital launch site, including 35 Raptor engines,
and SpaceX is in the final preparations towards the orbital launch!
Let's find out!
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
OK, so this one will be a record holder for how much has happened since the last episode.
It's been a week since my last update.
I made a community post about the reasons for my absence if you're interested in the private life behind the camera, and today,
we're going to try and sum up what has happened in the craziest week yet when it comes to SpaceX, Starship, and Boca Chica, Texas.
In short, SpaceX finally did it.
They’ve stacked the first Starship on top of a Super Heavy booster at the launch site in Boca Chica, Texas.
For the first time in human history, heck for the first time in the history of this planet,
humanity is capable of building an interplanetary transporter.
For the first time, we're in reach of becoming multi-planetary.
SpaceX's Starship is not just another rocket.
Not just a bigger rocket. And not just another satellite delivery system.
The combination of Super Heavy Booster and Ship on top, which SpaceX refers to as Starship, will enable us to reach for other planets.
It will allow us for the first time to settle on the Moon, on Mars, and possibly even beyond.
So, that’s the short story. But what has led to this so quickly?
What are the little details you might have missed, and what will happen next?
Musk, as seen here with his youngest son X Æ A-12,
has given out so many updates and brand-new information over the cause of the last week as never before.
He usually does this in waves.
Sometimes he's super busy, and sometimes he opens up so much that it’s almost like a small Starship presentation,
and that's what happened in the last week.
He and his son are standing in front of Booster 4 while the 29 Raptor engines are being installed.
Musk gave out a flood of new pictures from perspectives you can only get from an insider.
This one, for example, was taken from the top gallery inside the high bay.
It shows the freshly installed Grid fins.
By the way, a fixed design. On Super Heavy they don’t deploy…
The other rocket we know those grid fins from, of course, is the Falcon 9. It's not a SpaceX invention.
In fact the Russians came up with it.
It's been used on other rockets before, but the fins got widely known because of these pictures.
On the Falcon 9 they deploy in space.
And once the rocket hits the thicker parts of the atmosphere, there really are just two goals.
Control the descend angle and orientation and slow down the rocket as much as possible.
And for Falcon 9, this works. It's been used on many landings by now.
It's reliable, and it works as it's supposed to.
If there's one thing known about Musk and his team thought, it's that they never settle for "good enough."
So, they’re already thinking of other ways.
Grid fin designs clearly work, but do they maximize payload?
Good chance that they do not. Something with much more drag to reduce terminal velocity & so reduce landing propellant might have better performance.
Not Sure. Potential future optimization.
So, what Musk means with this is that, as mentioned, the grid fins have two key metrics.
One being control of the booster on descend and two being the drag increase to save fuel on landing.
Are we going to see a sky diving booster in the future?
Is Musk going to add speed brakes?
Speed brakes are a common thing in Airplane construction.
For example, on the F-15 fighter jet, there's a dedicated speed brake just behind the canopy.
It enables the plane to quickly reduce speed while maintaining control.
And Musk continued his broadcast from Starbase.
This stunning picture shows the underside of Booster 4 and 29 Raptor engines installed and ready for testing.
Before this epic week, all this was exclusively depicted in the works of some talented render artists in the community.
You can see the outer ring of 20 RB engines.
Fixed in place. And the inner cluster of 9 gimbal capable engines.
This center cluster will be vital for controlling the path of the booster and the Starship on top.
Here’s another shot from outside.
These engines are enormous. Each one is taller than the average SpaceX worker and capable of putting out 230 tons of thrust each.
You're looking at around about 6670 tons of thrust here.
In comparison, the Saturn V Moon rocket produced “only” around 3600 tons of thrust at lift-off.
Pretty amazing.
And it just kept on coming in!
This is Ship 20 with 6 engines installed.
Three times sea-level Raptor and three times the famous RVac for orbital propulsion.
In the end, SpaceX might even go with nine raptor engines for the ships.
It just looks outright majestic to see all this for the first time.
No legs, likely as Ship 20 is not supposed to land.
The plan is to perform a soft water landing near the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean if everything works out.
Next up, we'll take a look at what happened next and at SpaceX advancing at a pace no one thought to be possible.
Stay tuned!
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Then came the rollout. August 5th.
As predicted. SpaceX used their special SPMT or self-propelled modular transporter for the task.
Look at the size of the people to get a feel for the height.
This booster is 69 meters tall.
A Falcon 9 with a Dragon capsule on top peaks at 63.3 meters.
So this booster alone is taller than most other rockets.
And down it went from the construction site to the launch site at SpaceX’s Starbase, Texas.
It’s just a short trip. No crawler is needed.
No billion-dollar equipment was used.
Just a highway and two SPMT's working together.
Every aspect of this endeavor is optimized for price.
The rocket itself was built in the open.
Made from stainless steel and obviously with a crude and simple design so far.
SpaceX is breaking ground here with everything they do.
Once arrived at the launch site, Booster 4 was hooked up to Frankencrane,
the giant Liebherr LR 11350 crane that’s also been used to stack the orbital launch support tower.
Seeing the booster suspended under the crane and in mid-air like this gave me chills.
What were your thoughts when you saw all this?
As always, tell me in the comments!
What you're seeing here, being lifted into position for the first time in the future of space flight.
That first prototype to test the design on an orbital flight.
If all goes well, this booster will reach above the Karman line.
It’ll withstand extreme forces, do the longest raptor engine burn under live conditions ever,
and validate countless designs including this particular combination of Ship and Booster.
It was lowered down into the orbital launch table for the first time on August 5th.
Still a lot of question marks as to how exactly the launch procedure will work.
Still no visible flame diverter but it seems that SpaceX is working on something under the pad.
Musk said that Mechazilla, the crane and catch mechanism to still be installed on the launch support tower,
will perform the task of lifting and stacking future Ships and Boosters.
But he added that it's not quite ready yet.
ErcX Space and Smallstars instantly picked up the work and created an animation of how Mechazilla will work.
Musk commented that it's very close to real.
Unlike in the animation, the catch point will be slightly to the side to not damage the orbital launch mount if a catch doesn't work out.
Then the booster is instantly transferred back to the launch mount, ready to receive another Starship.
It’s designed to have under one hour turnaround time.
Those numbers seem crazy. No other orbital rocket today is capable of even a second launch within the next week.
Starships are supposed to launch again in under one hour.
And it kept on being amazing. This is NASA Spaceflight and the rollout of Ship 20 from the Starbase construction site towards the launch site.
The first-ever orbital Starship to leave the construction site.
Almost complete heat shield. Full Raptor compliment.
Most likely hundreds of changes again from the last Starship to take flight at the launch site.
Mauricio was in the air as well, taking the most significant pictures of his Starship documenting career so far.
Perfect timing. He was able to observe everything from the best seat there was.
In mid-air above the launch site.
If he'd arrived just moments later, these pictures would have never been taken.
Thank you, Mauricio. This is dedication at the next level.
And while Mauricio was circling the launch site in his plane, Elon was on the ground, taking these pictures.
I cannot overstate; how important all this was for the SpaceX crew and the rest of the world.
Incredible accomplishment. SpaceX is leading the rest of the industry more than ever.
Then this picture was taken, and this is pure rocket poetry.
SpaceX is pioneering something completely new here, and this picture captures it perfectly.
This picture belongs into history books.
This was the first picture that came into my mind when seeing the black and white stacking picture.
It was taken in 1932, and it shows workers having lunch atop the ironwork of Rockefeller Plaza.
The same kind of pioneering work.
The same type of change at a large scale.
The same vibe of doing something great.
Something profound. It’s just incredible to be alive right now.
On August 6th, due to high winds on August 5th, SpaceX lifted Starship 20 on top of Booster 4. So, this is it.
SN420. Not entirely ready yet, but it won't take long anymore.
One visible sign for SpaceX just testing here is the still missing heat tiles on the ship.
It's by far the largest heat shield we've ever seen on a Starship, but there are holes in it.
And that's something that won't work on the actual orbital flight, of course.
Musk was on a roll and tweeted about this as well.
It is 98% done! Yes! But the remaining tiles are unique shapes requiring machining.
So, this was a stacking test. Both Ship and Booster were tested.
Does the stacking work. Does the structure hold.
The crew was trained as well.
As you can see in the close-up, the missing tiles become visible.
All those edges around the flaps.
The lifting points. The boundaries between the segments.
None the less this gives a first and detailed look at the edges of the heat shield.
Especially on the nose and around the flaps, the heat shield extends more around the hull.
This is because plasma will spill over on reentry at these locations.
All this is carefully designed by SpaceX, but it's never been tested.
By now, Starship 20 has been moved back to the construction site and into the high bay.
All the remaining work is being done right now.
The Raptor engines have been removed again.
Don't be upset or sad, though.
I expected this. All we saw last week was a crucial first stacking test.
SpaceX has to make sure that everything is correct.
The booster will very likely be moved back to the construction site as well.
After this, tests will begin. Static fires, system checks, cryo tests.
And once all that is done, SpaceX will be ready for the following stack, which will only separate above the Karman line if everything goes well.
SpaceX is performing tasks here that have never been done.
Many things are likely to still change over time.
As an example, I've been asked many times on Twitter in the last week why SpaceX doesn't protect the engines better.
Why leave the delicate Raptors out in the open?
Won't this raise chances for them to be damaged on ascend?
Yes. You're right to ask this question.
The answer is straightforward.
This very likely is not the final design.
It's a simple and easy solution for now.
This first booster is just supposed to push the Starship up.
To make that first orbital flight happen.
SpaceX's priorities likely are on the ship returning right now and not on the booster making a landing.
The catch mechanism isn't even there yet.
So, why protect the engines on the descent?
Why add more weight than needed?
The same goes for many other aspects we might seem to know right now.
It’s all subject to change. This is under active development.
This, for example, is a render made by Erc X Space and Smallstars.
It shows a new in orbit fueling method recently proposed by Elon Musk.
Where before the Starships would have docked together at the engine sections, it now seems to be possible that they'll dock sideways.
I think that one Starship would need to face the other way so that maneuvering is easier,
but it's the perfect example of everything being still up for discussion.
Remember the proposed fueling arm for Starships on the tower.
It would make much more sense now, right?
A perfect example of how exciting this journey is.
We're not done yet,
and it will be fascinating to follow SpaceX and see what solutions they come up with to build something that's never been done before.
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