SpaceX’s Orbital Starship 24 is at the launch pad!
Action is about to happen! Let’s dive right in!
My name is Felix, and I am your host for today's episode of What about it.
The first orbital prototype is at the Starship pad at Starbase, Texas.
SpaceX is proceeding with tests, and I’m explaining the masterpiece of Super Heavy engineering!
Starship Updates
SpaceX rolled out Ship 24 on Tuesday!
The orbital Starship has arrived at the pad!
And even from the outside, you can see the intent to launch this one into Space.
It’s changed quite a bit since we last saw it at the launch site.
SpaceX made it pretty. The first one of a new kind of prototypes.
An orbital Starship, indeed.
Detailed shots provided by SpaceX show the differences up close.
A hull designation can be seen.
S24. Again, the first time SpaceX has done this.
Then there's the SpaceX logo above what’s presumed to be 6 test heat tiles.
Actually, they are sensors.
This picture from NasaSpaceFlight shows a Starship nosecone, where the black tiles are not attached yet, and you can see the sensors below.
Here is another picture from the other side of the nose cone.
This is the windward side and it has the same sensors.
The reason for the nice looking pattern is to make them fit under the tiles.
Before they did that, the tiles had to form a crazy mosaic to cover the sensors.
It's unknown, what the sensors are for, but temperature or vibration sensors could be possible.
May be, even microwave antennas.
We can also see that the heat shield is not yet done.
A whole line of tiles at the nose cone weld is missing.
Other tiles are held in place by tape.
So, either SpaceX will attach those at the launch site after the upcoming static fire,
or it will be rolled back to the production site again after this part of the upcoming tests is finished.
We’ve never seen a Starship heat shield in this good condition.
Evenly placed tiles. No blank spots beside the mentioned one.
Smooth surface. Well done, Heat tile team!
This does look like it could survive reentry.
It does.
Another significant feature on Ship 24 we’ve already discussed is this.
It is a Starship payload door.
A specialized one too. It is for one specific kind of payload only.
Starlink v2 satellites. Much larger and heavier but still with the typical flat shape of current Starlink satellites.
Ship 24’s payload door has become better and better looking every time SpaceX had it in the Highbay, and now it does look like it’s finished.
It’s still unknown whether SpaceX will launch a payload on the first flight, but there are indicators now that they might try it.
So, no wheel of cheese? No Tesla Truck as a payload dummy?
For a long time, we all speculated wildly about what kind of dummy payload SpaceX would come up with for the first Starship launch to orbit.
Would it be a wheel of cheese as on the first-ever Cargo Dragon launched into space on December 8th of, 2010?
Or would it be a Tesla Roadster as on the Falcon Heavy Test flight in February of 2018?
It’s obvious that SpaceX has a special tradition going for these demo payloads.
A demo payload exists, so they do not have to risk a customer payload on that first-ever flight of a new vehicle.
If a wheel of cheese gets lost, it’s no big deal.
If Musks Tesla Roadster doesn’t make it, it won’t upset the next big customer for Falcon Heavy.
On a Starship, it might be a different story, though.
This footage was made by Chief, our WAI Cam operator, at the Texas Starbase on June 6th, roughly a month ago.
Back then, we called it the mystery box, as no one knew what this could be used for.
We cracked the box three weeks later with a Chief in the right spot at the right time.
This could only be for one thing.
To feed Starlink Satellites into the beast that is SpaceX’s Starship.
Why? Because they tested it in the High Bay.
On June 22nd, Chief also recorded this footage at the production site.
It shows Ship 25’s Payload section and a Starlink Dispenser going in for installation.
And the same goes for Ship 24.
It does have a Starlink Dispenser inside.
This is footage from Nasa Spaceflight’s BocaChicaGal and from March 7th.
It shows Ship 24’s payload bay and SpaceX workers lowering the same satellite dispenser into it as they did for Ship 25.
So, the first orbital Starship has the capability of carrying Starlink v2 Satellites up into Space, and it won’t fit a Tesla Semi Truck as is.
Chances are good that SpaceX will try delivering payload on the first launch.
They are their satellites. Especially with Musk's leaked Email from earlier this year urging the team to get Starships ready for payload.
What do you think? Will it carry Starlink v2 satellites?
Will SpaceX try anything funny for that first launch?
Go wild and give me your best guess in the comments!
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On we go with Ship 24 and Booster 7 updates!
SpaceX was on a roll, posting pictures on Twitter almost every day.
Follow me @felixschlang to get those updates as they come!
It’s worth it!
This is the close-up shot of Ship 24’s engine section.
All 6 engines were installed. Three times sea-level Raptor 2 with the smaller engine bells and three times vacuum Raptor 2 with the much larger
vacuum optimized nozzles. It’s unknown when this picture was taken, but a few parts are still missing.
The final layer of heat shield for the engine section is missing here.
You can tell by the empty spaces between the metal frames directly above the engines.
If the ship rolled out like this, it would indicate that there would indeed be another rollback to the production site before a launch.
If it does have the entire heat shield inside the engine bay, it would be ready for a launch.
We might be able to peak under the skirt if they stack it on top of booster 7.
And this is the engine section of booster 7. We already knew that all the engines were installed before the rollout,
but this is the best picture of a booster engine section yet.
You can tell by the differently colored nozzles that all these engines has a different story to tell,
and they went through a different set of test Parcours.
Some of them were fired more than others.
Again, unknown why. Some might have needed more tests for SpaceX to ensure the engines are good to go.
Another exciting bit is these two outlets here above the center three engines.
Only two. Since the booster already does have the entire heat shield installed, it’s doubtful that more will be installed later.
Theories range from Engine chill vents to gimbal blockers to protect the surrounding engines if one does swivel too much.
Again. What do you think? What’s your best shot at explaining them?
Let me know in the comments below the video!
I’m eager to hear your thoughts, and it’s your chance to participate.
I do read almost all your comments after all.
Next, I’d like to explain more about how these engines get all they need.
Let’s do some Fuel manifold talk.
What does it take to feed 33 hungry Raptors?
Chief Recorded this video on July 6th.
I call it the Masterpiece of Super Heavy Booster engineering.
This is one part, or actually, it’s several parts of what’s needed to fuel all 33 Raptor engines while going up and down again.
It’s the boosters Thrust puck, Methane Manifold, and header tank connector assembly.
If I didn’t miscalculate it, this piece of hardware has 92 engine inlets in one part.
66 for all 33 engines. That’s 33 times Liquid Methane and 33 times Liquid oxygen and another 13 for Lox and 13 for CH4 from the header tanks and for the center engines.
Mary from Nasa Spaceflight took this picture on March 13th,
showing all of it connected to booster 8th aft dome while they flipped it during the sleeving process,
where it got mated with the surrounding ring segments.
To understand all this, you also need this picture.
It was taken by Chief on April 6th, showing the boosters header tank.
This piece is attached to the top of the Methane manifold inside and on the bottom of a Super Heavy booster.
Like this. Completely assembled, it has the task of supplying all the engines with fuel and oxidizer from 4 separate tanks.
The main tanks while the booster pushes a Starship to orbit, and the header tanks while it’s coming back down for a landing.
And it has to do so reliably. It’s an incredibly complex piece of hardware and arguably the most difficult to design on the booster.
Usually, all this is hidden from the Starship fan’s eyes.
Just keep that in mind the next time you see a Super Heavy booster.
There’s a lot of engineering hidden on the inside.
The straight and featureless hull on the outside makes it look so easy.
Next, we have a few incredible pictures and videos from the WAI cams in Florida.
This is it. Fresh and up-close footage of what SpaceX is doing at Kennedy Space Centers Pad 39A and the second Starship Launchpad.
How far are they? Well, very far.
Don’t mind the Fence. This footage was taken from the road leading past the Pad on July 6th.
And it shows SpaceX’s latest progress up close.
A lot of concrete plates are on site.
Cryo pipes with typical black insulation can be seen lying around in big piles.
The large round mystery structure can be seen as well.
It is a rebar structure with a concrete foundation below.
Approximately 24.5 meters in diameter.
It is located very close to Mechazilla, but it is not the orbital launch mount itself.
Due to its round shape, it could likely be a tank of some sort.
Since it is so close to the pads, it’s unlikely to be Methane or Oxygen for a launch.
It could be for water, but I will not make that mistake again, so I’ll leave it open for now.
On we go with our sightseeing tour!
Mechazilla, and right next to it, the new orbital launch mount come into view.
From a distance, we can see that at least the six orbital launch mount legs look the same for now.
Mechazilla 2, on the other hand, already shows a few differences.
The segments were much more fleshed out even when rolled out to the pad compared to Starbase.
The Buckner crane in front is already getting ready for the following stack.
The tower foundation also shows a few differences.
Lunar Caveman did the measurements already.
These are the tower bases of Mechazilla 1 and 2 side by side in a top-down view.
The concrete base of Tower number 2 is larger, and it seems to include blast walls.
Maybe to protect existing Pad39A Falcon infrastructure in case of an explosion or rapid unscheduled disassembly of a Starship at launch.
Thank you, Lunar Caveman! Make sure to follow him on Twitter if you’re not yet doing it!
A link to his account is in the Description!
The distance view of Pad 39A shows the center column in the middle of Mechazilla 2 already installed for the tower elevator.
Three segments are in place, and SpaceX is working fast.
Manufacturing and stacking of Mechazilla 2 are progressing faster than they did at Starbase.
Going out even further reveals the whole pad.
Let’s label a few things for a better overview.
From left to right, we have the Launch support structure and crew access arm for Falcon launches from Pad 39A.
Directly behind it, we have the water tower for Pad 39A.
It’s unknown if right now, but also unlikely going to be used for the Starship pad.
Next, we have a round commodity storage tank for Pad 39A.
Then comes the round mystery structure from earlier.
You can see how close it is to Mechazilla 2. Then comes the world's second Starship orbital launch integration tower with its three stacked segments.
Right between the tower and the large yellow crane used to stack the tower segments, you can see the orbital launch mount legs.
Then comes the Falcon strongback on the ramp towards the pad and SpaceX’s vehicle integration hangar used for all Falcon 9 launches.
So, SpaceX wants this second Starship pad done as soon as possible.
Rolling segments out towards the pad every week and building the needed infrastructure simultaneously.
I can not wait for the first Starship launch out of Florida!
Quick progress is not exclusive to SpaceX.
I sometimes manage to do that too!
But I learned how to do it right over time.
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