Today amongst other things I’ll explain to you,
what SpaceX is doing to fix the engine problems on Starship Serial Number 8 and I’ll give you a detailed launch summary for the SpaceX and NASA Crew-1 Dragon launch.
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
Hello WAI family, what a week again!
SpaceX is flexing muscles and demonstrating to everyone in the launch business, that their lead is increasing with every month that goes by.
Keep in mind that we’re talking about a private company here.
And this private company means business.
There is no other development project comparable to what SpaceX is doing here in south Texas.
More and more prototypes are being developed and built at a speed that’s never been there before.
RGV Aerial Photography was up in the air again for all of us,
taking some absolutely fantastic pictures of both the construction site and the launch facility.
Make sure to follow him on Twitter and consider becoming a flight supporter on his Patreon page!
He earned it.
What you’re looking at here, is SpaceX’s High bay at the south Texas construction site.
Its purpose is to give a controlled and protected environment for Super Heavy construction.
SpaceX’s 72 meter tall reusable rocket booster that will push Starships into orbit.
And if we look at it from a slightly different angle, we can get a glimpse, of what’s happening inside at the moment.
Let me introduce you to Super Heavy Booster Number 1.
Growing fast in the SpaceX High Bay it will be the first of its kind and according to Elon Musk it will do a 150 meter hop.
When this first flight will happen is not clear yet, and this year doesn’t seem likely right now.
Very early next year though does seem achievable.
Right next to the High Bay,
in front of the smaller Mid Bay Mauricio managed to take a very nice shot of Starship Serial Number 11’s common dome segment including the methane
header tank. It’s always interesting to get these rare shots as it gives us a clue at how exactly work is being performed on the inside.
One worker can be seen standing on top of the methane header tank which is integrated into the common dome.
At the launch site the main focus still is on Starship Serial Number 8.
Which is a very good sign after the not norminal static fire last week.
Why you ask? If the damage to Starship SN8 was so severe or if the problem with the exploding Raptor engine was a serious design flaw,
SpaceX would have most likely done things differently than they did.
Our first clue here comes from Mary aka BocaChicaGal for NASASpaceflight.com.
These pictures show repair work done on the Starship SN8 Nose cone.
It was hard to tell, what exactly they did, while the work was still going on.
But when the work was finished, a small addition could be seen on the nose cone.
It’s a vent. And very likely this vent leads into the liquid oxygen header tank inside the nose cone tip.
After loosing the pneumatic system on Starship Serial Number 8 during the last static fire, SpaceX encountered a special problem.
Due to the pneumatic system being down,
they could not vent the nose cone header tank and only a burst disc was able to prevent a catastrophic pressure failure.
It luckily worked out, but it’s far from optimal.
To prevent this from happening again, SpaceX engineers instantly added a new vent to the Starship SN8 nose cone.
If this happens again, the Starship will just be able to vent the pressure through this dedicated header tank vent.
Why is this a clue, that Starship Serial Number 8 will test again soon?
If there was no quick solution, SpaceX would have likely not been moving so fast to implement the vent.
Right after the static fire, SpaceX workers took out Raptor engine Serial Number 32 for analysis.
And it seems they found the problem quickly.
Why?
The second clue comes in form of quick engine replacements.
Only a day after Raptor engine 32 got taken out from under Starship Serial Number 8,
SpaceX workers got engine number 42 in place for a quick swap.
If there was a serious design flaw on the current Raptor engines, a quick swap wouldn’t have done the trick.
The engine would have to be redesigned at least in part and that takes much longer than a day or two.
So, the problem with Raptor Serial Number 32 might just have been a manufacturing defect.
42 is now in place, ready to give Starship Serial Number 8 a proper push come launch day.
This brings me to the conclusion that testing on Starship Serial Number 8 will continue with almost no interruption.
Of course due to the new engine, we’re back to static fires, but the delay should be no more than maybe a week or two, not months.
Right now there are no new test dates set as of recording the episode, but I am confident that will change very soon.
Looking at the direct surroundings of Starship Serial Number 8,
the progress made on the launch site infrastructure can be seen very well from Mauricios birds eye perspective.
The square concrete foundation between test pads A and B is fully integrated into the surrounding platform.
It’s still not clear, what exactly the purpose of it might be.
Ramps leading down towards the container wall have been finished as well.
If we follow the dirt wall further up towards the beach,
the fuel lines being built as a connection between tank farm and orbital launch mount can be seen very well.
Six separate lines in three groups.
Inlet and outlet pipes for Oxygen, Methane and Nitrogen?
If we look at the scenery from a wider angle, we can already predict pretty well, how the connection will likely be made.
Close to the orbital launch mount SpaceX workers have embedded two large concrete boxes into the ground.
Those might be the terminals for the arriving pipes.
If this is correct, the connection will likely be made like this.
Extending a bit further along Highway 4 and then going straight up towards the orbital launch mount.
We’re almost there!
But what exactly is SpaceX doing here, right between highway 4 and the orbital launch mount?
This is a rather large area. The whole area is leveled.
Rebar is laying on the ground.
What do you think? What might SpaceX be up to here?
If you have an idea, tell us in the comments!
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You Rock!
Even though Starship Serial Number 8 right now is not actively testing, there still is so much going on at the site.
It’s a testament of the incredible dedication, every single SpaceX employee is putting into these projects.
Thank you, SpaceX. You Rock!
SpaceX Crew 1 Launch summary
The second topic for today is about SpaceX’s second and right now equally important project.
The Crew Dragon. Since I was not able to stream the launch due to the rather bad timing for the EU,
I am giving you a detailed summary of the launch itself and the huge implications this has not only for NASA but also for SpaceX’s future.
On November 15th, SpaceX and NASA launched Crew-1, the first operational Crew Dragon flight from Kennedy Space Center’s Pad39A.
Due to onshore winds and recovery operations the launch got shifted by one day from November 14th.
This needs to be taken into consideration especially on crewed launches, as not only the launch site weather is important.
What you’re looking at here is the launch abort corridor for the Crew-1 launch.
The green areas show the parts of the flight, where a launch abort is safe.
The red zone marked as DAEZ, which stands for launch abort exclusion zone, is an area in the north Atlantic,
where the control team wants to avoid an abort due to cold water and rough seas.
All this planning directly influences a launch decision and for November 14th the recovery conditions would have been rather bad.
On November 15th though all lights were green and SpaceX and NASA decided to go for launch.
Picked for this first operational Crew Dragon flight were Victor Glover, NASA Astronaut, NAVY commander and pilot on this flight,
Doctor Shannon Walker, NASA Astronaut and mission specialist,
Soichi Noguchi JAXA Astronaut from Japan and also mission specialist and Mike Hopkins, United States Airforce and NASA Astronaut,
the commander of this mission to the International Space Station.
There was a slight delay right before launch due to a leak test for the hatch not giving back the expected results.
An undisclosed foreign object was found in the doors seal and got removed.
After this, the hatch sealed fine and everything continued towards launch.
At T-45 seconds the final go for launch was given and at the exact moment of the instantaneous launch window the Falcon 9 lit up and launched
from historic pad39a at Kennedy Space Center.
Falcon 9 is becoming a more and more reliable vehicle with every nominal launch and booster B1061 did an absolutely perfect job.
At T+ 2 minutes and 42 seconds the booster shut down and stage separation occurred.
The second stage with its Merlin vacuum engine took over with a nominal ignition and continued the journey with Crew Dragon Resilience on top.
At T+ 8 minutes and 58 seconds M-Vac shut down was confirmed and orbit insertion was complete at 27000 kilometers per hour and an altitude of almost 200 kilometers.
Shortly followed by a booster touch down on the drone ship in the Atlantic ocean.
And I just want to point out here that even though we’re already used to this, no other launch provider has achieved something similar to date.
Then at 12 minutes and 8 seconds,
Crew Dragon separation occurred and the vehicle was free from the second stage and on its approach towards the ISS.
Absolutely beautiful pictures of the Crew Dragon trunk slowly drifting away from the second stage were broadcasted by SpaceX.
The second stage, for those who might be wondering, is deorbited shortly after this and burns up completely on reentry.
Looking inside the Crew Dragon and watching the Crew-1 Astronauts work is just incredible and it shows,
how much more advanced Crew Dragon really is.
It’s design and the available space inside make it a 21st century spacecraft.
The first of its kind.
At around 11 p.m. eastern time on November 16th or around 27 hours after lift-off the crew dragon then docked with the ISS without any problems.
This is it. Crew Dragon officially is in business.
And yes, I can predict the future. :)
What are the implications for SpaceX?
First of all,
Crew Dragon is fully certified by NASA and has now entered a long term contract to ferry Astronauts to and from the international Space Station.
This of course is a very lucrative job for SpaceX and right now they’re still the only company to be able to provide this kind of service to NASA
with Boeings Starliner being behind schedule.
Further more though, SpaceX has almost secretly achieved another very important milestone.
Crew Dragon is fully FAA certified.
Comparable to an Airliner, Crew Dragon is now officially allowed to fly fully private missions.
Do not forget. Contrary to the Space Shuttle NASA is only a customer on Crew Dragon.
They just book flights. And since SpaceX now has the FAA certification, basically anyone else can book a flight too.
SpaceX wants to provide Crew Dragon flights not only to NASA Astronauts.
Next year for example, if everything goes as planned, Tom Cruise will fly to the ISS to record scenes for a Movie.
Crew Dragon truly is a 21st century spacecraft.
Its implications for SpaceX are broad and the change it’s already bringing to the world is profound.
Never before was it so cheap to get an Astronaut to the ISS.
Safe, affordable and reliable.
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Last but not least I want to thank the WAI team for helping me with everything I couldn’t possibly do alone!
Quality control, Discord management, subtitle creation, Cloud and Team management.
There are so many aspects of the channel that are almost exclusively managed by the team!
I’m working on a little thank you right now and I can’t wait for you to get it!
You Rock!