Can this fly to space?
My name is Felix, and I’m your host for today's episode of What about it.
Today we’ll try to answer the question if SpaceX’s first Starship to fly to space can actually make it.
Does it even make sense to launch it?
And wouldn’t it completely destroy the launch pad?
We’ll also take a fascinating look at CRS-27, SpaceX’s latest visitor to the ISS!
Stay tuned, and let’s dive right in!
Starship Updates
I recently got some inside information about the SpaceX orbital flight test that I won’t be able to talk about on today’s episode, of course.
But if you read between the lines, you should know more, so watch carefully.
Starbase is in crunch time, and this is what that looks like.
The Starship orbital launch mount is invaded by SpaceX workers doing day and night shifts to finish stage zero before the launch attempt.
This footage is from Chief’s WAI cam and from March 13th.
It shows the day shift finishing the outer launch table shielding.
And no, we’re not at the 95th Oscars.
Those blankets are hung around the inside of the table to prevent sparks and other debris from falling into the delicate ring of engine quick
disconnects on the inside of the OLM.
This footage is from March 14th, and you can see how those blankets follow the work progress.
How many workers can you spot on this small part of the OLM alone?
I counted 13 of them. And they mostly seem to be busy with the shielding.
Everything else mostly seems done by now.
Work on the upper quick disconnect also continues with the addition of a small access platform.
We’ve seen this process for some time now.
The original design didn’t have many walkways or railings for the ground crew to access the structures for work and inspections safely.
Adding these will make work faster and safer for SpaceX personnel.
This is a minor change with a big effect.
And while SpaceX is busy implementing the last hardware upgrades on the Starship launch and integration Tower and the orbital launch mount itself,
they’re still equally busy on Booster 7. The hydraulic pressure units,
located on the sides of the engine section and responsible for providing the needed hydraulic pressure for engine gimbaling,
still seem to need some attention.
One day later and we get a good look under the protective case with a little help from Chief’s WAI Cam.
COPVs mounted below the piping is responsible for the pressure.
A better solution has been found by now, and this will be the last booster to utilize them.
The future is electric. Not just at Tesla.
These are minor details. It almost looks like SpaceX is just using the remaining time given to them.
The same goes for Ship 24, technically the other half of orbital flight test 1. It’s done,
parked at the rocket garden to free up space at the launch site and to do last fixes on the heat shield.
Musk said that he estimates this Starships chances to reach orbit at around 50%.
Reaching orbit has nothing to do with Ship 24’s heat shield.
If it does make it to orbit, though, the heat shield gets much more important for a possible re-entry.
Chief has been doing a Heat shield watch on Twitter for a few days now.
What can easily be seen from these pictures is that the tiles are still far from being in perfect shape.
Some spots seem to be more difficult than others.
The placement is not perfectly aligned.
Besides the hex tiles above the forward flaps, the custom-shaped tiles on the aero covers look like trouble makers too.
It’s a prototype. It won’t be crewed, and Musk said that rapid and full reusability might very much take years to figure out for the SpaceX crew.
Bottom line, this heat shield won’t be perfect come launch day.
Don’t expect it to change. This is it.
This is Ship 24, and this is how it will fly.
Imperfect and the first orbital test flight.
Excitement guaranteed.
A wind of change is in the air at Starbase.
A new gear can be seen lifted into the Mega bay.
Likely for a welding table. And even though full and rapid reusability might still be a while down the line, mass production isn’t.
Many Starships will fly in the coming years despite lacking reusability.
SpaceX is drilling again, and everything seems to be prepared for yet another large building.
More space for more production capability?
This strongly looks like another High Bay.
Maybe even another Mega Bay. Why would SpaceX build this if Ship 24’s heat shield doesn’t look like it could withstand re-entry?
The answer is simple. It’s not planned from the beginning on.
Starships won’t enter service once everything works perfectly.
They’ll enter service as soon as they’re capable of safely launching and deploying payload.
Everything else will come after that in a gradual process.
Falcon 9 didn’t even have landing capabilities for its first few years of service.
First launched on June 4th, 2010, sending the very first Dragon boilerplate up.
First landed on April 8th, 2016, with CRS 8. That’s almost 6 years of expendable Falcon 9 rockets.
Hard to imagine that we didn’t even miss a landing back then.
If all this is the case, the only thing left keeping SpaceX from launching would be?
Right. The FAA. Everything right now points towards SpaceX having to wait for a license again.
Moving to the Starbase Launch Site and stage zero again, I want to go a little deeper into our idea with the deluge system from the last episode.
Many questions were in the comments, and since I always take the time to read your thoughts, I’ll try to explain the idea as best as possible.
This is RGV Aerial Photography’s view of the site, and you can already see a lot of work on the ground.
The pressure vessels and the water tanks are on site.
These might even be hooked up to the orbital tank farms' water tank later on for ease of life.
There already is a connection from the farm through the blast berm separating OLM from the large GSE tanks.
Trenching across the concrete foundation would be needed.
That’s it.
More importantly, we can already see a general direction of what’s happening here.
A route for the water piping is becoming more and more apparent.
It will lead from the water tanks down past the tower and then turn inwards to the OLM.
There also is a retention area prepared for the system so the direction the exhaust blast is supposed to take can also be seen.
But if there’s a direction, there must be a flame diverter.
Otherwise, the blast would go in all directions, as we’ve seen on the static fires.
And that’s the whole idea. Even though this is highly speculative,
we do believe more and more that the pad might get a flame diverter system after all.
This is already believed to be a new engine maintenance stand.
Everything needed to replace engines and take a good look at everything under the engine skirt so that the platform currently used under the OLM
wouldn’t be needed anymore.
The engine maintenance stand could be positioned right next to the OLM.
There’s an open spot there…
…as the stand that was there is likely going to move here.
In return, this would free up the space under the OLM.
It would be a change of plans, but evidence can already be seen.
The Sanchez site is the spot where SpaceX is building many parts connected to the deluge system right now.
And if we zoom in, these rectangular and triangular parts can be found.
Those look very much like they’re connected to the deluge system.
They’re thick, and they have outlets that very much fit these parts up here.
These kinds of pipings can be found on many pads.
And they’re always connected to an actual diverter and not just a deluge system flat on the ground.
Owe and I are already working on a render for this to show it better.
Again, this is speculation based on observation.
Essentially imagine a two-faced flame diverter under the OLM, connected to the deluge system.
These plates would make up the diverter ramp under the OLM.
Again, not flat on the ground but an actual ramp.
What do you think? Please do let Owe and I know in the comments!
We’re reading them, and we do appreciate your thoughts very much!
Keep it coming! And while you’re at it, do leave us a like if you enjoyed the thought, consider a subscription,
and maybe even become a Patron or Channel member for more behind-the-scenes insights!
On we go with a launch report!
CRS 27 did a spectacular night launch with loads of fresh and exciting experiments for the ISS!
With an instantaneous launch window at 8:30 pm eastern time on March 14th,
NASA and SpaceX have accomplished yet another flawless commercial resupply mission to the ISS.
More than 6000 pounds of science and supplies were stuffed into Cargo Dragon C209, which already had its third flight after CRS 22 and 24,
both flown in 2021. It was SpaceX’s second Dragon mission for this month, the 17th launch for this year, and the 216th mission overall.
As a fun fact, if SpaceX keeps up the launch cadence for the rest of the year, this would equal roughly 84 launches.
In comparison, SpaceX had 61 launches in 2022 and announced to maybe even reach 100 launches in total this year.
Booster B1073 had its seventh flight in total.
Among other missions, it’s the one responsible for pushing the Hakuto-R Moon lander into space in December of last year.
A shortfall of Gravitas stood by in the Atlantic Ocean for the 178th recovery of a Falcon 9 booster.
Even the Recovery team got a shout-out.
An all-female crew. Well done, SpaceX!
There should be a lot more all-female teams out there!
SpaceX showed some incredible and never-before-seen footage of this all-female recovery team breaking lines with the drone ship out in the Atlantic
ocean. Incredible to see the SpaceX team perform a job no one else is doing right now.
Before we dive into the launch itself and the docking on Thursday, 35 hours after lift-off, let’s take a look at all the science,
CRS-27 launched to the ISS!
Heart tissues, biofilms, and bacteria.
Dozens of new experiments. Artificial heart tissue to be tested in microgravity.
This will open up new treatments for heart failure therapy.
Radio-tolerant organisms are brought up again and stored outside the ISS to get more clues as to why they can survive in Space and into the origins
of life on Earth. Heart tissue is being tested in Space to find out why our hearts have reduced function in Space.
Carbon dioxide removal systems are getting some more research to make them more efficient.
Researchers will continue to look into bacterial biofilm formation and ways to prevent this from happening.
I talked about this before. Most of these experiments are in preparation for us to leave Earth for longer periods of time.
Many of them are done in direct preparation for future missions to the Moon and Mars.
Nasa even went all out and implemented a segment called Artemis Moon Minute into the live stream.
There couldn’t be a bigger sign for NASA working all hands on deck to actually make all this happen and to stay longer on the Moon.
Teams are working towards the Artemis 2 launch.
The engine section has been moved to the core stage, and next, the RS25 engines will be mounted.
On April 3rd, we’ll find out which four astronauts will travel around the Moon for the first time in decades.
Then came T-0. Again, SpaceX has done this many times.
Throughout the entire history of the CRS program, there hasn’t been a single failure.
CRS-27 did not change the statistic.
John Winkopp was on site for us, delivering some stellar launch views.
CRS launches are something special.
The first launch I ever saw was CRS-20, and so they have a special place in our hearts here at WAI.
John’s pictures included some beautiful plume shots from the stage separation.
Fantastic views!
Textbook stuff. Falcon 9 works incredibly reliably.
And the second stage is on the way, again with some incredible plume shots.
Sci-fi vibes.
And if that’s not sci-fi enough for you, here’s an orbital-class rocket performing a bullseye landing on a drone ship.
Routine at SpaceX.
Then came a short coast phase with some beautiful views inside the cargo dragon's trunk filled with supplies for the ISS, separation,
and off we went to the ISS.
Fast forward 35 hours. Forward port, Node 2, Harmony module, ISS.
The address for Cargo Dragon C209 for the next month until it returns back to Earth packed with science results.
Busy times for the ISS crew, as the window in which many of the experiments need to be performed is from docking to undocking.
One month packed with tasks and very result-based work.
It’s still fascinating every time how easy all this looks when SpaceX executes yet another trip to the ISS.
Congratulations to the entire team.
We’re all looking forward to welcoming Cargo Dragon back here on Earth again!
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That’s it for today! Make sure to check out our WAI Wear merch store!
Filled with cool shirts and other swag, it’s the perfect rocket enthusiast wardrobe!
And if you want to get even smarter about Space and rockets, watch this video next to continue the journey!
Thank you very much for watching, and I’ll see you again in the next episode!