Wait! All this won’t be needed?
What?
My name is Felix,
and I’m your host for today's episode of What about it and what you just saw was a SpaceX Starship reentry from Space down to Earth.
Very hot stuff, if you get what I mean.
A hard task to accomplish. Too hard for SpaceX?
Let's dive right in!
Starship Updates
SpaceX is changing plans. When developing a prototype rocket, you need to be flexible, so plans are in constant flux at Starbase.
So, we’ll take the time, to sum up all the changes of plans at SpaceX’s Starbase roughly in the past week on today's episode.
We’ll start with Ship 24. SpaceX’s prime candidate for the orbital test flight.
One particular step is of interest here.
Workers have welded the payload door shut.
It’s unclear if this is temporary, but it could mean that SpaceX will not try to deploy a payload right at the first launch.
This could, of course, have several reasons.
One is that they just have so much to test on that first launch that they couldn’t fit a payload deployment into the plan.
Another reason could be that their confidence with Starship 24’s abilities is slowly declining and has now passed the point at which it would
make sense. Maybe it’s also just that the Starship wouldn’t reach the needed height for a deployment.
Either way, the payload door on Ship 24 is closed for good.
This, of course, doesn’t mean that SpaceX is abandoning Ship 24.
Quite the opposite. The heat shield we talked about in the last episode is seeing some much-needed love.
Close up, you can see that spacers can be seen sticking out around some tiles.
Those are the ones that recently got replaced.
While the adhesive is curing, the spacers ensure that the tiles are not moving.
So, where the welded shut payload door might be a sign of SpaceX reducing the task list for the first orbital Starship flight,
the heat shield work can be seen as a sign of them wanting to go up soon.
On we go with The mystery Starship 26.
I’ve been researching what SpaceX is doing with this strange Starship on all fronts.
Even my contacts with SpaceX just said, “wait and see.” So, all we can do here is see, right?
This video from LabPadre shows the Ship 26 Nose cone being moved into the High bay… and out again.
It stayed in there for about an hour.
After rolling it out, they rolled it back in again.
Almost as if they were not sure what to do with it.
Looking at it up close, the pins for heat tiles are visible.
In the same pattern, you’d expect from any Starship nose cone right now.
Hinges for flaps can be seen too.
Just no flaps and no tiles. It’s as plain as it gets.
Looking at the Production site map from the ring watchers shows that several segments for Ship 26 have been spotted so far.
The payload bay ring section is inside the high bay as well.
A ship 26 mid-lox section can be found inside the mid-bay.
Tent 3 has the forward dome and the common dome for ship 26.
It does look like ship 26 work is continuing, though.
Just at a very slow pace, indicating that it might have been moved further down the manufacturing order.
So, what could be the plan for ship 26?
There is something different about this one.
One plan could be the expendable Starship.
The expendable Starship is a Starship that does not get reused.
As seen in this beautiful animation by Alex Svan, a Starship needs a heat shield and its flaps to do a controlled reentry.
Without all that, it would burn up.
The Disadvantage would obviously be that the Starship can’t be reused.
The advantages would be that leaving out the heat shield and the flaps obviously frees up a lot of weight and thus raises the payload capacity.
Secondly, it would accelerate the timeline towards operation.
Another theory could be that this is a lunar Starship prototype.
That’s the variant of the SpaceX Starship, ordered by NASA for Artemis 3. Artemis 3 is planned for a launch in 2025.
So, there are only 3 years left.
It wouldn’t be too early to start putting a test ship together, and it wouldn’t need flaps or a heat shield,
as the Lunar Starship variant is not intended to return to Earth once launched.
Instead, it will stay in space, serve as a Taxi and a freight transporter between lunar orbit and the lunar surface,
and thus won’t need any reentry hardware.
What do you think? What’s going to happen with Ship 26?
Let me know in the comments below!
Crew 5 launch
Now, let’s talk about Crew 5. NASA’s latest expedition to the ISS!
Brand new booster and Crew Dragon Endurance!
We live in a time when new rockets are getting rare.
Considering that most launches nowadays are done by SpaceX and considering that most of those are flown on slightly too heavily charred flight-proven
boosters, it is a strange sight to see a brand new booster.
But here we are. For this launch, B1077.1 looked shockingly white!
Nicole Mann, Mission commander and NASA’s first indigenous woman in space.
Josh Cassada, Pilot of Endurance.
Koichi Wakata,
Mission Specialist from Jaxa and the only crew member of Crew 5 who has ever been to space before and is now making his 5th trip to the ISS.
And Anna Kikina from Roscosmos.
She is part of NASA’s integrated crew strategy, with tensions at an all-time high between NASA and Roscosmos.
She’s the first cosmonaut aboard a commercial crew flight, and on top of that, she’s also the only active female cosmonaut in Roscosmos.
You've got to change that!
Flight number 5 for the commercial crew program and crewed flight number 6 towards the ISS, including Demo 2 with Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken.
The mission is set to stay in space for 5 to 6 months, and the crew will have a packed task list of more than 200 experiments during the mission.
That’s more than one experiment per day.
On top of that, the Crew 5 Astronauts might support up to four different EVAs.
Here’s a fun fact about Crew Dragon Endurance!
When endurance returns from Space in six months, it will be the new record holder for Crew Dragons in Space.
Current record holder Endeavour has 280 days and 19 hours on record with Demo 2, Crew 2,
and Axiom 1. Endurance is currently at 176 days and 2 hours with Crew 3 alone.
Adding another 6 months would bring it well beyond 30 days and get very close to a full year in space.
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Next up, we have ULA with another successful launch of mighty Atlas!
Flight number 96 for an Atlas V rocket and 154 for ULA!
Built in ULA’s rocket factory in Decatur, Alabama,
Atlas V 531 is a 60-meter-tall and around 800-ton heavy beast that we won’t see flying like this again.
That’s right. This was the last mission for a 531 configuration.
Those three numbers stand for the fairing size in meters, the number of solid rocket boosters attached to the first stage of the rocket,
and the number of Centaur upper stage RL10 engines.
And like this, you’ll never see it fly again.
Overall there are 21 launches left for Atlas V, which will soon start sharing its pad SLC 41 with ULA’s brand new Vulcan Centaur Rocket,
which is slated for a first launch no earlier than December of this year!
The payload? The SES C-Band satellites 20 and 21.
SES stands for the manufacturer Societe Europeenne des Satellites.
I love my french. And what you’re looking at here is SpaceX deploying SES 22 in June.
SES utilizes Ariane, SpaceX, and ULA to deploy more and more of its telecommunication satellite fleet into space, and in Europe,
they’re known for their Astra satellite fleet.
Why would we even bother with C-Band satellites anymore?
Wouldn’t constellations like Starlink be able to cover the same?
I contacted SES for you to answer this question, and here’s what they said.
C-band satellites remain the backbone of the Satcom industry worldwide.
C-Band is almost immune to weather patterns like heavy rain and thus perfect for equatorial regions.
It also allows satellites to cover a large expanse, enabling broadcasters to reach more people with low-cost in-home equipment,
particularly in emerging economies.
ULA worked perfectly on October 4th.
With some spectacular views of Atlas V’s booster soaring up, separating the solid motors and stage separation, Atlas V 531 is history.
On we go with the aftermath of DART.
Dimporphos, the Asteroid hit by the Double Asteroid redirection test or DART, has grown a tail!
As seen on this single image created by astronomers Teddy Kareta from the Lowell Observatory and Matthew Knight from the US Naval Academy using
the 4.1 meter Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope or short SOAR, at the NOIRLab in Chile, Dimorphos has grown a tail by now.
The image was taken on October 4th, and it shows long streaks originating from the center.
It’s incredible how clearly they were able to picture the scene.
The tail is made from debris from Dart’s impact.
And it is forming for the same reason why for example, comets have a tail.
On a comet, solar wind blows gasses and dust away from the cosmic traveler.
That’s also the reason why the tail of a comet always points away from the Sun, no matter its direction of flight.
The same has now happened with Dimorphos, which is why the tail is so straight.
Solar wind is blowing the debris cloud away from the Dual Asteroids.
Analyzing this tail could give scientists clues as to the asteroid's composition.
It will likely be weeks before we know if Dart meaningfully changed Dimorphos’s orbit,
but now you know why recent pictures of the Asteroid look so strange.
If you like that you’re now a DART picture expert,
consider becoming a YouTube member or a Patron by clicking the join button under the video or by following the link to our Patreon website through the link in the description!
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Now, let’s head over to SpaceX one last time for today.
I covered it last time already.
NASA and SpaceX are looking into servicing Hubble with a Crew Dragon capsule.
The goal? Elevating the orbit and pushing Hubble further up to extend its life and maybe even service its hardware.
Proposed by none other than Jared Isaacman, SpaceX Astronaut and long-term supporter,
the mission could inject Hubble with a greatly extended lifespan.
Now, Isaacman has given a first clue as to how SpaceX might be able to accomplish the task with a Crew Dragon capsule.
Truthful posted some beautiful images of a Crew Dragon being docked to Hubble on Twitter, and Jared responded.
Looking good. Maybe want to flip Dragon 180 degrees, though.
Just a guess.
To push Hubble, we need thrusters.
Crew Dragon has a few groups of powerful thrusters.
The strongest undoubtedly would be the aft-facing Super Draco’s.
Powerful hypergolic hot gas thrusters.
Easily strong enough to push Hubble.
But they have a task already. Launch aborts.
On top of that, they might even be too powerful for the job and not precise enough.
On we go with maneuvering thrusters.
The Draco’s without the super.
Many are placed around the capsule, but only four face the right direction.
Those four holes in the front are the Draco thrusters used by SpaceX to do the deorbit burn.
Easily strong enough to give Hubble a push.
Inspired by Jared’s reply, Truthful went to work again and produced these renders.
In this case, the trunk would be attached to Hubble.
A docking mechanism could easily be put into the otherwise empty trunk section, and the forward-facing Draco thrusters would do the pushing work.
Thank you, Truthful! Amazing job!
I honestly can’t wait for the results of the 6 months study being conducted by NASA and SpaceX right now.
Imagine the live broadcast of Hubble being pushed by a Crew Dragon!
Wow. That’s it for today! 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 on Tuesday!