So, can anyone tell us when that thing is going to fly?
Well… maybe!
My name is Felix, and I’m your host for today's episode of What about it.
This one is packed to start your week properly!
We are estimating the tasks left to do before the orbital Starship launch with a detailed analysis!
We are looking at the new Moon suits for Artemis, with some very surprising info.
Did you know Hollywood was involved?
And we’ll take a look at two launches that happened within 4 hours!
Stay tuned, and let’s dive right in!
Starship Updates
It’s been an eventful week. SpaceX is still finding the right day to launch the rocket,
and there are a few things left before SpaceX can send that first Starship to space.
And this is it! Starbase, Texas.
March 16th. The construction site that never sleeps and seemingly never is finished either.
Today we’ll use the given video time to estimate all the things that are still left to do before the orbital launch can actually happen.
We’ll roughly divide it between ground support equipment and the prototype rocket itself just to give it a bit more structure.
Let’s start with the ground equipment.
Number one on the list would be the OLM or orbital launch mount.
As you can see at first glance, it is covered with scaffolding and all sorts of lines and ropes.
There’s not much left to do, though.
The inner work ings, so everything that’s needed to fuel a Booster and Starship and theoretically launch it is done.
Right now, SpaceX is busy with shielding.
The whole thing needs to be covered.
The blast of 33 Raptor engines on a launch day inflicts a lot of force on the launch table itself,
and it is packed with all sorts of delicate systems.
To prevent any damage from happening, SpaceX is sealing the entire ring with thick metal plating.
The same goes for the tower next to the OLM.
Mechazilla.
- I love that name -
A 145 meter or 475 feet tall steel giant which covers quite a few tasks needed to launch a Starship.
It covers traditional launch tower tasks like fueling the upper stage and providing stability and access to the stacked rocket before launch.
But it’s also going to do this.
With… chopsticks. The word is a reference to the movie series Karate Kid,
where the master shows the student how to catch a fly out of mid-air with, you guessed it, chopsticks.
The tower is also referred to as OLIT or orbital launch and integration tower, and at its concrete base, there’s some work left to do.
This concrete bunker attached to the side of the tower base houses the drawworks.
It’s a large winch taken directly from an oil rig where it’s normally used to lift and lower the drill.
On SpaceX’s tower, it’s connected to the chopsticks through a series of steel cables.
It moves the chopsticks and is easily capable of lifting a 250-ton super-heavy booster onto the olm and stacking a Starship on top.
The drawworks housing has scaffolding left under it.
That will likely have to be removed and sealed before an orbital launch attempt.
On the upper quick disconnect, located a bit above half up the tower and responsible for fueling the Starship,
when it’s stacked on top of the booster, needs work as well.
Scaffolding is back up on it, and the SpaceX crew has been working on it recently.
All this will need to be finished before the launch attempt.
The same goes for the lower quick disconnect responsible for filling the booster stage and located on top of the orbital launch table.
Two doors are located on it for easy access into the black shielding surrounding it.
One of them is visible in this picture, and it’s open.
Work is being done on the inside.
So, that needs to be finished.
A little below that are the OLM legs.
They recently received shielding all around.
That’s done by now. What’s not done are stairs.
SpaceX recently started installing those, so that cherry pickers and boom lifts aren’t the only option to reach the launch table.
This, of course, will need to be finished.
Then there’s the work on the deluge system.
Chief recently did a little walk around the launch site to get these pictures from the other side for all of us.
It gives an excellent view of the current status.
This is a pan of the whole construction effort going on directly behind the tower, and really hard to see from the other side.
As you can see, SpaceX is still in the early beginnings of construction.
Pressure Tanks are being placed.
Water tanks behind that. The piping towards the launch mount needs to be placed.
This will take a lot more time to finish.
But it also very likely won’t need to be finished before the orbital launch.
The reason why I’m saying that is pretty simple.
We have a new estimate for the launch date from team SpaceX.
Answering a Tweet by the Tesla owners club of Silicon Valley, Elon spilled the beans again.
SpaceX will be ready to launch Starship in a few weeks.
Then launch timing depends on FAA license approval.
Assuming that takes a few weeks, first launch attempt will be near end of third week of April, aka… He left the aka open.
I’d just fill in two weeks or 4 20.
But in the end, it will be close to one month from now, including the wait for the FAA.
That simply is not enough time to finish the deluge system.
So, I do think we can put that idea aside.
The next big part would be Booster 7 and Ship 24.
The two stages make up the first Starship to launch into Space.
What you’re looking at here is a 107-megapixel panoramic shot of Booster 7. Available for all.
Just follow me on Twitter. I’ll post it there as soon as this episode hits YouTube!
And what we can see is that it is done.
There’s nothing visible that would still need attention.
It’s basically just parked there, waiting for the launch.
Ship 24 is another story, but it’s just about the heat shield now.
We’ve had this thing called heat shield watch going on for some time here at WAI.
This is the latest progress update, and it is starting to look better and better!
Here’s the comparison from March 14th to the 15th and as you can see, the larger hole at the side of the nose has been patched by now.
The ground handling hardpoints on the nose are gone as well, which in return means that SpaceX will use the new jig on Ship 24.
I’m talking about this thing. Contrary to the old method of lifting a Starship,
this contraption will attach to the mechazilla chopstick hard points directly under the forward flaps,
in return rendering the nose cone hard points obsolete.
This change makes the heat shield design much better.
No need to remove heat tiles to be able to access the ground handling hard points!
So, Ship and booster are basically done now.
The launch infrastructure has some work left, but according to Musk, that shouldn’t take longer than a few weeks.
What’s your estimate for a launch now?
April 20th? Two weeks? Or maybe even later?
Be sure to let us know in the comments!
And while you’re at it, leave us a like, subscribe to the channel,
or become a channel member or a Patron by either clicking the join button under the video or by following the Patreon link in the description!
Next up we have a huge announcement!
Wanna see what our Artemis Astronauts will wear once they arrive on the Moon in a Starship?
Take a look at this.
Axiom Space unveiled their prototype AxEMU on Wednesday, March 15th, and wow, does it look cool!
Jim Stein, the Chief Engineer on the design team, had the honor of showing the suit for the first time, and it does look comfortable.
The new suit is built on top of the xEMU, which NASA showed off in 2019.
There are a lot of changes, though.
Astronauts have been using the same suits since 1981.
NASA is still using 40-year-old Shuttle-era suits.
They were designed for a 15-year lifespan and must be returned to Earth for regular repairs, which is very expensive.
Now, hold on to your seat-belts!
NASA has spent nearly half a billion dollars over the last two decades to design a new suit, with mixed results.
Two years ago, they introduced the xEMU.
Very expensive and not the way to go.
With a huge hip joint and limited mobility, it just wouldn’t have been the right way to go.
So, NASA changed course and partnered with Axiom Space.
They awarded Axiom Space a 228 million dollar contract to design suits based on the xEMU.
Axiom partnered with other industries with experience in challenging designs, including the oil and gas industry and Hollywood.
The shell seen here was, in fact, designed by Esther Marquis, who did costume design for the Apple plus series “For All Mankind”!
Gotta love those WAI colors!
The AxEMU finally features the range of motion and flexibility needed to explore more of the lunar landscape,
and the suit will fit a broad range of crew members, accommodating at least 90 percent of the US male and female population.
The final suits to actually be used on the Moon will, of course, be mostly white for thermal reasons.
One very interesting aspect about the new suits is that Axiom will retain ownership of the suits even as NASA astronauts use them.
They will be rental suits.
Next up, we have two Falcon 9 launches in a little more than 4 hours.
Starlink and SES 18 & 19 and with a stunning launch out of SLC 40 at Kennedy Space Center a few days ago!
First up was Starlink Group 2-8.
A Stack of 52 regular Starlink satellites.
Not Starlink V2 mini this time.
Good weather in Vandenberg, California, from where this mission launched.
And what can we say other than perfect execution.
Booster B1071-8, formerly known as B1071-7 did it again.
Having supported 4 Starlink missions, two Nrol launches, one Sarah radar satellite mission, and the SWOT NASA launch in December,
B1071 is a veteran of the Falcon 9 booster fleet.
So, another 52 Starlink Satellites with a total weight of around 14 tons are no biggie for this one.
Perfect ascend, perfect separation, perfect landing, perfect separation.
That’s it. Including completely uninterrupted footage from the booster all the way from orbit down to of course I still love you,
stationed out in the pacific ocean.
Well done, SpaceX! Fantastic launch!
Next, we had SES 18 & 19 from SLC 40 at Kennedy Space Center!
Luxembourg-based SES, Europe's first private satellite operator,
was founded in 1985 and has since been a strong competitor in the communication satellite business.
The SES satellite constellation provides radio and TV signals to the US, and SES 18 and 19 are the final installments.
Really great aperture correction right after lift-off to give us a good view of the plume.
It was a beautiful launch to watch.
We did, of course, watch it as close to the pad as possible in person and the view was incredible.
Stage separation occurred, and shortly after that, we all got a very special treat.
It was even visible from the ground, and I have never seen this before!
At first, we were scratching our heads.
We quickly realized that this could only be one possible thing, though.
The lighting was perfect, and we were actually able to see the fairing halves drift away even from the ground.
So, what you’re seeing here is a booster, the upper stage, and two fairing halves lit up by the sun.
Fantastic experience!
And this is the second booster landing in one day.
This time on just read the instructions.
Orbital recovery number 180 and the sixth landing for booster B1071!
Then came a long coast phase with a second engine relight around the T+26 minute mark.
Again, no problem at all.
And finally, at T+32, we had the first deployment of the double-stacked satellites… Goodbye, SES 18!
And at around T+37, we said goodbye to SES 19.
Well done, SpaceX! 54 satellites in one day.
Pretty good.
What a Saint Patrick's day it was!
And in a few weeks, we’ll see a Starship launch from Starbase, Texas.
What a time to be alive!
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