Today amongst other things i'll explain to you what spacex is doing very differently with Starships in Boca Chica than we all expected. And why?
My name is felix and I am your host for today's episode of what about it?
And as always there has been a lot going on in the space industry lately. So let's dive right in
starship updates
As we all know from the last episode spacex is entering the flight phase of their prototyping in boca chica, texas
Starships will fly more frequent and we're in for a heck of a show even this year
Maybe just maybe even an orbital flight, but there's one thing spacex is doing very differently than we all expected
First though, let's take another one of those awesome bird's eye views of what's happening at the starship construction site in boca. Chica, texas
Mauricio from rgb aerial photography was on site again
if you have a coin to spare i'd like you to pause my video for a second head on over to rgb's patreon page and
Sign up even if it's on the lowest level it will help him immensely to fund more and better flights with even better camera equipment
link as always in the description his camera has captured the
Mind-boggling progress in bokachika once more if you don't know what you're looking at here because you're a time viewer of my channel
This is where spacex is running their next generation launch vehicle test program right now
Even though falcon 9 rockets are the pinnacle of today's space launch industry
Spacex does not want to settle down and enjoy the achievement of a self-landing orbital rocket booster
Spacex and elon musk want more they want to send humans to mars revolutionize how we use space and get us to the next level
Something that's never been here before a fully reusable launch system a true heavy lifter for an extremely low price
a starship
Rapidly growing in the south texans sun bokachika has quickly turned into a large and complex site with large construction tents
High bays protecting prototypes from the environments and lots and lots of prototype parts all over the place
And every time we get new pictures new land is being prepared for even more construction
Right now spacex is working on several spots
Up by the shoreline spacex is preparing a piece of land which could fit yet another construction tent or maybe a maintenance building
Technically all the way to the new and fast growing high bay
Nothing is used for building yet, and I wouldn't be surprised if the site looks very different in a couple of months
spacex intends to build super heavy boosters here rather soon a super heavy booster is around 70 meters tall when finished and thus
Much larger than a starship prototype
This will need many more ring segments tank parts bulkheads, you know
The usual starship stuff stainless steel all over the place
More terrain grading is being done by the roadside
Where before cars were parked in the dirt spacex is now working on turning the dirt patches into properly paved surfaces
The workforce in boca chica has been constantly growing to meet spacex's demand
And so even the two new parking lots were not able to compensate
for the increasing number of cars
And this might be the solution a parking strip then a ditch and maybe some trees to lighten up the scenery a bit
While workers are busy making the complex larger and larger on the outskirts
The high bay in the center is growing larger every day musk stated that in the end
It will need to be 81 meters tall while it's really hard to say how many more levels will be put on top
My guess is two more than what you can see here
Carlos from I can imagine together with space intelligence has taken a beautiful shot from the ground showing the latest high bay progress
From this perspective. It is much easier to see the true size of the building now, imagine a super heavy prototype rolling out of it
Mind-blowing go check out carlos's twitter for some amazing art shots of spacex in boca. Chica link is in the description
For those who do not know
This is where spacex workers are concentrating on the uppermost part of a starship prototype nose cone and fairy
Here we can find all sorts of starship noses all of them slightly different
The one sitting in the low bay right now might be used for serial number 8 the latest prototype in construction
The one in front of it seems to be more advanced though with rcs thruster openings and recessed grooves for forward flap mounting
The one to the left of the low bay has recently been polished as you can see from the white coating
And in the middle of all those noses, we can see another three ring segment with some interesting features to it
It has five large holes unevenly placed in it and some structural bracing on the inside
I've been thinking about this one for a while
Now those holes could either be for flap actuator installations or for stronger rcs thrusters, maybe a combination of both
And then there's one more very interesting thing to point out here the forward flaps on the ground still waiting for installation
Those are not the only aerodynamic surfaces on site though
Behind the mach 1 nose cone right next to the empty jig. I was able to spot parts that very much look like some
Aerodynamic covers. There are only three of them outside, but from the shape of it, they could be for forward flaps
It does look like they were shipped in wooden crates and we can find those all over the area
So assuming all those crates are filled with special hull parts, all the parts needed for serial number 8 could already be on site
And that next big starship is being constructed rapidly right now
Welcome to another installment of our famous progress animation for starship prototypes made together with nick henning
This is where I show the progress already made on the next starship prototype as it's super easy to lose track with all those different
segments in different locations
The star this time serial number eight. So how far along is it? We have the engine skirt, which goes in first
We also have a thrust section for serial number eight including thrust park thrust dome and skirt, which goes here
We also have the lower part of the oxygen tank
Which is already sitting in the mid bay waiting for the stack and it goes here
And we also have the common dome section including the lower header tank
Which goes here finishing off the tank stack? We have the top bulkhead sealing off the methane tank and it goes here
This is where all the other serial numbers stopped not so with serial number 8 though
We have a full nose cone sitting in the low bay which could already be for serial number 8 and it goes here
Finally, we also have both pairs of flaps half flaps, which will go here and recently delivered forward flaps
Which of course will be mounted on the side of the nose?
This is it the first starship to be fully assembled since starship mark 1
Now, let's tackle the question. I raised at the beginning of today's episode
I'll explain to you what spacex is doing very differently in bocachika than we all expected. And why?
This is mauricio's latest flyby of the bokachika. Launch site. Looks just like always right
We have the tank farm used to fill up prototypes for pressure tests and launches
We have the test stand on which many starships exploded collapsed imploded and recently even flew
Then we have the landing pad both star hopper and starship serial number 5 used it to get down safely
And last but not least we have the heavily talked about super heavy launch pad
We've closely been following the building process for a while. Now after all this is where starships will take off towards mars. Right, right
Right. Well, let me tell you something about launch pads
When a rocket launches in particular large one tremendous amounts of heat and noise are being produced
these normally are vented downwards through holes in the launch pad and then
Redirected sidewards through so called flame trenches away from the pad
What you're looking at here?
Of course is a saturn v launch 35 mega newtons of thrust an unbelievable amount of force heat and noise
As unbelievable as it might seem spacex will dwarf saturn v a super heavy boosted liftoff will produce
72 meganewtons of thrust more than double the heat and noise of what saturn 5 blasted out
To reduce the impact of all this heat and noise to the surrounding environment a so-called water deluge system is used
It spills hundreds of tons of water directly into the flame trench when the exhaust gas carrying all the heat and noise hits the water
Every little drop of it acts like a heat and shock absorber
In fact water is an incredibly good heat and shock absorber. It has high inertia and evaporates quickly when heated up
What comes out of the flame trench on the other side is a big cloud of white steam?
Most of the shock waves are absorbed and the heat is spread out evenly stored inside the water vapor
All this water comes from a large water tower besides extremely powerful pumps
This is the only solution to feed such a system with the needed amount of water in such a short time
So we can find these very large water towers at all sorts of launch pads all around the world
They are a fixed part of launch complexes capable of launching large rockets. Yes, they
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Now, let's take a look at our super heavy launch pad again
Yeah, you're seeing it too
right
even though the foundation driven down into the muddy soil close to the bokachika beach is
Extremely strong and even though lots and lots of concrete has been used so far
I am telling you that this is not a launch pad at all
This is a water tower a huge one, too, and it would make sense, too
Bear with me here. I have compelling arguments
Remember the 72 mega newtons of thrust if spacex doesn't want every super heavy launch to completely destroy
Every structure around the pad they will have to have a gigantic deluge system
Musk already spoke of sea launches for starships several times in the past
This is the reason the shock waves and heat produced by a fully built super heavy are so immense
That a land-based launch will require extraordinary measures and spacex will have to test on land in the beginning
That's why we are looking at one of the largest water tower foundations in the launch industry being built in boca. Chica, texas right now
Casper stanley and I have been thinking together and here's what we came up with
We compared it to spacex's water tower at pad 39a for scale to give a better reference and that one holds a whopping
1.1 million liters of water for a maximum of 27 merlin engines and these are our ideas
Extremely beefy struts to keep the extra large water tank up in the air
These tanks can have a weight of thousands of tons on large water towers
No plumbing in the foundation needed either same as at kennedy space center a high water table makes plumbing in the ground difficult
So the huge outlet pipes normally are just laying above ground angle struts to make it structurally stable as seen in
RGV's latest pictures
The large gray pipes from rgv's pictures as a center pipe and the small brown one in the middle of the foundation right now
Just as a structural support
We worked on a few different concepts to explain the angle of the beams
It could well be that the angle is not continued like this all the way up and that spacex is just building it like this
As the ground in bokachika needs a large foundation
Walter towers at kennedy space center for example are built on limestone. It's not perfect as a foundation but much better than mud
What's your opinion?
Are we on the right track here as always tell me in the comments
And make sure to follow kasper stanley on twitter and go check out his patreon
He's working on an awesome rocket simulator worth every penny of support links in the description
Another indicator for large plumbing needed at the site is this picture from rgb?
Aerial photography and mauricio's flyby from july 20th
Remember the large bend pipes those would fit a plumbing needed for such a water tower
But if what we're seeing build here is a water tower. Where will the actual pet be?
Most of us know this animation, but why on earth pun intended didn't we look at it in detail before?
I mean spacex kind of shows us that what they are building on the other side of this camera angle
Can't be the pad right according to the official animation and that's as close as it gets to an official confirmation directly from spacex
The launch structure will be right next to the landing pad
There is no official information yet
and we might just have to wait and see if the
Construction site turns into the gateway to mars or a needed extra to be able to launch in the first place
But right now I am 100 team water tower besides all the construction going on spacex
Of course is working on getting the next prototype into the air. Syria number six is going through its paces to prove. It's flight worthy
On august 16th spacex's latest prototype starship serial number six passed the first test on the way to another
150 meter hop
Cryogenic proof testing was performed and everything went exceptionally
Well, I don't want to jinx this but it looks like spacex is past all those repeating rud events
They encountered on prior prototypes
If this is true, we should be in for lots and lots of flight action in the coming weeks
This would mean for spacex that data is generated in huge amounts
This is exactly what's needed right now
And on the way to a 20 kilometer flight as of recording this episode
There was no new information on if serial number 6 would receive three raptor engines instead of just one but either way
Another hop is needed to validate the system further
It's safe to say that spacex is writing history here
Something like what they're achieving in bokachika has last been seen in the late 50s and early 60s in the space race and last time
It led to us leaving a footprint on the moon
I am pretty sure that I am not alone in saying that we're all more than ready for the next footprints out there
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it
He's carrying around a large can of sausages deluge that's how it's done