Hello, we are TheSpaceXFans and welcome to TheSpaceXShow, the place where you can stay
up to date with everything SpaceX.
On Friday, SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Starlink payload with
the Starlink 4-17 mission.
[SpaceX Commentator: “Zero.
Ignition.
And liftoff.”]
The booster which launched this mission, B1058, then landed successfully for the 12th time
on the droneship A Shortfall Of Gravitas.
[SpaceX Commentator: “Ah, beautiful.
And stage 1 has successfully landed on our droneship A Shortfall Of Gravitas.
This is the 111th recover of a Falcon 9 first stage booter.”]
Coming up in a couple of days is another Falcon 9 launch with a Starlink payload.
As you can see on TheSpaceXFans website, the launch of Starlink 4-13 is scheduled to liftoff
on Tuesday, May 10th at 6:50pm UTC or 2:50pm EDT.
Also on Friday, the Crew-3 astronauts who spent a total of 177 days on the ISS returned
to Earth.
SpaceX posted a Tweet with an infrared video of the Dragon capsule returning and they said
“Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth.”
There was an interesting SpaceNews article posted about the NROL-85 mission.
It says “NROL-85 was moved to the West Coast at no extra cost to the government and in
exchange the NRO agreed to fly a reused first stage.”
A company called Satellogic posted an article about a launch agreement they have with SpaceX.
It says “Satellogic Inc., a leader in sub-meter resolution Earth Observation data collection,
announced today that it has signed a new Multiple Launch Agreement with SpaceX reserving launch
capacity for its next 68 satellites.”
Heading to Boca Chica, here’s a view of the orbital launch site.
The orbital launch mount was seen doing some venting.
Work on the Starship quick disconnect arm has been continuing.
Here you can see all of the thrust simulators installed in suborbital pad A. Concrete work
has been going on at the suborbital launch site.
In the production yard the work at the top of the Mega Bay is continuing.
Of course, the work to construct the new Starfactory building is also continuing.
The mystery box in the yard has been continuing.
This drone was seen flying around the rocket garden.
Michael Baylor posted an exciting Tweet related to the FAA environmental assessment.
He said “The Section 106 Review for Starship from Boca Chica is complete.
The FAA appears to be on track to release the Environmental Assessment by the end of
the month.”
Also in relation to the first Starship orbital flight, there is some exciting news from Gwynne
Shotwell in an article.
It says “SpaceX’s massive new Starship rocket, designed to land NASA astronauts on
the moon and eventually take humans to Mars, will conduct a test flight from Texas in June
or July, President Gwynne Shotwell said Thursday.”
Here’s a view of the Ship 24 nosecone in the High Bay.
The Ship 24 body was moved from the Mid Bay to the High Bay.
After having a downcomer issue and being fixed in the High Bay, Booster 7 was rolled back
to the launch site.
It was also lifted onto the orbital launch mount.
Work to prepare Booster 7 on the orbital launch mount is now going on.
With the news of Booster 7 having returned to the launch site and being placed on the
orbital launch mount, let’s take a look at the road and beach closures.
As you can see on the Cameron County website, there are possible closures scheduled for
what I assume will be B7 testing.
There is a possible closure tomorrow, Monday, May 9th, Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th.
As always, I have to say thanks to both Mary, known as BocaChicaGal and Nic Ansuini for
being out there filming the Boca Chica content.
Also, thanks to the NASASpaceflight team working behind the scenes on their videos, livestreams
and other space content.
That’s it for this episode of TheSpaceXShow, I hope you enjoyed the video, if you did,
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Thanks for watching and have a great day!