Hello, we are TheSpaceXFans and welcome to TheSpaceXShow, the place where you can stay
up to date with everything SpaceX.
To kick off this video, there is an article that NASA posted related to crewed missions
to the ISS.
It says “NASA is considering the acquisition of commercial crew space transportation services
from one or more U.S. providers through commercial services contracts as the agency works to
extend the life of the space station beyond 2024.”
With 4 successful crewed Dragon missions so far and another coming up in a week, I think
SpaceX has an almost guaranteed chance of being selected.
Previously in 2020, Space Adventures said it had signed a contract with SpaceX for a
Crew Dragon mission.
However, this article was posted which says “Space Adventures has dropped plans to fly
space tourists on a high-altitude Crew Dragon flight but has not ruled out revisiting the
mission concept in the future.”
Over in Boca Chica, the chopstick catching arms were installed onto Mechazilla during
the week.
The support structure for the catching arms is being disassembled.
A section of the newly constructed stairs was moved next to the High Bay.
The new wider High Bay construction continues with loads of beams around.
I want to share this insanely cool video that SpaceX posted on Twitter with the caption
“Gateway to Mars.”
There’s an article posted which says “After much legal back-and-forth following NASA's
original decision, the Senate Appropriations Committee is directing NASA to now choose
a second company to develop a crewed lunar lander.
However, this direction came with only a small funding increase.”
SPadre posted a Tweet saying “Starbase launch tower nearing completion, with the first orbital
Starship and Superheavy booster standing by.”
Musk responded and said “If all goes well, Starship will be ready for its first orbital
launch attempt next month, pending regulatory approval.”
The Starship HLS mockup nosecone is now being scrapped.
On Thursday, the Starship 20 prototype finally performed the first static fire.
SpaceX posted this cool video of Ship 20 captioned “First firing of a Raptor vacuum engine
integrated onto a Starship.”
Starship 20 then performed a 2nd static fire of a sea level and a vacuum engine.
Everyday Astronaut posted a Tweet about the tests saying “I would love to know how they
prevented flow separation when they fired a vacuum optimized engine at sea level!
Normally the pressure at the end of a vacuum nozzle is so low that the ambient air pressure
will separate the flame from the nozzle and destroy the engine!”
Musk responded with “Raptor has a very high chamber pressure, which in turn allows for
a large expansion ratio nozzle without flow separation at sea level.”
In response to this, Musk posted a couple more Tweets.
One said “Currently at ~270 bar, but working on upgrades to get it over 300 bar.”
Then the other said “Got to 321 bar before Rapid Uncheduled Disassembly, but cause may
be due to oxygen inlet pressure too low, rather than engine issues.”
Here’s a view of the Ship 20 TPS tiles after the testing.
Somebody posted about this saying “Looks like some TPS tiles fell off during the static
fire.
Do you think this will be a major issue for the orbital launch or does the team already
have a solution?”
Musk responded with “No, we expect some tiles to shake loose during static fires.”
There was another Tweet posted by Nic Ansuini saying “Pretty good all things considered!”
Musk responded and said “Shaking out the problems, literally.”
Taking a look at the road and beach closures on the Cameron County website, there are further
dates for this coming week.
There is a closure scheduled for Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th.
Here’s a view of Ship 21’s upper bulkhead section.
Crews continue to work on the B2.1 test tank outside the Mid Bay.
Work on Super Heavy Booster 4 continues at the launch site.
Some frames were spotted being installed around Booster 4’s engines.
Finally, to finish the Sunday video as always, we have the latest Starbase production diagram
thanks to Brendan Lewis.
Like usual, I have to say thanks to Mary, or BocaChicaGal and Nic Ansuini who are both
out there all the time filming the Starbase content.
Also, thanks to the NASASpaceflight team working hard 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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