Starship Updates – Boeing Starliner Investigation complete
My name is Felix and I am your host for todays 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 And let’s dive right in fits this episode very well! Again after just a few days, there has been so much change,
development and progress again in Boca Chica that SpaceX is giving me a hard time
sifting through all of it to give you a summary version of what’s happening at the busiest space development site on the planet.
Let’s start with a massive shout out to RGV Aerial Photography again.
Mauricio has done it again and thanks to support from many who followed my call to join his patreon,
he’s now able to do three flights per month.
So, expect a lot more footage from him and his slowly growing crew in the future
thanks to… well… you! One community united! Love it! You rock!
RGV is doing an awesome job capturing pictures that make it a lot easier to understand how it all connects.
The birds eye view is priceless.
The first thing to pop out here immediately is the new High bay
construction. Tons of parts are on site and Bluezilla in the middle is ready for work.
But this wouldn’t be SpaceX, if these pictures were not already outdated.
Only one day later, the site looked like this. Maria Pointer was on site again, taking this video of the very beginnings of
construction for the tallest building in Boca Chica yet. At the rate, at which SpaceX is going forward though,
it won’t take long at all.
I said four weeks a week ago and it really does look like that
at least the walls will be up by then,
maybe even more. It’s a joy to see the team on site work like this.
Everyone follows a precise plan. If we take another look at Mauricios footage,
there’s another site of interest and yet again another perfect example How birds eye views
sometimes give the superior view point. Just north of the high bay there’s a new development. Yet
another patch of land is being prepared for build activity. Workers have already started filling and grading the site. It’s unknown right now,
what SpaceX is building there, but if you look around, one thing becomes apparent
quickly. More storage space would be a great thing to have.
So, it might just be a storage building, but even that would be yet another step towards an even more professional site.
On we go with another indicator for SpaceX changing course yet again. Do you see the large steel rolls here.
These are 39 rolls of stainless steel. More than enough to build a complete starship.
If you look here though, which is the ring manufacturing building used to make all the ring segments for Starship construction,
you can quickly see, that the building is at minimum activity right now.
Musk announced a while ago, that SpaceX in Boca Chica will switch from 301 Stainless to 304L,
which is a low carbon variant of stainless steel, making welding easier, corrosion even less of a problem and material strength at cryogenic
temperatures even better than with 301. Remember, how the last test tank only leaked and didn’t burst? My guess
is, that these newly delivered rolls of steel are the new
304L Stainless, which will be used to produce future Starship prototypes from now on.
So, if I’m right, expect ring production to go up quite a bit in the coming weeks again.
On we go with the launch site, where Starship Serial Number 5 is still waiting for a static fire.
Everything is set after last weeks cryo proof tests and SpaceX has announced new test dates.
Every day from today on until next weeks Wednesday. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
That’s SpaceX. And SpaceX has announced again, what the dates are to be used for. Today with backups tomorrow and Sunday are for static fire activity.
Monday through Wednesday are for a 150-meter hop! Now don’t get your hopes up just yet.
We’ve seen this a few times and problems during preparation have always prevented us from getting the first flight with a Starship tank stack,
but it yet again shows, that if everything goes right this time, we should have our first 150 meter hop by next week.
We’re not done yet with the landing site yet though. As predicted on a recent episode,
SpaceX is starting to close the gap between the old test stand and the new super heavy launch support structure on the other side.
Terrain grading has continued over the last few days all around the landing pad and the second layer is being put on top already.
This connects the two until now separate sites and turns the launch site into one large complex of structures.
I am still keen to see, if SpaceX will also rework the fuel farm in the process,
but this will likely if ever happen after the
150-meter hop. One indicator for the fuel farm getting a rework soon is this recently set up new flare stack
location. It really looks temporary, if you ask me. SpaceX needed the flare back and just put it there quickly.
Nothing to stay for long. Since Musk already said, that SpaceX wants to use large
condensers to reuse methane and get rid of the flare stack altogether,
I wouldn’t be surprised, if it’s gone as soon as the 150 meter hop has happened. It’s not official though,
so we’ll have to wait and see. Last but not least,
lets have another close look at the new Super Heavy launch pad which is under construction right now.
Now, that drilling seems to be done,
we can make out more details.
The three holes drilled down and later filled up with large pillars of rebar reinforced concrete are set up in a triangular shape.
Excavators have begun digging out a circular trench between them and there are pins sticking out in the middle.
I am not sure, if these are just sticks to mark positions or permanent structure,
but it indicates, that there is going to be structure in the middle as well.
If we look at the design of the launch mount, that we saw on the
animation released by SpaceX last year,
the only structure here to need the three concrete pillars as foundation would be the large stacking and access crane.
I am not to sure yet, where SpaceX will point the flame diverter.
It surely can’t be towards the road. Maybe towards the landing pad?
There are tons of parts next to the construction as well. More rebar, large bent tubes and all sorts of other stuff,
so expect this construction to go up fast as well. Last but not least, I want to give a shout out to iCANimation
and Space Intelligence. Carlos has done an absolutely awesome job lately of capturing
SpaceX’s work in Boca Chica from the viewing angle of an artist.
These pictures are stunning.
Great job.
Go check him out on twitter! Link is in the description! If you want to get more info about SpaceX's Starship development
details, about what exactly they're doing and lots and lots of other interesting insights into Blue Origin, NASA, Rocket Lab
and many other launch providers and their rockets,
I suggest you check out my quickly growing library of episodes!
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We’re now about half way through the year. 2020 has been a very strange one so far but
SpaceX seems to not take notice at all. Their progress is going strong as always
and we’re up for a few more major milestones within the next few months!
Boeing Starliner: The Verdict The second topic for today goes to
SpaceX’s biggest competitor when it comes to human space flight. The investigation by NASA
regarding Boeings crew capsule Starliner are over. But what did they find?
Let’s dive right in! It was December 20th of last year. A Boeing Starliner capsule was sitting on top of a ULA
Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaverals Space Launch Complex 41 in Florida. The rocket launched with a picture perfect
launch done by ULA and then Starliner failed to reach its intended orbit,
circled the planet for two days and landed safely back in New Mexico two days later.
But what went wrong? NASA has now finished it’s so called high visibility this
finally gives us the whole picture and what needs to be done for a second orbital flight test
later this year, which still needs a firm launch date.
There were three main problems with Starliner that could have possibly even led to the loss of the capsule had the ground control team not
intervened. The mission elapsed timer, an internal clock on board the capsule, giving on board computers
information on where in the mission timeline the capsule is at any given time,
malfunctioned. It interpreted a time information, given by the Atlas V rocket
11 hours before the launch incorrectly and so Starliner was never able to tell the correct timeline even right after launch.
Secondly there was a software issue in Starliner onboard systems,
that would have possibly caused the capsule to crash into the service module after
separation. And last but not least, the Starliner capsule experienced a communication link issue
which prevented the ground crew from sending commands to the capsule in flight.
Those are only the serious problems though, that could have caused a catastrophic loss of the vehicle.
NASA investigators presented Boeing with a list of 80 final
recommendations after finishing their checks on July 7th.
The list includes recommendations to software changes, hardware improvements and to processes and operational improvements involving the way, how Boeing
personnel has to work from now on. And Boeing seems to take it very seriously. Work has already started to implement every single
recommendation on NASA’s list and Boeing seems to even go beyond. On June 21st
for example, Boeing conducted a so called balloon drop test with a boiler plate Starliner capsule as part of a supplemental
reliability campaign focusing on the parachute design to further validate the system’s capabilities.
The high altitude balloon drop, white sands
New Mexico in the United States utilized a helium balloon to send the capsule up into the atmosphere.
Once the test altitude is reached, the capsule separates from the balloon and starts the parachute deployment sequence
to test the behavior under dynamic abort conditions.
Six seconds into the flight, small parachutes were deployed to lift Starliners forward heat shield away.
Ten seconds later the capsules two drogue chutes were deployed.
Then a fault was deliberately introduced into the system, preventing one of Starliners three main chutes to deploy.
At 98 seconds into the test only two of the three pilot chutes were fired resulting in only two of the main chutes deploying.
Despite higher loads, Starliners parachutes seemed to handle the situation just fine and the test resulted in a successful landing.
Boeing is
determined to not let anything go wrong again on the second orbital flight test to be conducted later this year. NASA’s commercial crew program
needs a second team to succeed and there right now is no
alternative to Boeing. Human space flight is the crown of any space flight activity. To achieve this goal,
a strict plan has to be in place and innovative ways have to be found. The same goes for achieving your own goals in life.
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So, this wraps up todays Episode of What about it!?
Do you have any idea, into which direction the flame diverter in Boca Chica will point and are you as confident as Boeing about
Starliners second try to reach the ISS? As always, tell me in the comments!