Now, will you have a look at that!
Finally!
My name is Felix, and I’m your host for today's episode of What about it.
SpaceX is fixing some critical problems with their Starship they’ve been pushing around for some time now.
It’s about time! And they’ve done another launch marathon with 3 launches in under 36 hours.
Plus, Rocket Lab launched out of the US for the first time ever!
Stay tuned, and let’s dive right in!
Starship Updates
SpaceX’s Starbase hit another milestone.
Ship 24 is out of heavy maintenance mode, and there’s something else of significance going on.
These pictures from December 13th and onwards tell a story.
Cladding has been added to the Orbital Launch tower for a while now,
and SpaceX has also started adding it to the piping going up on the Orbital Launch Mount legs.
SpaceX is closing all the access points on their launch hardware.
And here’s a picture of the blast berm between the orbital Starship Launch mount and the orbital Tank Farm.
I talked about it in the last episode.
It’s being raised. Judging by the workers present in the picture, we’re talking at least 6-7 feet or two meters.
My friend Mauricio did another one of his regular fly over’s and took these pictures of the Orbital Launch Site from above.
You can see the plumbing going up on the legs and the added lids to close them off.
And you can see the concrete work under the launch mount.
SpaceX has completely removed the concrete.
Rebar is sticking out of the ground, and there are wood planks in a geometric shape.
Five of them. Since the launch mount itself has 6 legs, they don’t correspond with it.
It’s concrete formwork. You make these wooden forms if you want to pour concrete in a specific shape.
So, SpaceX is working on something new here.
Not just an even concrete surface under the mount, but instead something specialized.
In the middle, directly under the launch mount, there is a central ring.
Some sort of either different material or structure will be here soon.
Are we finally going to see a flame diverter under the pad?
What do you think? What is the formwork for?
Let me know in the comments below!
Looking at the big picture of the orbital launch site reveals quite a few changes to the shape of the site.
It’s growing massively. All around the southern side, grading work is in progress.
The land is being cleared and prepared for future construction.
Both near the suborbital test pads and close to Mechazilla and the orbital launch mount.
Both are likely for very different reasons.
At the suborbital test pads, where SpaceX launched their high-altitude test flights two years ago,
.. man, it's been some time ..
the area is likely being prepared for retention ponds and a larger tank farm upgrade.
This old tank farm is from the very early days of Starbase testing.
It wasn’t meant to be used for long and it does look like it’s finally seeing an upgrade.
The retention pond for the suborbital pads is a requirement for the environmental assessment.
Any and all water and fluid spillage at these pads need to be properly collected to make the facility as environmentally friendly as possible,
and SpaceX is working on it.
Surrounding the orbital launch mount, it’s a different story.
Where the work on the side of the OLM is definitely also related to a retention Pond for the Orbital Launch Mount for the same reason the retention
pond is made at the suborbital pads…
This is a different story altogether.
"what's this, what's this, it's covered everywhere!"
The square elevated dirt foundation.
The sturdy outlining and the attention to a smooth and level terrain are standing out.
This could well be the location for a second orbital Starship Launch tower.
As soon as we see plumbing work going from one of the two tank farms toward this location, we’ll know for sure.
One other possible solution could be a small high bay.
A Starship or booster bay for maintenance and storage.
Either way, it is extremely exciting to see SpaceX continue the build process at Starbase.
And just before Mauricio did his flyover, this happened.
What an absolutely amazing video!
Thank you, SpaceX, and congrats to the drone pilot.
Perfect shot! Let’s look at it again in slow motion!
OK, again! This time, slowed down 4 times and AI-enhanced to make more details visible!
Right off the start, you can see the deluge system running, spewing water out under the test pad.
That is why SpaceX is building the retention ponds right now.
The water needs to be collected in the future.
Then comes the ignition with incredible force, even though it’s just a single engine running.
The reason for this test is unknown, but as there was more oxygen than methane in the tanks,
this could have possibly been another autogenous pressurization system test.
Vibrations can be seen shaking Starship 24 during the test.
The heat shield is facing up in this video, and I can’t see any tiles falling off.
All in all a very clean burn and a testament to Raptor 2 as a very reliable engine by now.
A very important aspect of a successful Starship program.
Looking at a 139-megapixel composite picture taken by Chief on December 16th, so one day after the Static fire reveals problems, though.
The heat shield is still giving SpaceX trouble.
Missing tiles and a whole batch of tiles almost falling off at the top of the methane tank section.
It is one of the parts that recently got fixed when the scaffolding was used to upgrade the heat shield.
That fix didn’t work.
Yes, you heard me right. The Picture has a resolution of 100005 by 13925 pixels.
One of the advantages of becoming a Patron of What about it is that you get direct access to these kinds of pictures on a weekly basis.
Check the link in the description!
On we go with a correction from the last episode and a very interesting comparison.
In the last episode, I mentioned that Ship 25 might be the one to do a payload delivery for the first time.
Starlink v2 is waiting, after all.
If you take a closer look at this picture, though, you might notice some holes in the payload door.
This is a 100% indicator of the door having been welded shut the same way as the payload door on Ship 24.
So, no payload on Ship 25 either.
Thank you, Grandpa Joe! Lots of love to you and your family!
So, ships 24 and 25 won’t have a payload door, and we’re beginning to wonder why this could be.
Why would SpaceX build and then basically render a vital system useless by welding the payload door shut on Ships 24 and 25?
That’s all this is about right now.
Deliver the Starlink v2 satellites to orbit.
Even if the Starship is not recoverable, this will still make SpaceX a lot of money.
Just to give you an idea, here’s a size comparison, Owe from SpaceX 3D creation eccentric made for us.
V1 on the left and v2 on the right.
3x1.5 meters versus 7x3 meters.
More than double the size and ten times the in and output.
Where Starlink v1 was a game changer, v2 will be the true foundation.
With it, SpaceX will be able to deliver to so many more customers, making Starlink a real competitor and not just a tool for niche situations.
So, why weld the payload door shut then?
One possible reason could be a detected design flaw.
The payload door is an interruption in internal structural bracing.
This poses a weak spot on the load-bearing structure of the Starship.
Once the engines on the bottom of the second stage Starship start pushing,
something called the thrust structure is supposed to redirect the force upwards through the rocket.
To make it fly and not just get squished as an empty coke can.
If the payload door poses too much of a weak point, the design needs to be changed.
This, of course, is pure speculation.
There is no official information as to the real reason, but it must be something recurring.
It’ll be interesting to see if we can spot differences in later prototypes in the coming weeks.
On we go with three back-to-back Falcon 9 launches from SpaceX in under 36 hours!
Demonstrating the reliability of the Falcon 9 Rocket over and over again, SpaceX is making the last few days of 2022 count!
The first launch in the triple feature was SWOT, or the surface and ocean topography mission from NASA.
The launch marked the 101st launch of NASA’s launch services program, and it was a full success with a very important payload for NASA.
Already in operation now, SWOT measures the elevation of surface water in our oceans, lakes, and rivers.
This way, data can be collected on water distribution simply by precisely measuring the height of rivers and lakes.
In fact, it’s the first-ever global view of our ever-changing water supplies utilizing Karin or the Ka-band Radar Interferometer.
It uses the two antennas on either side of the spacecraft in order to bounce off signals of both antennas at the same time to get a much larger
view of the surface at very high resolution and accuracy rates.
It is a classic pathfinder mission to address questions about climate change and our knowledge of the global water budget.
Understanding that water is a finite source and having better prediction models for our future is very important.
SWOT's capabilities are a quantum leap, enabling us to cover the entirety of Earth’s surface at least twice every 21 days.
It was an RTLS or return-to-launch-site mission.
Those got rare in 2022 as SpaceX landed a lot of its Falcon 9 boosters out at sea and not back at the pad.
Launched out of Vandenberg on December 16th and returned back to the landing site seven minutes and 34 seconds later,
it marked yet another successful mission for SpaceX and NASA.
Next up, on the same day at 5 48 pm eastern time and out of SLC40 at Kennedy Space Center, we had SES O3b mPOWER!
Boeings second generation medium Earth orbit low latency communication satellite constellation.
That's a word.
Two satellites were delivered with a 6-minute delay in deployment.
Again, beautiful launch execution.
No issues detected, and perfect lift-off of Falcon 9 and SES O3b mPOWER times two, weighing in at 3.4 tons!
Beautiful landing out at sea in the Atlantic Ocean on a shortfall of gravitas.
A hefty orbit raise to reach medium Earth orbit.
Some absolutely stunning Earth views as the second stage continued to race away from our planet.
And sadly, since the camera was just pointed at the payload adapter fitting, the deployments were outside the viewing angle, but telemetry confirmed.
Two good deployments. Well done!
We’re still not done yet! Are you still with me?
You’re a die-hard space fan!
On we go with the last one in the 36-hour triple feature!
A good old Starlink launch! What’s to say, besides SpaceX demonstrating something others don’t?
Falcon 9 has demonstrated to be the most reliable, cheapest, and most advanced rocket to date.
16 tons of advanced communication satellites out of Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center.
December 17th at 4 32 pm eastern time.
Flight number 15 for booster b1058, this time with almost 98 days of turnaround time, likely for some advanced checkups.
And a perfect landing 655 kilometers out at sea in the Atlantic ocean on just read the instructions.
Flight number 15 done for booster b1058.
Number sixteen likely already booked.
Routine operations of something no one else can repeat.
Huge congratulations to Elon Musk, Gwynne Shotwell, and the entire SpaceX team.
Beautiful to watch and still mind-blowing.
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That’s it for today! Make sure to check out our WAI Wear merch store!
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And if you want to get even smarter about Space and rockets, watch this video next to continue the journey!
Thank you very much for watching, and I’ll see you again in the next episode!