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How exactly does Mechazilla work?
How do chopsticks catch rockets?
Were there any problems with the Starship 20 static fire?
What are three Taikonauts doing in a heavenly palace and why is it important?
And who the heck came up with all these crazy names at SpaceX’s Starbase?
Let’s find out!
My name is Felix, and I am your host for today’s episode of What about it!?
And as always, there’s been a lot going on in the space industry lately, so let's dive right in!
Starship Updates
First, I was sick with the flu and then I was gone on a trip to the Island of Mallorca and it feels overwhelming to see,
what’s happened in just 14 days since the last Episode!
SpaceX is racing down the milestone road and we’re along for the ride!
And the highlight for Starship and Starbase in the last week definitely was the progress on Mechazilla, SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy catcher.
These pictures were taken by Starship Gazer.
One of the most active contributors at Starbase and for the Spaceflight community.
Links to his Twitter and YouTube channels can be found in the description!
Go, check him out!
And what you’re looking at here,
is the assembly stand used by the SpaceX workers to put together three main parts that have been worked on for a while now.
Two Chopsticks and one carriage sled.
And all three together are what’s going to be the main catch mechanism for Starships and Super Heavy Boosters down the line.
First, SpaceX workers positioned the carriage frame onto the assembly stand and then on October 10th,
they lifted one of two Chopsticks into place.
Most of the names like Chopsticks or Mechazilla come from Elon Musk himself.
So, they have the meme lords touch and sound a bit funny.
That doesn’t mean though, that this project is not dead serious.
SpaceX intends to catch the largest rocket ever built out of mid air with these chopsticks when it comes back down for a landing.
All this is done to reduce weight and get rid of unnecessary parts on the rocket itself.
In theory a Starship or a Super Heavy booster does not need legs for a landing if Mechazilla works as intended.
On the Moon and on Mars that’s a different story,
but here on our home planet it will give SpaceX even more payload capacity and a less complex rocket to work with.
Just what you need if you’re constructing a rocket.
My friend Owe from SpaceX 3D Creation eccentric has released the best and - as most of the time - only animation out there.
It shows, when exactly and what exactly happened so far.
On October 6th, SpaceX workers placed the carriage system, which will slide along the tower, pulled by the Drawworks system on the tower,
on the assembly stand. On October 10th then SpaceX proceeded in placing the first chopstick into position.
The second Chopstick was placed in position on October 12th.
Both chopsticks are held together on a single joint in the middle.
So, they’re on the same vertical axis of rotation, able to open and close almost like a hand.
In the center of the joint is a massive roller bearing to ensure friction free and quick movement.
In theory even slightly up and down.
As always, Owe went into great detail, showing how the roller bearing works.
Of course, SpaceX is mainly using parts that already existed before.
But what they’re supposed to do now and how they’re assembled is completely new.
No one has ever tried to catch such a large rocket and no one has ever tried it with a launch tower.
It’s hard to grasp the size from these pictures.
These chopsticks are 35 meters or 105 feet long.
A mid-sized US school bus for example is around 10 meters long.
So, one chopstick is more than three times the length of one of these.
They also have a special system attached to them.
Moving bars. They can extend upwards.
The use is still speculative,
but they could either be used to align the caught rockets and they could be shock absorbers for when the Ships and boosters make contact with
the catch mechanism. They will likely also be used for precision stacking as there’s one more mechanism in place supporting this theory.
Two Linear drives with ball screw on each of the chopsticks.
In combination with the movable bars they will give SpaceX the ability to precisely place Boosters on the launch mount and Starships on top of
the boosters. This is key for the extremely fast launch cadence planned by SpaceX.
Stacking operations need to be done within hours at most and repeated multiple times per day if three launches per day and per pad are to be made reality in the future.
And finally, to move the whole assembly up and down for stacking, the assembly will be connected via a hock block to the top of the tower.
Massive steel cables will be connected to the whole mechanism.
The carriage system will slide along rails already installed on the integration tower with these rollers.
Mauricio from RGV was able to take a stunning picture of those carts that will roll up and down along the tower’s sides.
Four guide rolls on each corner and many in the middle to reduce friction as much as possible.
This will enable SpaceX to lift boosters and Ships up and down,
move them left and right with the chopsticks and accomplish all of it without a crane.
To lift the whole assembly,
SpaceX will use an oil rig drawworks system already attached to the tower all the way at the base and on the opposite side.
It basically is a very large winch combined with a strong disc brake system.
It’s a technology taken from oil rigs, where they’re used to lift and lower the drill stack.
And it’s no coincidence that oil rig tech is used.
SpaceX is planning to launch Starships from their sea launch platforms in the future.
Those essentially are modified oil rigs, which will make integration of the same system used at Starbase much easier on the offshore launch platforms.
Massive thanks go out to Owe again for closely working together with WAI and making some absolutely unique animations for all of us.
Thank you, Owe. You rock!
So, now that you’re up to speed on how exactly Mechazilla will work and at what stage of assembly it currently is,
let’s look at SpaceX’s next batch of prototypes.
Ship 21 and booster 5.
On Mauricio’s latest flyby from October 6th it could already be seen.
SpaceX’s progress at Starbase is lightning fast.
4 Grid Fins in position for installation.
Yet another booster ready for final assembly.
SpaceX is not settling on Booster 4 and Ship 20.
They’re manufacturing a whole batch of orbital test candidates and Booster 5 and Ship 21 are next in line and nearing completion already.
By now, Booster 5 has received all 4 grid fins inside the high bay and is waiting for the final stack.
As said on the last episode,
it has a few differences in manufacturing compared to Booster 4. Preinstalled raceways and possibly a header tank inside the booster's main oxygen
tank for boost back, reentry and landing burns.
Having received the fins, Booster 5’s hull is now only two stacks away from completion.
The top section reaching down to the common dome needs to be stacked on the mid-section reaching down to the engine section and the mid-section
needs to be stacked onto the engine section.
That’s it. Another week maybe?
Ship 21 has seen equally fast progress.
Starbricks everywhere. These are the nose cone and the fairing section directly under it of Ship 21.
It looks a bit like Swiss cheese, but the heat tiles, now known to be called Starbricks,
are almost done and they do look more uniform than what was seen on Ship 20.
Is Ship 20 ever going to reach orbit or will number 21 be the first to try and reach the milestone of circling our planet and reentering again?
As always, tell me in the comments!
Next up we’ll talk Starship 20 static fire, NASA wanting to observe a Starship reentry,
Taiconauts being busy on a heavenly palace and the future of Space Stations in general, because the ISS is not getting younger, so stay tuned! It’s worth it!
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Progress was made on Ship 20 in preparation for what we’ve all been waiting for while now.
Raptor roar in Boca Chica!
All seems quiet on RGV Aerial photography’s last picture taken of Ship 20 on suborbital Pad B. Too quiet.
We’ve been waiting for a static fire for some time now.
Starship Gazer was able to take some uplifting pictures, though, if you get what I mean.
SpaceX workers have recently installed vacuum Raptors on the prototype again.
No doubt in preparation for the static fire.
This returns orbit capability back to Ship 20 once more and it signals that all the talk about this prototype never doing anything,
clearly is wrong. The heat shield is ready.
Engines are being installed. SpaceX is more ready than ever before to light this candle for the first time.
Right now, one normal Raptor and one vacuum Raptor are installed.
So, we’re still missing 4 engines for a full complement, but that can change quickly.
And then it happened! This footage is brand new.
If you’re watching this episode early, it’s less than 24 hours since it happened.
Ship 20’s first static fire and it looks like it was just one engine.
It’s hard to tell, but it looks like it was the freshly installed vacuum Raptor.
Very short duration. Almost no burn, but it looked clean.
No audible sound. Maybe it was a preburner test for the single RVac.
Luis was very excited and rightfully so!
There are no pictures of it yet, but he said that some TPS tiles, aka Starbricks, fell off after the test.
I’ll post pictures on Twitter as soon as I have them!
Tonight, there’s another test window and tomorrow too, so we might see more static fires very soon!
The excitement is building up.
Ship 20 is alive and kicking!
We have new test dates coming in on a daily basis right now as well!
More and more road closures are announced.
Ranging from yesterday, October 18th to tomorrow, October 20th as of recording the episode.
All in the evening and all perfect for static fires!
Last week, SpaceX wanted to do the static fire, but nothing happened.
An over pressure notice was already given out to local residents but then something must not have been completely the way SpaceX wanted it to be.
This week it happened but we’ll need more static fires for Ship 20 and it’s half of what we need for the orbital flight.
Booster 4 will have to do a static fire as well!
Regarding the readiness of the Starship program and SpaceX’s internal plans and schedules, NASA has recently announced a very exciting project.
They want to study a Starship reentry in March of 2022.
Let me introduce you to the NASA WB-57 high altitude Atmospheric research plane.
One of several planes in service at NASA, it’s been used many times for SpaceX missions in the past.
More precisely for recovery operations of Dragon capsules.
It is capable of recording reentry and descend of a capsule from a unique vantage point.
From up to 18000 meters above sea level.
Now, NASA has announced that it will utilize such a plane for an extraordinary mission.
To study a Starship heat shield while its reentering Earth's atmosphere.
And maybe even more exciting, they’re stating a time frame for when this extraordinary observation is going to take place.
March 2022. This is definite proof once again that we’re very close to the orbital test phase.
NASA is creating a unique imaging system to view the reentry with an infrared camera mounted on the WB-57.
It will give them the ability to study temperature differences at great detail and in a way, it’s never been done before.
NASA’s hope is to help SpaceX reach their goal of creating an enormous heat shield that only needs minimal refurbishment after each launch.
This is key to the success of the whole Starship program which right now aims for a launch cost reduction at the order of one to two magnitudes
compared to today’s Falcon 9 launches.
And all this might be key to my last topic for today.
China is getting their next Space Station, called Tiangong or Heavenly Palace,
operational right now and the ISS still does not have a successor planned.
October 15th, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert.
A Long March 2F rocket with Taikonauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu at the top.
And lift off of Shenzou 13 towards the Chines Space station.
Flawless execution. Perfect flight.
By now they’ve already docked with the Station’s core module called Tianhe.
Five of eleven flights needed to build the station, which will be about 20% the size of the ISS in the books.
7 to go. A new record for the Chinese space program.
6 months mission duration, shattering Shenzou 12’s record of three month which launched in July.
China is ramping up their foothold in space with a very ambitious human spaceflight program,
rivalling the achievements of the so-called western world more and more.
The plan is to open up the station to other countries as soon as it’s operational and to cooperate more and more in the future.
And if there’s no change of plans on our side, this cooperation might be very much needed too.
The ISS is turning 21 on November 2nd.
Happy birthday! 21 years of successful space exploration in low Earth orbit.
21 years of an incredible story unrivalled by any other space project to date.
A collaboration among the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the participating nations of the European Space Agency (ESA).
And it still has some life left in it.
It’s officially approved to operate through December 2024 and an extension to the end of 2028 seems likely.
But what then? How is the story going to continue?
Maybe the likeliest candidate right now to take over the baton from the ISS might be Axiom Space.
Their plan is to start sending their first module, called Hub One, towards the ISS at the end of 2023.
Then a second hub, a lab and a power tower for life support, storage and payload capabilities.
And it’s not such a fictional idea either.
They’re building it right now, together with partners like NASA and SpaceX and with considerable funding.
Once finished the idea is to undock the station from the ISS, creating the first commercial space station in human history.
Before that, the station will almost double the pressurized volume of the ISS for some time.
With Bigelow aerospace and their famous inflatable space modules laying off their entire workforce in March of this year and Orion Space,
a California based space station startup not being able to secure funding time is running out for a new project to take over after the ISS.
It’s hard to tell, what’s next after the ISS, but a private approach certainly doesn’t sound bad at all after SpaceX’s success story.
The future of Spaceflight might be much more private than currently anticipated and it’s a future promising a bright new life in Space.
The next few years are shaping out to be the most exciting times we’ve ever seen when it comes to human spaceflight.
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Today’s supporter shout out goes to Ron Gumm, Dwan Thompson, DoD, Johnny North and many others!
You rock so incredibly much! Without you and countless others, we wouldn't produce this content, so the entire team's gratitude is yours!
Make sure to hop on our supporter exclusive Discord to join more than a thousand spaceflight enthusiasts and to give me a chance to thank you in person!
Today’s Team shout out goes to Luis Rodriguez for finishing his first month with us and for doing an absolutely stunning job.
I hope, you enjoyed your vacation week and we’re all looking forward to seeing more of your work in the future.
You’re our eyes and ears at Starbase!
You Rock!