This Episode is sponsored by Brilliant
What’s the progress on SpaceX’s Starship heat shield?
How many tiles are still missing?
Why do all the GSE tanks for the Starship orbital fuel farm look so different and how is Mechazilla coming along?
And did you miss the CRS-23 launch?
Don’t worry. I’ve got you covered.
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
Hello WAI family! Since the last episode many things have changed and probably the most profound change was presented to you on Wednesday.
WAI No comment. We have our own photographer carrying the WAI cam around at Starbase, Texas.
Not only can we now do an uncommented release of fresh pictures twice a week.
For the first time we also have our own picture source.
Made possible by you. So, thank you all for helping us make this possible and thanks to Luis, our new photographer,
for spending his time at Starbase to bring us the latest pictures and videos!
So, every time you see the credit WAI Cam Luis, you know it’s been done just for you and it’s exclusive to this channel.
In the end, this means 4 releases per week from now on.
Two regular WAI episodes and on top of that 2 more without a comment.
I read through your feedback on the first wai no comment release and it made me so incredibly proud to read from so many,
that my commentary is extremely important for you.
Thank you so much! So, without further ado, let’s dive right in!
What you’re looking at here is Starbase Texas viewed through Luis’s lens.
The launch site has been in constant change now for several months.
Of course, with one main reason.
Orbital launches.
Starship 20 has been sitting on Orbital Pad B for a while now.
One of the main reasons for it not undergoing its tests yet most likely is the heat shield.
SpaceX workers are constantly busy improving it more and more.
But how much have they done so far?
How close are we to a finished heat shield?
This is a picture taken by Mauricio from RGV Aerial Photography on August 14th.
So, almost 4 weeks ago. It shows Starship 20 on the SPMT.
Right after SpaceX started examining the shield.
Let’s compare this picture to another one taken by Luis two days ago.
And even at first glance you can see the difference immediately.
A lot of the tiles on the fairing section just below the forward flaps have already been replaced.
The heat shield is showing far less holes than before.
A lot of the tiles on the nose cone still need to be replaced though.
There are still spots on the left aft flap aero covers that need to be fixed.
On the right side though everything already sems to be done besides two little orange markers that are still left.
Looking at the heat shield in detail shows the problem.
Even though SpaceX made sure, that many of the thousands of tiles are shaped in the same way, there still are plenty that are unique.
Especially on the nose the shield is made up of ring like segments.
All the borders. Almost all the different tiles on the flap aero covers.
Unique shapes. That’s why we see so little problems below.
The big bulk of tiles below the nose section is always the same tile.
Hex shaped, Mass produced. Easy to replace.
It’s unimaginable, how much heat this shield will have to endure on reentry.
Due to the mass and surface area size of the Starship, it will generate extreme amounts of plasma.
So,
considering that SpaceX has been working on the shield for 4 weeks and considering that roughly half the defective tiles have been replaced by now,
it’s possible to say that this process of fixing the Starship 20 heat shield will at least take another 2-3 weeks at this speed if the tile bakery
located in Florida can supply the missing tiles in that time.
It’s essential to see, that the Starship 20 heat shield is the first prototype of such a construction.
Failure is likely and on top of that it’s one of the key designs.
It needs to be durable, easy to check and fix and it needs to be mass producible and reasonably cheap.
On the Space Shuttle for example none of these aspects were important.
It needed to do one flight and then had up to a year to get checked and fixed.
Starships will have hours for this task in the future.
What do you think? How long until SpaceX has the heat shield sorted out?
As always, tell me in the comments!
The other three components that need to be in place for the orbital flight to happen of course are the orbital tank farm,
the launch support tower and the orbital launch mount.
Regarding the orbital tank farm progress is nothing short of stunning.
Considering that SpaceX built these ground support equipment or GSE tanks inhouse at the Sanchez site next to the construction site and considering
that it only took them a few months from the first construction efforts to an almost finished tank farm for such a large rocket there can be nothing
but praise for SpaceX and the local workers.
GSE 7 has arrived on site on September 1st and is already being prepared for installation.
Technically al the GSE tanks have been at the launch site already.
It's past tense though. One has been brought back to the construction site.
GSE4 was moved from the construction site towards the launch site on August 23rd and then moved back to the construction site on September 1st.
Right now, it looks like this was yet another test tank to perform some pressure tests.
And there’s a good reason, why SpaceX already did so many GSE tests.
Many of you had questions about those GSE tanks.
What are they for? Why build them like this?
Why do all of them look slightly different?
Just by looking at the tanks, the differences become visible immediately.
They’re not all the same and there’s a reason.
SpaceX will need different commodities for the Starship and Super Heavy launches.
Water, Methane, Oxygen, Nitrogen.
All except the water cryogenically cooled.
And each substance needs slightly different tanks to provide the right environment.
Some tanks are larger, others smaller.
Some have ridges between the segments and others don’t.
Some need a cryogenic jacket for insulation and to reduce boil off.
Everyone who follows SpaceX’s Starship development closely knows that Musk and his team are pushing the envelope.
Tight deadlines for something that’s never been done before is no easy task.
And in the end, it’ll all have to work as intended.
In the worst-case scenario, a critical failure at the tank farm would mean a gigantic explosion.
SpaceX will need around 4600 tons of fuel and oxidizer alone to launch a single Starship.
And at the fuel farm those two substances are side by side which doesn’t create a particularly safe environment, if you get what I mean.
And those 4600 tons of fuel and oxidizer are right next to the launch site which makes safety even more important.
And the launch mount is far from being six steel pillars by now.
Workers have been incredibly busy installing all sorts of systems on the mount itself.
Even though SpaceX has decided to do fueling through the tower,
the launch mount still has to have all sorts of safety and launch related systems installed.
Again, the progress is mind blowing.
This turned from an empty pillar structure to a labyrinth of pipes, valves and panels in only a few weeks.
Next up We’ll talk Mechazilla again!
SpaceX has brought some very important parts into position!
Stay Tuned!
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And the crown jewel of course is this.
The quick disconnect fuel arm.
It’s been installed on the orbital launch support tower and again the complexity can be seen close up.
Whole raceways of pipes and cables are running along the arm.
It will have way more tasks than just the fueling of a Starship Stack.
Data connections, safety systems, fueling.
The same goes for the tower behind it.
More and more systems are being installed.
It’ll be incredible to see it work.
To see a quick disconnect arm retract for the first time shortly before the launch.
A beautiful night picture taken by Luis out at Starbase shows, that the construction is not complete yet.
Either the arm is still getting another segment or at least a tip.
The connector is missing, and it looks like the arm wouldn’t be able to reach the Starship like this.
There still are parts left to install.
Last but certainly not least we can take another good look at the famous SpaceX Starship Chopsticks.
The name comes directly from Elon Musk himself, who’s even been tweeting out some memes about it lately.
Chopsticks means giant catching arms for Starships and Super Heavy boosters to possibly be installed on a moving sled alongside the Launch Support
Tower. A while back Musk confirmed that the plan right now is to get rid of legs all together.
Neither Booster nor Starship will have any sort of landing mechanism on board.
Instead, the tower itself will try to catch the two out of mid air as they slowly descend towards the launch site.
SpaceX is running down the path to fully reusable rockets right now and towards a possible multiplanetary future.
But that’s not the only thing they’re working on.
CRS-23 Launch Report
On Sunday, August 29th SpaceX finally launched another CRS Dragon towards the ISS and it couldn’t have been a more picture perfect launch.
After being scrubbed on August 28th due to bad weather SpaceX went for it again immediately on the next day and this time the weather gods were
on Team Space’s side. Being the third[2nd] resupply mission for SpaceX this year and also the third mission in total for the upgraded Cargo Dragon
2 spacecraft, the importance of this launch for NASA was high.
This was flight number 4 for Booster B1061, which previously supported both Crew 1 and Crew 2.
It was also the first time that SpaceX has put their latest autonomous drone ship to use.
And it’s not just another Drone ship.
A shortfall of gravitas has some significant changes compared to the other two drone ships Of course I still love you and Just read the instructions.
The biggest difference between ASOG and the rest of the fleet is its design,
housing most of the equipment needed on the stern as well as on angled deck extensions,
it frees up deck space and protects the ship against not so soft landings.
It’s an evolution forward as always with SpaceX.
The payload on this commercial resupply service launch is equally impressive.
Apex-08 is researching genetically engineered seeds to create plants that are able to better cope with micro gravity.
The Faraday Research Facility for example is a multipurpose research facility that uses the space station’s EXPRESS racks to interface scientific payloads to the ISS.
Misse-15 is researching how concrete, fiberglass composites, solar cells,
radiation protection materials and more are behaving under the harsh environment of space.
The Japanese Nanoracks Gitai Robotic Arm will conduct a series of experiments and demonstrate how robotic labor can make the future of spaceflight
easier, safer and cheaper. This will also be very important on planets like Mars.
Readi-FP will further research bone loss.
A topic often researched on at the ISS and very important not only for Astronauts but also osteoporosis patients down here on Earth.
Retinal Diagnostics will test a small device which conducts diagnostics on Astronauts just by inspecting their retina.
This can be done remotely and will be very important for future deep space missions.
1046 kilograms of science. 338 kilograms of vehicle hardware.
480 kilograms of crew supplies.
In total 2207 kilograms of payload mass.
And everything went fine again.
Lift off under good weather conditions and without the chance of lightning strikes in the upper atmosphere as the day before.
Clear skies.
And wonderful pictures provided by SpaceX’s on board Go Pro cameras.
Meco and Stage separation as planned and without any visible problems.
The Falcon 9 at its best.
Mvac ignition and a beautiful corona surrounding the booster.
There weren’t that many good pictures of one of the most beautiful Falcon 9 stage separations in history,
so here’s John Winkopp’s beautiful work for your viewing pleasure.
The plume interaction with the booster was just stunning this time.
Sadly, at the press site, and that’s the reason for the lack of pictures, there was a thin layer of clouds covering the scene.
So, John came to the rescue. It looks as beautiful as an interplanetary nebula.
Just a tad bit closer to Earth…
The landing worked out incredibly well again on the new drone ship.
It’s routine seeing SpaceX land booster after booster and it as not different with B1061 and its fourth perfect landing dead center on the deck
of the brand-new drone ship. Spot on.
Well done, SpaceX!
The cargo dragon 2 separation went as planned as well and SpaceX showed us some absolutely fantastic on-board views again.
Stanley Kubrick would have been proud.
The capsule drifting away from the upper stage and in the background a sunrise above Earths atmosphere.
What more could we ask for? It really was stunning, you've got to look at the footage...It's like taaa-taaa-taa.
You know, like the capsule is just drifting away, it's amazing, it's really good.
And finally, on August 30th, CRS-23 docked with the ISS and without any problem.
It can not be overstated, that even though this looks like a routine job, it is nothing like it.
This is a challenging operation and only SpaceX’s and NASA’s combined talent makes it look so easy.
Boeing for example is still struggling to even reach orbit with their next gen capsule.
CRS-23 will stay at the ISS for a planned duration of 30 days before returning back to Earth and completing the mission.
This is the perfect example for SpaceX being involved in so many different sectors of the Spaceflight industry by now.
Starships, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.
Crew and Cargo dragon and countless other efforts.
Changing the way we access space on a daily basis.
Now, let’s talk Brilliant. I have a golden rule for sponsors.
I only accept those who I actually and personally like.
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I personally use Brilliant for my own research for WAI episodes all the time.
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You can read the explanations to find out more and learn at your own pace.
If you'd like to join me and a community of 8 million learners and educators today, click the link in the description down below or visit: https://brilliant.org/WhatAboutIt/!
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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 Heisey, Dianne, Sunny, Timo and many others again for pumping out code for our new website.
The release candidate is taking shape more and more and I can not tell you, how incredibly proud I am of what you’ve done.
I can not wait to show your work to the world of Spaceflight enthusiasts.
Thank you so much for helping us out!