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Hey Marcus House with you here. Along with the mountain of updates around SpaceX’s Starbase
facilities this week, there is a load of falcon 9 news, including the launch of NROL-85 hopefully
coming up over the weekend. All eyes are on Rocket Labs reusability test mission, crew 4 preparations
underway as the Axiom space team finalise their mission in preparation to return. Huge news for
Aerojet Rocketdyne, and of course the wet dress rehearsal of the Space Launch System.
A heap of testing continues this week with Booster 7 all in preparation to prove out the
vehicle for a potential first orbital test flight of the largest rocket ever created.
The entire space community is waiting (probably impatiently like many of us) wanting to see the
FAA approvals come very soon. But at this stage, the delay in approval hasn’t stopped
the progress at Starbase in Boca Chica. Last weekend Ship 24’s 12 ring high section
consisting of the common dome, middle liquid oxygen and aft sections was removed from the
turntable in the high bay and placed onto a transport stand. This was after having
the sections welded together using the new robot welder that's high up on the wall.
It was then moved over into the mid bay where its downcomer was lifted up and installed into the
vehicle. That of course sits between the oxygen tank below and the methane tank above and allows
the methane to flow through to the Raptor engines. Ship 24’s nose cone was moved from tent 3 and
exited the facility, making its way down Highway 4 with these spectacular sights. It soon entered
back into the production facility down the road and was moved over to the high bay. That night,
its nose cone barrel section also made a break for the high bay, following the same path the
nose cone had taken just a couple hours before. During the move, we were also offered a close up
view of the payload dispenser which now has a door installed which was closed and sealed, something
that we had not seen before. Additionally, lean-in’s had been added to the section,
which allows the nose cone to be guided onto the nose cone barrel to be easily stacked on top.
All this of course was indicating that nose cone stacking was imminent. And yes, the nose cone
barrel was moved into the high bay and onto the turntable that allows for welding using the robot.
A change from previous nosecones that were welded by hand in the lowbay. The next day,
the nose cone was hooked up to the bridge crane and it was stacked. This will hopefully be the
first orbital class, payload capable ship and is crucial for the future of Starlink. For the next
few days we saw the noseone slowly rotate on the turntable as the welding robot joined the
two sections together. Really nice to see the improvements in construction like this
over time. Also in the Highbay is Booster 8's liquid oxygen tank assembly consisting
of the common dome and aft section number 2. This assembly was stacked on the aft
section number 3 on Thursday night bringing the liquid oxygen tank to 12 out of 24 rings tall.
Now what was surprising to me was that the new stretch formed dome that we talked about a few
weeks ago has now been moved to the scrap yard, indicating that it was just built as a pathfinder
or had an issue of some sort. Early in the week, a newly built stretch dome emerged from the tent,
however, it didn't last long as it too was scrapped with workers making cuts into the dome.
That was later moved to the scrap yard as well, so it's unknown what's going on there. I’m hoping
we will soon see one of these domes being used on an upcoming vehicle. It is possible I guess that
a test tank would need to be built to allow the testing of these new domes before this can happen.
But guess what, on that same day, yet another new dome appeared in the yard, bringing the total
to 3 so far. So yes, they are starting to pump these out now. On Thursday that 3rd new dome
was lifted up and placed onto the sleeving stand and was later sleeved with a stack of
2 rings. This could be a welding pathfinder, or possibly for the start of a test tank.
A new nose cone barrel, presumably for ship 25, was also spotted in the nose yard with gaps
in the internal stringers to support a payload bay door similar to Ship 24’s.
Over at the launch site, the SpaceX LR11000 crane detached from Booster 7,
leaving it freestanding on the booster test stand dubbed the can crusher. Later on,
ground support equipment hoses were attached, and then on Tuesday at 10am the road was closed and
an announcement was heard over the PA announcing a pad clear at 11:30 for booster 7 operations.
Several hours later, venting was visible from Booster 7, presumably depressing its
tanks after an ambient nitrogen pressure test. This is the first time that the booster cryo
station pipes have ever been used as far as I’m aware, so they are most likely taking these
first tests quite slowly and carefully. Then on Wednesday the road was closed just after 11am
and 2 hours later the pad was cleared. After an hour of tank farm venting, a frostline
formed on Booster 7's LOX tank which indicates cryogenic liquid nitrogen was being loaded.
Not too long after, frost started to form on the methane tank as well. If you look closely at the
wall of frost on the bottom tank you may notice the ice falling off in chunks every few seconds.
This looks similar to the old puck shucking tests we’ve seen in the past of Ships.
Could it be that we were seeing a structural test of the 13 inner engines using the thrust rams on
the booster testing stand. Let me know what you think in the comments below. After a few
hours of testing, the frost line on both tanks started to decrease as the tanks depressurized.
All four of the flight recorders were removed from Ship 20 which adds further evidence that there is
no hypersonic test flight planned for the vehicle. Add to this its recent move next to suborbital pad
B, the thought is that it can only be here for either storage or additional ground testing if it
even does get placed onto the pad. We also finally bid farewell to Ship 21 with SpaceX slicing into
it on Friday. Not particularly surprising as it has been sitting here inactive for many weeks.
SpaceX is making rapid progress on the construction of Florida’s Starship
tower at the roberts road facility. In the latest pad 39a flyover by NASASpaceFlight,
we can see that there are now enough foundations in place to pre-assemble all 8 and half segments
of the tower. Of which the first four are now being completed. The Florida sections appear
to be taking a slightly different approach. Having those 9 concrete bases implies that
Starship’s Florida launch tower could be almost entirely prefabricated before SpaceX begins to
transport them to the pad. Once they start to roll out these segments in a month or so,
we should expect the tower to go up very quickly. Compare this to Starbase, where SpaceX were
constructing two or three tower sections at a time before moving them to the pad and stacking
each completed section straight away. Once the structure of the tower was completed at Starbase,
workers then had to spend months outfitting the tower with plumbing, wiring and more.
This didn't seem very efficient and would have been a safer process lower to the ground. It
seems that SpaceX has decided to do as much of that work on the ground before the tower
is assembled. We can already see the bumpers or stoppers installed on the first tower section
which were not installed onto Starbases tower until after it was fully assembled at the pad.
Those allow the chopsticks to rest on at the base of the tower. Additionally, all sections
are having the rails for the chopsticks installed on the ground. Along with a few other additions,
all this is a change from Starbase's tower. Furthermore, a newly released
document from January 10th indicates that the construction of a 100 meter high bay officially
named the "Cape High Bay" has been proposed at Roberts Road, but the case has still not
been studied. The work schedule is between March 1st to December 1st, pending a study by the FAA.
Over at Pad 39a, we were offered some aerial views by SpaceX in the recent Axiom 1 launch,
showing the progressing work of the tower base. The bottom half of the concrete base that the
first steel tower section sits on has progressed rapidly. However, in Starbase, at that point of
the tower construction, the six pillars for the launch pad were already erected out of the ground.
Regarding the tank farm for Starship at pad 39a, workers have been seen over at the old hydrogen
storage sphere that was used for the Saturn V and Shuttle. It seems that this sphere is
being converted to support liquid methane storage as we see tanks installed next to
the sphere. Then there is a lot of tanks and subcooling systems possibly for Liquid oxygen
right here. All this ramping up of the Florida Starbase facilities should mean that Starship
will be able to begin orbital test flights within the next year to ensure that the Starship program
will stay alive even if the Starbase environmental review continues to halt flights out of Texas.
So yes, a lot of Starship activity but also this little gem if you love Starship animations. TijnM
released this video called "Mission to Mars" which shows what a future Starship mission to
the red planet could look like. A massive 3 minute production and only a tiny teaser here for you.
A link to that is in the description so check it out. I would have taken forever to put together.
Show your support there which is most handy for anyone putting in all this effort. It isn’t always
easy for this work to get the attention that it deserve so thanks for helping spread the word.
Likewise of course for you being right here watching. Thank you for coming back
each and every Saturday, and of course if you are visiting for the first time a big welcome to you.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch of the NROL-85 mission from Vandenberg
Space Force Base in California is currently scheduled to fly
on Sunday. This is a National Reconnaissance Office satellite and is actually the second
SpaceX NRO launch this year. The fourth overall. [Ad Start] I’ll jump into that in just a moment
but first, a huge thank you to Squarespace today for their support of this video.
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When creating email campaigns for them, just like with the website templates offered,
there is an email template selector to get you started.To give it a try, just head to
squarespace.com/marcushouse and save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. You’ll find
that link in the description below. [Ad End] So yes, it is nice to see the NRO embracing
SpaceX’s launch systems still. This is all after proving themselves back on the mission in 2017
with the NROL-76 mission into low earth orbit from the Kennedy Space Center. Remember back
then at the time, the NRO didn't want to use a reused booster, nor did they want to even risk
it being landed with reduced fuel margin. Due to that SpaceX had no choice but to fully expend
that booster. It took another three years before the second flight with NROL-108 in 2020. But a
lot had changed with SpaceX more than proving the reliability of reused boosters at that point. In
that flight they flew a booster that had already been used four times. Of course, that brings us to
2022 this year with the third NROL-87 mission two months ago in February using a brand new Falcon 9.
This is booster 1071. The exact same booster core being used for this NROL-85 mission making its
second flight. These missions are of course highly classified, and there is an absence of
information available about these spacecraft. This mission returns to landing zone 4 which
should mean a beautiful crisp signal on the way down. Speaking of which, as I mentioned last week,
it was a little odd to see that clear footage all the way to the drone ship with the Axiom launch.
Well, there was a reason for that. Musk informed us that this was due to there being Starlink
terminals bolted to the deck now which can handle the vibrations much better. Hopefully we get to
see more of that on future drone ship landings. The launch a few months ago and this mission are
part of a 300 million dollar deal between SpaceX and the US Air force, but it also
includes another US Air Force satellite, USSF-44. That is an exciting one scheduled
to be launched on a Falcon Heavy this June if everything goes according to plan. Can’t wait
for that one. It has been far too long since we’ve seen the magic of a Falcon Heavy launch.
While we are on the topic of SpaceX launching military satellites. South Korea had recently
announced that they signed a contract with SpaceX to launch five of their military spy satellites to
Low Earth Orbit by 2025. The first satellite is planned to be launched by the end of 2023
using Falcon 9. We don’t know a huge amount for similar security reasons, but it is going to weigh
about 800 kilograms, and was described as an electro-optical infrared satellite.
This is the second time South Korea has contracted SpaceX who launched the
Anasis-2 satellite back in July of 2020. Now in about a week based on this latest
update from NASA, we have a really fascinating launch coming up! Crew 4. SpaceX is launching a
new crewed mission to space so frequently now. It is bizarre to think that no crew was able to
launch from the US at all for almost a decade after the Space Shuttles last flight in 2011.
SpaceX has completely transformed the game now. Just a few weeks between the Axiom 1
launch and Crew 4. What a month this is! This will use the Falcon 9 booster 1067,
previously used for an ISS supply mission, for the Crew-3 mission, and and Türksat 5B. The
Crew-4 mission though is using a brand-new Dragon capsule. Commander of this mission, Kjell Lindgren
named Crew Dragon capsule with ID C212. This is Freedom, celebrating a fundamental human right,
and also honoring the very first United States astronaut, Alan Shepard who flew on Freedom 7.
A great name, and I’ve got to share the this retro 1930s style poster tweeted by Kjell.
He already spent 141 days aboard the ISS in 2015. The pilot for this mission, Bob Hines will be
having his very first first trip to the ISS. Likewise for mission specialist Jessica Watkins,
who has a huge love of geology calling herself a Rock Nerd. Then ESA astronaut and Flight engineer
Samantha Cristoforetti joining the NASA crew and this is her second trip to space,
she was a part of the Expedition 42/43 and had previously stayed on the ISS for 5 months.
They are going to have an incredible time on board studying everything from botany
to material science, including the typically analysis of spaceflight on human bodies. Best
of luck to SpaceX, NASA and the crew of Crew 4! Last week of course my video was going live
just as the Axiom mission was docking. Crew Dragon Endeavour after waiting for a camera
feed issue from the ISS to be resolved, docked a little later than expected, but there we go.
This Dragon in particular docking with the ISS for the third time now! The Axiom 1 crew are
safe and sound with the ISS currently hosting a total of 14 astronauts from around the world!
Axiom Space’s 8-day long mission will end on April 17, and then hopefully just a little under
a week later, the Crew 4 mission will launch. An exciting mission is coming up from RocketLab.
One that I’ve certainly been eagerly awaiting for some time. The next mission named “there and
back again” is, we hope, going to take off this coming week. Why is this one so important? Well,
it is because RocketLab are finally making their very first full attempt
at a booster stage recovery. The plan is to use a modified twin engine Sikorsky S-92 helicopter,
and catch the booster as it descends under a parachute. It needs to fly downrange quite a
distance somewhere around 280kilometers off the New Zealand coast to do it. The mission itself
will launch 34 assorted small satellites into orbit, which is impressive enough, then added
to this RocketLabs next progressive steps towards their goal of partial reusability. You may ask why
they don’t just let it splashdown and recover it from the ocean similar to Falcon 9 fairings
instead of a much more difficult helicopter catch. Well, you want to avoid the corrosive ocean water,
and the potential for impact damage. This will all speed up refurbishment and the turnaround time
is the aim here. Increasing launch frequency will open up more customers, and launch opportunities.
Having successfully recovered Electron first stages from the ocean in 3 previous missions,
helicopter catches using replicas of the booster, and numerous parachute tests, it's time for the
main event. While much smaller when compared to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, Electron may well become
the second booster stage that becomes reusable. They’ve learned loads from their previous missions
analyzing data that covers how the booster behaves at reentry, and the forces inflicted upon it. Even
after Electron has deployed its parachute it will still be traveling at an estimated 10 meters per
second which is surely going to need some pretty mad pilot skills. If any launch provider can
pull this off it’s RocketLab, so best of luck there. This is going to be a fun one to watch.
Aerojet Rocketdyne this week received a colossal purchase order from United Launch Alliance. What
for? Oh just a small order of 116 RL10C engines. Vulcan Centaur being finalized for its first
launch later this year (assuming those first stage engines arrive soon), uses 2 engines for the upper
stage. The contract awarded here represents the company's biggest ever order for their workhorse
RL10 engine. Well more specifically this will be a variant called the RL10C. The choice of engine
for the upper stage here was made back in 2018 due to the exceptional performance, and solid
reliability. This design uses the 3D printed main injector and combustion chamber. This production
method is estimated to reduce overall engine cost by 25-35%. The ultra lightweight composite
nozzle itself is massive too at a whopping 2.4 meters. With a specific impulse of 461 seconds
and roughly 108 kN of thrust, its exceptional performance will deliver on the demands soon to be
placed upon it. Of course I am referring here to the recent announcement from Amazon that it chose
United Launch Alliance as well as other partners to launch over 3,200 satellites as part of Project
Kuiper. As a result we could see as many as 25 Vulcan launches per year now. It is easy to
see now why so many engines have been requested. Ending reliability on overseas manufacturing and
addressing supply chain issues is at the core of a strategic re-shuffle dating back to around
2015 when ULA announced that Vulcan Centaur will be their next generation launch vehicle.
AeroJet Rocketdyne's West Palm Beach facility in Florida will soon ramp up RL10C production.
This engine almost offers the highest specific impulse of pretty much any actively flown engine,
so it is not hard to see why. It even beats the RS-25’s which are also incredible engines.
Now I was hoping to be filling you in with the Space Launch Systems successful wet
dress rehearsal, but after the third attempt was called off, we are still left waiting.
The latest attempt to fuel up Artemis 1's colossal SLS was aborted with the NASA teams detecting a
liquid hydrogen leak whilst tanking. This leak was from the tail service mast umbilical located at
the base of the mobile launcher which connects to the core stage. Before ending the test,
NASA did meet some test objectives for the interim cryogenic propulsion stage.
All they seemed to do here though was just chill down the lines that would be used,
but didn’t have any propellant flow into the stage itself, due to the earlier known helium check
valve issue that was already identified early in the week on the second attempt. During the test,
the core stage’s liquid oxygen tank was about half filled with the liquid hydrogen tank getting up to
about 5% before the abort. So yes, at the time of editing this, NASA was still trying to plan
out when the next attempt would be so, yes. I guess we’ll be waiting just a little longer to
see this Wet Dress Rehearsal play out. Assuming of course they don’t need to first roll it back
to the VAB for more extensive repairs. Now if you haven’t spotted it yet,
check out the latest video from Kerbal Space Program talking about Interstellar travel
in KSP2. It has always been quite astounding that they want to make the game that kicked off this
channel so vast that you will be able to build interstellar vehicles in orbit and shoot out
to other stars. I truly hope that they can pull this off successfully. Although there have been a
few delays in the development, It is phenomenal just how much there will need to be included
to make this the success it needs to be. More info on that by my good buddy Shadowzone here too.
Both of these videos are in the description. I’m obviously a huge fan of the Kerbal franchise and
if you would love to learn about rockets and orbital mechanics, there is simply no better
way. Honestly... This game has changed the lives of so many people. Myself obviously included.
So yes, you are all caught up on yet another week of space goodness. Now because Crew 4 has
been delayed I’m making a deeper dive video for next Saturday rather than the typical news video.
I think you are really going to love this one as we dive a little deeper into the
requirements for a Mars starship landing. That has been a lot of work in preparation already.
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