This episode is sponsored by Surfshark.
Is SpaceX wasting money with their unflown Starships?
And when is Starliner finally going to launch again?
Let’s find out!
My name is Felix, and I am your host for today's episode of What about it!?
And today, we'll dive into SpaceX’s problem with unflown but fully built Starships and Super Heavy boosters.
Is it a waste of money after all?
Let’s dive right in!
Starship Updates
SpaceX is still waiting for the FAA decision.
Delayed twice and highly anticipated not only by SpaceX but also by the entire spaceflight community,
it goes to show how much public interest really is behind SpaceX being allowed to proceed with their Starship test flights.
But as said before, this doesn't mean that SpaceX is waiting around, doing nothing.
Quite the opposite. Many tasks do not require a test flight,
so SpaceX is just busy upgrading its infrastructure and perfecting the design of the first orbital test flight candidates.
Mauricio from RGV Aerial Photography was up in the air again for all of us,
taking some stunning aerial pictures of what SpaceX is currently doing at their Starbase.
A link to his Patreon and Twitter can be found in the description.
Make sure to check it out and consider supporting him.
He deserves it.
Booster 4 and Ship 20 sitting out at the launch site shows the fast progress more than anything else.
Ship 20 right in between the old suborbital pads and Booster 4 on a booster transport stand between the suborbital pads and where the Starship landing pad used to be.
Ship 20 is arguably capable of at least reaching orbit.
An orbital rocket never to be flown.
Booster 4 is one of the largest rocket boosters ever built.
Without taking flight and sitting next to its heavily updated sibling, booster 7. Unusual, to say the least,
and not common in the spaceflight industry.
Rockets normally are built to be flown and not to be scrapped.
So, is SpaceX wasting money and time?
I got this question quite a few times in the comments under my videos, and I read most of them.
So, let's try to answer it as best as possible!
With SpaceX's approach to the Starship program and with extra time at hand given by the FAA, it does make sense to do it the Starbase way.
Building a Starship prototype is not nearly as expensive as, for example, creating a NASA SLS,
even though it's slightly bigger than its fancy NASA cousin.
Wasting an entire Starship, including the booster, in favor of another more advanced test candidate is cheap and fast.
The production cost of a Starship and Super Heavy likely is below the 20 Million Dollar Mark.
Without engines, even far less.
Right now, and we’re still in the prototype phase, it takes SpaceX around 3-4 months to build one pair of Starship and Booster.
Any other rocket constructing company in the world would love these times and prices even when their products are in regular production and not
still in the prototype phase. Again, take a look at SLS build times and price tags.
It's an entirely different story.
So, no. Even Though SpaceX would have likely loved to get into the payload delivery business with their Starships yesterday,
it isn’t a waste of money not to launch Booster 4 and Ship 20.
SpaceX is so fast at churning out new test candidates with heavily upgraded hardware that it does make sense to skip some prototypes once in
a while. Ship 21, for example, sitting at the SpaceX Rocket Garden now, has never been flown either.
Full heat shield too. Even more advanced than Ship 20.
In fact, the rocket garden is filling up so quickly that there's almost no room left.
Ship 20 and Booster 4 wouldn't fit anymore.
SpaceX will soon have to look for a different solution.
The rapidly growing refinery at the old Sanchez site and next to the rocket garden won't move anywhere.
It's one of SpaceX's most important assets at Starbase, and it's growing further.
New foundations are being made.
One large patch in the middle can easily be spotted from Mauricio’s vantage point.
The site is buzzing with all sorts of construction work.
Back at the launch site, Chief, the WAI cam operator,
was able to film SpaceX workers attaching a quick disconnect interface to booster 7. These are preparations for further tests with this latest
Super Heavy prototype on the can crusher.
A hydraulic test stand putting booster 7 through more crucial testing in preparation for the upcoming orbital flight.
And a first test already happened on April 12th.
After hooking Booster 7 up to the tank farm and to the can crusher itself, liquid nitrogen was filled into the very bottom of the engine section.
It is likely to cool it down to flight temperatures to simulate flight conditions more accurately.
Then the 33 hydraulic rams started pressing against Booster 7’s thrust section to simulate engine thrust.
The test almost exactly took 2 hours from the beginning of the venting to the end.
No news from SpaceX, but there was no visible problem.
Booster 7 has hit the next milestone and is getting more ready for the orbital flight every day.
Fingers crossed for the FAA decision.
SpaceX certainly seems more than ready to light the candle!
What do you think? Will the FAA finally green light SpaceX at the end of this month?
As always, tell me in the comments!
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Crew 4 Launch Preview
Now, let's take a look at the upcoming Crew 4 launch!
When will it happen? What will be the payload, and what’s the general state of the whole commercial crew program?
Let’s dive right in!
The commercial crew program is in full swing.
With SpaceX already having launched towards the ISS 4 times now, including demo mission 2 with Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley,
they’re keeping to their promise of giving the US access to space once again.
Well, full swing might be wrong, as Boeing Space hasn’t managed to get a single Starliner to the ISS.
But more on that later.
Now, SpaceX is launching Crew 4 towards the ISS.
After the successful Crew 3 launch on November 11th of last year,
the stage is now set for a new expedition team to fly to the ISS and continue the work in low Earth orbit.
NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will launch aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The mission is scheduled to lift off no earlier than Saturday, April 23rd, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It's a so-called long-duration mission.
The crew will spend several months at the ISS, conducting science and maintenance aboard the orbiting laboratory,
before returning to Earth in the fall of 2022.
The Crew-4 mission will fly a brand-new Crew Dragon spacecraft and launch on Falcon 9 booster B1067.4.
The number after the dot means flight number 4.
It launched CRS-22 on June 3rd of 2021, Crew 3 on November 11th, 2021, and Türksat 5b in 2021 and on December 19th.
At SpaceX, it is a tradition that the first astronaut crew to fly a new capsule is allowed to name their spacecraft.
Crew-4 chose "Freedom" to celebrate a fundamental human right and the industry and innovation that emanate from the unencumbered human spirit.
Indeed, a fitting name in these times of war in Europe.
The Crew-4 astronauts will conduct scientific research in materials science, health technologies,
and plant science to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.
In fact, many of NASA's experiments run at the ISS right now are focused on our future exploration plans for the inner solar system.
Moon and Mars are within our grasp, after all.
Experiments will include studies on the aging of immune systems, organic material concrete alternatives,
and cardiorespiratory effects during and after long-duration exposure to microgravity.
These are just some of the more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations that will take place during their mission.
The Astronauts have also been training for a pair of spacewalks to continue preparing the station for new solar arrays to increase the station's total available power supply.
Finally, they will also be aboard the ISS to finally welcome Boeings Starliner for its second uncrewed orbital test flight,
currently scheduled for May.
December 20th of 2019. Remember the date?
I was live-streaming it, and we all watched Boeing Space launch their Starliner towards the ISS on OFT 1, the orbital flight test.
Many things went wrong that day.
Bugged by hardware and software problems, the capsule could not reach the ISS and landed back on Earth three days later.
But the problems didn't stop there.
After a lengthy investigation, Boeing announced a privately funded OFT 2 mission towards the ISS.
Uncrewed again and first slated for October or November of 2020.
Zero taxpayer money involved. All funded by Boeing.
On August 25th of 2020, October or November 2020 turned into the first quarter of 2021 due to more software issues.
Then March 2021 and August 2021.
During the August 2021 launch, window issues were detected with propulsion system valves in the spacecraft before launch.
The spacecraft had already been mated to its launch rocket, United Launch Alliance's Atlas V, and taken to the launchpad.
Attempts to fix the problem while on the launchpad failed, and so the rocket was returned to the Vertical Integration Facility.
They also tried to fix the issues inside the VIF but were unsuccessful for a second time.
Moisture sneaked into the valves and corroded them.
And so Starliners longer than expected journey continued.
By late September 2021, Boeing was still unable to figure out the root cause of the problem.
They decided to delay the flight indefinitely.
The total cost for Starliner OFT 2 is now estimated to be around 595 million Dollars.
Boeing is paying out of their own pocket, so that's a good thing to keep in mind.
Since the faulty valves were located on the service module and Boeing was still unable to determine the cause,
they decided to replace the entire service module in December of 2021.
Now, the plan is to launch Starliner OFT 2 not earlier than May this year.
So, a few more weeks.
It's currently unknown how high the chances for the second launch are right now, but as said earlier,
the SpaceX Crew 4 Astronauts will be waiting for it once again.
No matter the outcome, Starliner is late.
Very late. And a few people at Boeing will likely be rather agitated at this point.
Let’s just hope that they can pull it off this time and that everything goes as planned for team Starliner!
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