Hello, we are TheSpaceXFans and welcome to
TheSpaceXShow, the place where you can stay
up to date with everything SpaceX.
Today, we have a bunch of different SpaceX
updates to start this episode.
After which, we also have a bunch of activity
in Boca Chica as well as Starship updates
with SN5 and SN8.
Let’s head straight in and get up to date…
To begin with, we now have an update on when
to expect the next Starlink launch.
As you can see on TheSpaceXFans website, Starlink-9
along with 2 other satellites are scheduled
to launch Friday July 31st at 7:45am UTC or
3:45am EDT.
There has also been some more specific details
on the Crew Dragon Endeavor return with Bob
& Doug.
This tweet from Eric Berger says “NASA is
currently targeting 2:35 p.m. ET on Sunday,
August 2 for the landing of the Dragonship
Endeavour mission.”
When it comes to Crew Dragons there was recently
a meeting of the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory
Panel where some interesting things were said.
Panel member Don McErlean says that landing
the Demo-2 mission will be a challenge because
of “limited wind margins” on this capsule.
Have seven landing sites to choose from off
east and west coasts of Florida, up from three.
Then McErlean said NASA’s plans call for
reusing the Falcon 9 booster from the Crew-1
mission on the Crew-2 mission, and to reuse
the Demo-2 capsule for Crew-2 as well.
To add to this, Thomas Burghardt tweeted that
the booster for this mission would be B1061
and the capsule would be C206.
Further on the talk of boosters and Crew Dragons,
here we have B1058 in a great shot from Julia
Bergeron.
Whilst the men it launched to space on its
first flight are still in orbit, this vehicle
has already been back up and returned from
its second mission.
You can see its still sporting those NASA
logos from the Demo 2 mission.
Finally, on the standard SpaceX updates, SpaceX
is going to be looking at raising more money
soon.
They’re apparently looking to raise between
$500 million and $1 billion to bring their
valuation to $44 billion.
With all the usual SpaceX updates covered,
let’s take a look at the work over in Boca
Chica.
Starting off the updates for this video, we
will take a look at the launch and test area.
Here you can’t see much but this is the
latest view of the Super Heavy launch pad.
Next up, we have the structure recently spotted
over by the test mount where SN5 currently
sits.
You can see they’ve progressed further,
will be interesting to see what this building
is used for.
Over by this area, workers were also spotted
working on the fence just next to this new
building.
Not sure what exactly they’re doing but
maybe they’re just planning to replace the
fence.
Also spotted recently were some new arrivals
as you can see here.
These are for the construction and transport
mounts we often see, and with activity ramping
up, makes sense that they’d need more.
Over in the production area of the facility,
we have some new work that has recently been
happening.
Currently being attached to the new ground
fabrication building is yet another structure.
Also in the construction area, workers have
been continuing with the high bay construction.
They’ve already nearly completed all corners
for the second level, so the next step is
some more work to connect these, then the
high bay can start levelling up again.
We’ve also recently seen some work such
as cleaning happening with the old Mk1 fins.
They’ve been moving further and whilst SpaceX’s
intention was to reuse these fins, it’s
not quite the reuse one would expect.
They won’t see another Starship again.
Instead, they’re being reused as a garden
ornament as you can see here.
At the food court, SpaceX have built this
structure to shade people from the sun and
I think it looks really really cool.
So with the infrastructure updates in Boca
Chica covered, let’s take a look at what’s
been happening Starship-wise.
First up we have a fella we’ve seen many
times, Starhopper.
As you can, engineers were spotted making
some unknown modifications to the retired
vehicle.
In the last video, we took a little look at
some work that has recently been going on
with the SN2 test tank.
You can see here that workers have been continuing
to work on it with some weird and interesting
additions.
Will be very interesting to see what this
becomes.
Expected, but still thought I’d show it,
we have more rings moving around the yard
with this one heading into a fabrication tent.
I expect that SN9 is already probably in the
works.
Behind and inside these fabrication tents,
a whole load of activity was spotted again,
you can see here a bit of nose sitting outside.
This little nose cone tip was spotted and
is likely destined to be scrapped.
However, inside the tent just behind, this
nose cone was also spotted under construction.
As you can see from Jack Beyer’s editing,
this nose apparently has a header tank weld.
Here we have a view of part of SpaceX’s
collection of nose cones.
From Jack Beyer’s great editing again, we
can see that one of these noses outside has
a header tank weld and the other doesn’t.
Here we have the latest view of the new fairing
section being welded partially in the windbreaker.
Also, as the editing points out, this nose
cone doesn’t have a header tank.
The header tank up there I believe is for
the Oxygen and there is another below the
Methane tank to store Methane.
The header tanks separate the landing propellant
from the main propellant tanks apparently
for greater insulation.
At some point, the new nose cone section was
moved outside the fabrication tent.
So the company has a lot of nose cones at
the moment, it’s crazy cool to see so many.
However, yesterday, there was a tropical storm
that was approaching the Boca Chica area.
As a result, you can see here that the new
nose cone was moved back inside the tent.
Also, just to be safe, they decided to move
all of the nose cones back inside the tent
to seek shelter from the storm.
Some of you will know this, but back in the
early Boca Chica days, SpaceX were building
a nose cone for Starhopper.
However, due to strong winds, that was blown
over and destroyed so SpaceX didn’t bother
with it again.
With this level of progress they definitely
don’t want to risk something like that happening
again.
Moving on from the nose cones, here we have
a view of the SN5 tank that is still waiting
for a static fire test with Raptor SN27 attached.
Yesterday, SpaceX were gearing up and even
closed the road in preparation for the static
fire test.
However, due to the tropical storm, this was
aborted early into the window when they reopened
the road.
So with no testing yesterday, we will look
at what dates we could expect to see the static
fire happen.
As of now, the Cameron County website shows
a closure for the static fire on Monday July
27th.
Hopefully the static fire test will happen
over the next few days, then next week there
could be a 150 metre hop.
Final Starship to look at is the start of
the newest Starship prototype - SN8.
Last episode, we saw this newly sleeved common
bulkhead that was sitting behind the onion
tents.
Engineers were recently spotted getting ready
to flip this section.
Then, it wasn’t very long before they hooked
it up and did the flip.
So this section which will separate the Methane
and Oxygen tanks is almost ready to be hooked
up with other stacks.
Also, another ring stack, which is slightly
different to what we’ve seen before was
moved outside for SN8.
Also, this new upper bulkhead for the Methane
tank was spotted being moved outside onto
a sleeving mount.
As expected, these two components were sleeved
to form the upper stack for the tank.
However, as I just mentioned, you can see
some interesting welds on top of the ring
stack similar to what is commonly seen on
the thrust sections.
Like we see with the thrust sections, these
are for reinforcements inside the barrel section.
However, as you can see from Jack Beyer’s
editing, this is the first time we’ve seen
it on a forward dome section like this.
Then, just as with the other Starship sections,
and with the tropical storm approaching this
new section was also moved inside.
Whilst the storm is another minor little setback,
we can hopefully still expect the exciting
testing very soon.
As always, an enormous thank you goes to Mary,
otherwise known as BocaChicaGal for her time
and dedication filming this stuff.
She, Jack Beyer, Julia Bergeron and everybody
else at NASASpaceFlight do a fantastic job
bringing us great updates and information,
so thank you all.
That’s it for this episode of TheSpaceXShow,
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