Hello, we are TheSpaceXFans and welcome to
TheSpaceXShow, the place where you can stay
up to date with everything SpaceX. Today’s
episode probably won’t be very long, but
we have some SpaceX updates, then Boca Chica,
another SN4 static fire, SN5, and some SN6.
Let’s head straight in and get up to date…
Starting with the Starlink-7 launch which
was meant to liftoff yesterday but has been
postponed once again. This time, SpaceX announced
it won’t be happening until after the Demo
2 mission has flown. I’m pretty sure this
is due to the droneship turnaround time which
if I’m not mistaken is around 8 or so days.
Also on the talk of droneships, Just Read
The Instructions is getting an octagrabber
soon. You will already know OCISLY has one,
but you can see in this great shot by Julia
Bergeron that the new grabber is almost complete.
On top of this JRTI has been doing sea trials
of its newly installed thrusters, so we could
see JRTI put back to use soon. On another
demo 2 note, the Crew Dragon capsule that
will carry the astronauts has arrived at the
Cape. Here’s a great image of the vehicle
being rolled into the hangar at the LC-39A
launch pad. The recent SAOCOM-1B launch which
was postponed a month ago due to the pandemic
has a new date. Apparently it will now launch
no earlier than July 7th. With the latest
SpaceX updates covered, here is a scrap bulkhead
that SpaceX have been working on. I’m not
sure why they’re working on it, but it’s
assumed maybe for practicing. It was sleeved
with a 2-ring stacked section that is not
designed to be used for flight. However, the
ring stack also says for use with Cory’s
taco dome, so not sure who Cory is. Another
thing I want to show you in Boca Chica which
you’ve already partially seen is Starhopper’s
camera setup. Cooper Hime has captured this
great shot, and whilst nothing new, I thought
it would be cool to show you how many cameras
there are attached to Starhopper. Something
else I’ll show you in Boca Chica is work
going on with the high bay. You can see here
engineers are working to install what appears
to be more lights onto the roof struts. Now,
let’s take a look at SN4 which is still
sitting on the test stand. You will all know
that Raptor SN20 was recently installed. On
Sunday 17th, SpaceX performed a successful
preburner test of the new engine. We were
hoping for a static fire shortly after but
that didn’t happen. However, yesterday,
they did a static fire of SN4 and SN20, which
appeared to be a success. Although
once the dust started to clear it was evident
something went slightly wrong. As you can
see here, there was a little fire at the bottom
of the vehicle caused by what looks to be
a broken pipe. This raises the question of
what will happen with the hop, or even if
SN4 will do a hop now? Here is a tweet from
Michael Baylor confirming that we’re not
too sure of the next steps for this prototype.
As I said, this video won’t be too long
due to all the testing and hence very few
updates, but let’s see SN5. Not much has
been happening with the tank section but here
is the latest view of it in the high bay.
The new nose cone we saw recently and thought
was for SN6 has been rolled out of the tent
with built in thrusters. There is also a note
on this nose cone which says “medium section
SN5”. What’s also been spotted is a new
section sitting beside SN5’s tank in the
high bay. Whilst it could be assumed that
this section is the start of the SN6 stacking
phase, it’s also assumed that this could
be the missing piece between the nose cone
and the tank for SN5. Here is the latest build
diagram from Rafael, SN5 is getting so close
to being ready for testing, and I can’t
wait! The final thing for SN5 is a potential
hop. You can see here that Michael Baylor
tweeted about a new filing to the FAA for
a 3 kilometer hop. The start date for the
testing is June 4th with a hop expected shortly
after that and it’s being assumed this is
for SN5. Finally onto SN6 which is still progressing.
You can see here that recently the thrust
section was rolled out of an onion tent. However,
it was then rolled into another onion tent
for further work to be done. I’m going to
guess that SN6 thrust section sleeving and
stacking is not far away at this point. As
always, a massive thanks goes to Mary BocaChicaGal,
who’s recently been standing outside and
burning in the Texas heat for hours to film
the testing. She and the NSF team put in an
incredible amount of work to bring us great
coverage so thanks to all of you. Also thanks
to Cooper Hime who recently travelled to Boca
Chica and got some great shots, for allowing
me to use them. Also, we’ve just hit 3k
subs on YouTube and I’m amazed by the support
so thanks to each and every one of you. That’s
it for this episode of TheSpaceXShow, I hope
you enjoyed the video, if you did, make sure
to hit the like button and leave a comment
down below. If you want to stay updated with
SpaceX info, make sure to subscribe and press
the bell icon to get notified when I upload.
Thanks for watching and have a great day!
