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SpaceX Starship Updates – What’s so different now? – SpaceX strikes mayor National security deal! What about it?
My Name is Felix and I am your host for todays Episode of What about it!?
And as always, there has been a lot going on in the Space Industry lately, so let’s dive right in!
Starship Updates
SpaceX’s Starship program is a massive undertaking for SpaceX. For a private company
it’s comparable to sending Astronauts to the Moon. New technology is needed and there are many uncertainties on the path to success.
As with every large project though, SpaceX has divided the Project into different phases right from the beginning.
First came the conceptual phase. The idea of making life multi planetary with a 100%
reusable rocket was here and from at least 2012 on Musk and his team at SpaceX started working on the concept.
Designs were born, changed again and modified constantly. From a Mars colonial transport or
interplanetary transport system to a BFR and finally a Starship. This took SpaceX until at least 2018,
until something close to todays Prototype idea was formulated.
-- Immediately after narrowing in on the design,
SpaceX announced, that the Boca Chica Launch complex, originally intended to host Falcon 9 and Heavy launches, would now be used for
SpaceX’s Starship development. Back then,
no one could have imagined, what this site would turn into in just one and a half years.
SpaceX entered their next development phase. The Technology demonstration.
Can a Raptor engine push a steel can up into the air and land again safely? Yes, it can
Starhopper, as we all know, flew just fine.
It demonstrated the concept of a full flow staged combustion engine in the form of the SpaceX Raptor engine and it succeeded.
Half a year forward Starship Mark 1 was done! Back then,
we thought that now the hop phase would begin, but that needed at least some more work.
Mark 1 largely was just for the Starship Presentation 2019 and never intended to fly,
which back then no one knew.
We all looked at the site in anticipation of a first flight. The next phase though did not have much to do with actual flights.
Welcome to the construction phase! Many of us back then thought, that building the Starship was already done… until this happened.
And this. Another good reminder, that the task turned out to be a bit more difficult than originally planned.
And another one. This time a human error in the test procedure. Problems kept on coming in from all sides.
This was a good one too!
Serial Number 4 had a problem with the quick disconnects on the fueling system. SpaceX went through many failures over and over again.
Until one finally made it. Starship Serial Number 5 did, what
no other Starship prototype before was able to do. Milestone achieved. Construction phase complete. But what’s next?
Only one thing to do. Progress into the next phase. The flight test phase.
Mauricio from RGV aerial photography was in the air again, documenting recent progress after the hop in unprecedented detail.
What once was a small backyard construction site has turned into a massive complex in the last one and a half years,
capable of pushing Starships out on an almost weekly basis.
And everything is aimed at raising the capabilities up even further.
The giant high bay under construction right now is half way done.
Super Heavy, Starships booster will be built here and my prediction is that we should see first prototype segments in it by next month.
Next to the small bay, where SpaceX stores nose cones right now,
we can see Starship Serial Number 8’s forward flaps including what looks like a stand for easy mounting.
SpaceX is working on the next generation of prototypes that will carry the project higher and higher up into the atmosphere.
Musk already stated, that Starship Serial Number 7.1 will be yet another test tank with a new alloy to be tested to destruction.
After that comes Serial Number 8.
Let me introduce you to the most detailed Starship render out there right now. Done by Neopork,
it shows every little detail there possibly could be. This is, what Serial Number 8 should most likely look like, once assembled.
If everything works out, Serial Number 8 might do the 20-kilometer hop. My prediction here would be end of September,
but it’s still hard to tell. The goal of going orbital by the end of the year will be hard to reach.
Serial Number 5, the famous SpaceX Starship, that did the 150-meter hop, is already back at the construction site for refurbishment.
SpaceX plans at least one more hop with it.
And Starship Serial Number 6 is already out at the launch site, waiting for yet
another 150-Meter hop. As said before, we are entering the flight phase.
Data needs to be collected on all sorts of systems. Turnaround times need to go down massively.
Musk stated, that Starship Serial Number 6 will do the next flight and that the plan is to reduce
turnaround times to many flights per day
next. Back again in RGV Aerial Photography’s plane,
Mauricio is showing us the latest pictures of the launch site, right after the Starship hop. A
historical site. Even more after the flight.
The test stand is largely undamaged. Ready to go for another test. This time
it will be SpaceX’s Starship Serial Number 6, which is already on the stand by now.
This stand might not support a 20-kilometer flight though. Yeah, it might not.
Meanwhile on the other side of the Launch site, SpaceX workers are busy erecting the next launch pad. This time a proper one.
Intended to launch SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster later this year,
it needs to be much more massive and sturdy to withstand the force of 31 Raptor engines lighting up on top of it.
Mauricio did a fantastic job, taking close up pictures of the latest progress and it looks like SpaceX was very busy.
Make sure to check out Mauricio's Patreon page to support him for future flights!
If we compare the shots from July 30th to August 7th, which only is 8 days apart,
we can see, that the pad turned from a mud bowl with rebar to an almost finished foundation. Next up
we’ll see the middle filled up with concrete and after that the actual support structure should take shape soon.
It’s hard to predict, how long exactly SpaceX will have to work on this.
Will it make it for Serial Number 8 or will it still take off at the old test site next to the tank farm?
As always, tell me in the comments!
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Thanks to SpaceX's mind-boggling speed and with your support. It will be much easier in the future. Thank you!
There are no road closures for hops scheduled as of recording the episode, but it’s safe to say that with Starship Serial number 6
already on the pad, Elon Musk and his team will be eager to reproduce the 150-meter hop and get more data in.
SpaceX wins National security Launch contracts
The second news topic is a short but very important one for SpaceX. On August 7th,
the US Space Force published the results of their national Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract negotiations.
What’s so important about these new contracts is that ULA and SpaceX were able to beat the
competition in form of Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin entirely,
securing all the launch contracts between the two companies.
National security launches are worth billions
and are very important for a launch provider. By securing about 40% of all the launches in phase 2, spanning from 2022 to 2027,
SpaceX has struck a major deal.
This is a big change compared to the past, where United Launch Alliance almost exclusively dominated this market.
ULA has sent their upcoming Vulcan rocket into the race.
It’s a versatile launcher, capable of accommodating all the extra requirements set for National security launches.
Mainly large fairings for special payloads and a vertical integration are needed to accommodate the special requirements
set for these highly paid launch contracts. Due to the fact, that the ULA Vulcan rocket will use Blue Origin BE-4 engines,
Jeff Bezos is not entirely out of the race though and will have additional contracts for engine supplies
to benefit from for his New Glenn rocket development.
SpaceX had to modify quite a few systems to be able to apply for the National security contracts.
Due to the high sensitivity of most of the National security launch payloads, SpaceX has to implement so called vertical integration capability.
This means that the payload is integrated on top of the rocket in a vertical position.
ULA has been doing this for decades having a key advantage.
This advantage is soon to go away though, as SpaceX has already started work to modify their Launch Complex 39A support structure
by adding a mobile gantry enabling SpaceX to do the same.
So, this is, what SpaceX will build for these requirements at Pad 39A and it should be complete within the next two years,
now that SpaceX has got a first launch contract, worth
316 million dollars for a single launch.
Secondly, SpaceX needs a very large fairing for the top class of contracts.
NSSL’s largest payloads, designated category C, require an extended fairing with a diameter of at least five meters.
SpaceX has constantly been upgrading their Falcon fairings over time.
On their PAZ radar imaging and Starlink demo launch in 2018 for example,
SpaceX introduced their Fairing 2.0, which already had a wider diameter of
5.26 meters.
With the confirmation of the National Security Launch contracts, SpaceX has yet again shown,
that they’re willing to improve on every aspect to be just a bit better
basically on every launch. This philosophy has been part of their short company history and shows in everything they’re doing.
Improve yourself. Get better. Achieve goals that were unreachable before. When watching SpaceX continue their crazy success story,
it looks so easy, right? When looking at our own lives though, this can seem like a very different task.
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