Hello, we are TheSpaceXFans and welcome to TheSpaceXShow, the place where you can
stay up to date with everything SpaceX. Today’s episode we have Starlink-7
and some Space Force news, then Boca Chica, SN4, SN5, SN6 and some other
pieces for maybe SN7, so let’s head straight in and get up to date… Starting
with Starlink-7 as I said which as you can see here is currently scheduled to
launch on May 17th. It will launch at 8am UTC or 4am EDT and will deliver
another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit. This will bring the total number
another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit. This will bring the total number
article from SpaceNews that reports that the US Space Force has given
SpaceX money for a contract. Apparently the $8.9 million
received allows the Space Force insights into SpaceX’s commercial and
civil missions up to November 2020. Also this money is reportedly an
addition to the $297 million awarded in
February 2019 which is for 3 national security missions. A spokesperson said
that this will “enable the Space Force to engage in engineering surveillance of
SpaceX’s fleet of launch vehicles for non-NSS launches.” Not too many SpaceX
updates today so let’s jump over to Boca Chica where there is a bunch of news.
Starting with the onion tent extensions happening over by the old windbreaker
and nose cones. As you can see in this great shot, the extension of the second
tent is nearing completion so I’m guessing they might extend the
third tent next. Whilst not much has happened since the last episode, you can
see that the new launch mount is also progressing nicely. One final thing I
want to show you at the launch area which is news about Super Heavy is a
sign that was spotted.  SPadre posted a picture of this sign on a building which
says “SpaceX Emergency Operations”. However, I want you to take note of the picture
of Super Heavy and its legs. You can see that they look different to what we’ve
seen so could these be the new legs? One notable thing is Musk’s recent Super
Heavy tweet where he said “Will have 31 engines, not 37, no big fins and legs
similar to Starship.” So one suggestion is that this sign could be an old render
which is plausible. Now, we’ll take a look at SN4 which last episode we saw the
Raptor SN18 was removed from. After which we saw that the hydraulic rams
were re-attached. Since then, this vehicle has been through
even more testing with a full cryogenic pressure test. Elon Musk tweeted about it
afterwards to confirm that it was a successful test. He also said that the
tank reached a pressure of 7.5 bar during this test. Since then, SpaceX have
removed the hydraulic rams as you can see here. A Raptor was also spotted
moving out of the construction area and over to the launch area. This particular
engine is SN20, so it seems SN18 may be going through some checks or has
another destiny. Here is a new submission to the FAA for space operations in Texas.
The requested dates are May 13th up to May 16th, so I’m going to guess that
there will be a static fire. However, engineers have continued working on SN4
and installed some new pipes down the side. Whilst I’m not entirely sure what
they’re for, maybe they’re fuel lines, or maybe they’re for the RCS. Let me know
your thoughts down in the comments… Let’s move onto SN5 now which hasn’t had
too much attention recently with all the SN4 testing going on. You can see
here that the tank section still sitting in the high bay continuing to be
worked on. The thrust section recently was rolled back into a tent for more work to
be done. Then you can see here it was moved back outside and moved into the
high bay for stacking. One thing I want to point out about this section versus
SN4 is the number of heat shield tiles. This one seems to have substantially
more so looks like they might be doing heat or further attachment testing.  You
all know what happened next, yep that’s right, the SN5 tank section
was stacked. It’s crazy that we now have a full SN4 tank section that’s done loads
of testing, and a stacked SN5 tank.
Also spotted in Boca Chica are these Starship fins. We already know that SN5
will get fins so maybe these are for that prototype, but I’m sure we will find out
soon enough. With SN4 testing coming to a close,
and SN5 nearing ready for testing, SpaceX are focusing more on SN6. To start
with you can see the upper bulkhead for the methane tank is sitting outside.
I saw a picture recently with a close up of this bulkhead which had a note on it
saying welded by robot. When comparing the human weld vs the robot weld,
you can see a huge difference in quality. This section was also moved
off of the mount for sleeving in order to be worked on further. The next steps
for this section are Tesla batteries, pipes and wiring. I also imagine the
stand will have another bulkhead on it soon for sleeving. On top of this section,
we also know there are other sections sitting here and there in the
yard. There may also be more sections stacked elsewhere that we can’t or
haven’t seen yet. However, here’s the latest diagram from Rafael Adamy. One
other thing that was spotted was this new nose cone sitting in an onion tent and
the guess is that maybe this is for SN6. Although there is a slight chance that
it could also be for SN7, but that’s just a wild guess. What I want to show
you now is how many nose cones are sitting around in Boca Chica. Here we
have a Starship nose cone sitting with the old Mark 1 nose cone behind the
onion tents. Then, there’s also the nose cones sitting in front of the onion tents.
One of them previously thought to be for SN5, and the other was previously thought
to be for SN4. So it’s also possible that this new nose cone could be SN5
since Musk said previously that the other could just be used as a pathfinder.
My guess though is that this is for SN6, but we’ll just have to wait
and see. For the final part of the video, I will show you some Starship pieces that
are unknown and just floating around. Firstly, you can see here that a new
stacked ring section was moved out of an onion tent recently. I’ve had many guesses
as to what this is, but one thing that I spotted was a note saying “top dome skirt”
so my initial thought was SN7. However,
Rafael has pointed out to me that the ring below says “middle dome skirt”
meaning this is probably a bunch of leftover rings that have been put
together. However, he suggests that maybe it is for
the section between the tank and nose cone as you just saw in his diagram. The
final thing I will show you are some rolls of stainless that have arrived for
being formed into rings. Obviously at this point, the vehicle these are for is
anybody’s guess.As always, a massive thank you goes to Mary BocaChicaGal who
spends an immense amount of time and effort capturing beautiful footage. Also
a massive thanks to the rest of the NSF team for sharing and putting these clips
together. 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!
