SpaceX Starship Finally Set to Launch: Official Launch Target Confirmed
this video is supported by brilliant hey hey Mark s house with you here and today there is a lot of interesting signs popping up that the first orbital flight test of the Starship is coming soon yes these scenes are back once again dual Falcon 9 action sending both Military and Commercial Hardware into space the crew for Artemis 2 has been confirmed and this surprising robotic mission that will venture to the lunar surface appeared out of nowhere yes this has been a very fun week first off the news that I'm sure that everybody wants to hear progress towards that orbital test flight right as I was uploading last week's video Marine notices were published not just in the Gulf of Mexico but also near Hawaii these areas may look massive but keep in mind that SpaceX is most likely planning for anything off nominal during the flight now that didn't mean a great deal on its own but what was this the Federal Aviation Administration dropped another hint on their Air Traffic Control advisory preparing for a flight to happen as early as April the 10th which has then since been updated to the 17th now don't go rushing down to South Texas just yet this takes me back to the sub-orbital hop period these notifications are just good indicators of potential plans but still not that all-important launch license later in the week after Elon Musk shared nearly a full minute of insane angles SpaceX gave us an update as well it seems that this upcoming week they will be performing full launch rehearsals maybe even involving a full wet dress rehearsal as well once that's all done and they've obtained the launch license that launch could happen as early as the week after one thing that I can say for sure is that there is a lot of activity at Starbase to prepare for this event almost two years in the making gosh can you believe that it was May of 2021 that we last saw a Starship fly well not for much longer so as I was closing out last weekend's video ship 24 had just started rolling to the launch site once it arrived it was maneuvered after the short ramp towards suborbital pad a just after ship 24 arrived the transport stand for booster 7 was moved back to the build site this provides some pretty strong evidence that booster 7 will not need to come off the pad again now initially we thought SpaceX would stack this ship on the booster fairly quickly but it soon became clear that that wasn't planned just yet during that night there was absolutely no activity at all at the orbital launch site but as Monday arrived early in the morning the fire suppression system was activated yes there was some more booster 7 testing to be done the tower arms Rose heading to go into what looked like a launch position soon they did lower though almost making it look like a lift of the booster with those arms still close SpaceX started up the grit fence it was really neat to see the moving like this but wow I can't wait to see those in action during The Descent back to Earth so was that all of the testing nope we are just getting started the tank farm soon woke up and the orbital launch Mount started to vent ahead of cryogenic propellant lighting another big test for booster 7 was underway Frost forming first on the methane tank and shortly after the oxygen tank 2. after about an hour the top methane tank was fully filled and loading continued into the bottom oxygen tank now what cryogenic liquids with SpaceX actually using for this test well the methane sub chillers weren't continually venting as they did during the wet dress rehearsal I think it's actually fairly safe to say that they loaded a combination of both liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen into the booster for this test and quite a substantial amount I'd like to add whoa just look at that vent by now their methane tank started to defrost at the top so detanking was underway now it didn't seem like the liquid oxygen tank was fully filled but it did freeze over due to that depressurization venting that of course rapidly drops the temperature of the gas there causing the frost to form really quickly soon that two started to detank back into the tank farm and only then did the tower arms start to move up and away from the booster afterward back to their storage location at the tower base booster 70 pressurized wrapping up the testing for this day another test ticked off before that launch now what about ship 24 well near the end of booster 70 tanking on Monday the ship lifting points flipped up on the tower arms a good sign that the ship left was soon coming Tuesday night this ship was positioned inside the arms ready to go and while all that was happening the auto launch Mount work platform was raised up and if you look really carefully here you can see that SpaceX looked to be installing the nozzle covers over the Raptor engines again after daylight arrived teams Unchained ship 24's after flapsing preparation for the lift and there they were being fully deployed shortly followed by the tower arms moving up and attaching to the ship interestingly though nothing really happened for quite some time possibly we think due to higher than expected winds instead SpaceX set to work clearing out the launch site some notable items that were moved off just as an example with these high pressure gas tanks designated for the future water Deluge system multiple uninstalled pipes for that were also moved off and the booster Raptor installation platform as well SpaceX were clearing out all of this and much much more dare I say another great sign for the launch now for the past few weeks we have talked a lot about spacex's shielding efforts to cover a lot of the orbital launch Mount just yesterday on Friday all of the scaffolding that was still remaining was removed along with the railings they've really polished that shielding off nicely however earlier in the week two points weren't fully protected these two stabilization pins on the orbital launch Mount so his SpaceX Now cover those up nope instead they've taken a rather destructive approach as these pictures by Starship gazer indicate quite nicely all of the lines hooking up to the pins were disconnected and the location where those lines were was shielded up this is another really great sign that there is no intention of the booster being lifted again so will such a system be replaced well yes for booster 9 if you compare those ports with booster 7 the much difference looking socket on booster 9 will almost certainly require some modifications to this system back to the orbital pad it was now ship 24's turn to gracefully rise into the Sky starting here just before Dawn arrived on Wednesday I've just got to say that looks amazing to see it gracefully climbing up the tower here just as the daylight starts to flood in the ship quick disconnect arm swung back in all ready for the ship to translate over the top of booster 7 and lower down but wait that wire here isn't supposed to be hanging down like that is it well after a quick drone inspection SpaceX loaded all the way back to just above its stand to work as quickly came over to the pad and then simply yanked it off well that's one way to fix the problem up the ship went once again this time touching down on booster 7 although things still didn't seem to be going to plan as soon it was lifted back off it looked like SpaceX wasn't really happy with the alignment over the course of well over an hour it was slightly moved around again and again just after midday the ship was finally stacked with the pad reopening and the SpaceX team flooded the ship quick disconnect arm to remove the temporary plates in preparation to hook it up now I suspect that this is not the final stack of ship 24 because the flight determination system is not yet armed nor should it be during the pre-flight checkout that they still need to do due to the sheer scale of Starship it's actually almost impossible to reach that position and arm it while it is still stacked okay so with all that action at the launch site there was also Lots going on at the build site beginning with the flapless ship 26 we left off with all three vacuum engines installed a week ago but earlier this week it had gained at least two of its sea level Raptors progress continues nicely with ship 2a2 after it was lifted towards the turntable in the high Bay its thrust section also finally made an appearance along with those glorious tiles afterward the big nose cone section here being lifted on top of the thrust section with the ship starting to spin pretty good confirmation of it being welded together as well okay so let's take a look at the new megabay its foundations are coming along at a rapid pace and as is the case with so many of these things it's really hard to grasp but just how simply huge all of this stuff is just those bolts that will hold the initial steel beams to the foundation are already colossal that's a great example of humans for scale right there white steel beams have been delivered and they are very similar actually to the white framework that has been sitting down at Starbase in Florida with the help of Greg Scott who took to the Skies over Florida again this week thank you Greg we got to see this there's a lot of pieces going missing right here is it just coincidence that this is right when the mega Bay Steel started arriving over at Boca Chica Texas well to further seal the deal this is all probably very much related to the iron construction jigs that were previously in place have all been removed those are used to pre-build these smaller segments of the mega Bay like we've seen in the past in Texas while we're here check out the star Factory now fully finished with the exterior as you can see and looking amazing we of course had super exciting news at the start of the week with NASA's massive announcement revealing the four astronauts who will take part in the First crude mission on NASA's journey to establish a long-term presence on the moon with the Artemis program with the success of the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission on the space launch system and Orion back in November the big question of who would fly on the Artemis 2 mission has been hanging over our heads for quite some time now this mission is going to be a 10-day flight test to the moon and onboard Orion will be NASA astronaut's Reid Wiseman Victor Glover and Christina cook then of course from the Canadian space agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen this mission is all about testing the Orion spacecraft's life support system and validating the capabilities and techniques needed for humans to live and work in deep space this mission of course will not land on the moon but it will instead do a flyby and then make a return trip back to Earth this is quite a similar mission in a way to Apollo 8 which was the first crude spacecraft ever to leave low earth orbit and fly to the moon after all who can forget this image one of the first to be taken by humans of the entire Earth now interestingly Apollo 8's Mission only took a little over six days so why the difference well the main reason is that Apollo 8 did a single fast trans learner injection or tli burn whereas Artemis 2 is going to do a high Earth orbit race test a bunch of stuff out for a day or so and then do a slower tli afterward it'll also orbit the Moon at a much higher altitude than Apollo 8 did for Wiseman this is going to be the second trip into space being the commander of this Mission Victor Glover who I just loved watching in NASA and spacex's crew One mission is going to be the pilot Christina who holds the record for the longest ever space flight by a woman is going to serve as Mission specialist and representing Canada Jeremy Hansen is actually making his very first flight to space and also the first Canadian ever to go on a lunar mission SpaceX launched the charge zero mission for the U.S space force on Sunday almost a week ago that was of course after the abort just a few seconds before liftoff a few days prior to that now given that this was a space force launch this was not a mission where we would get to see live views of the payload such as we would normally see at fearing separation what we did know though is that this first stage coverage was going to be spectacular given that it was a return to the launch site Mission this booster 1075 here was on its second flight taking the first batch of 10 satellites into orbit for the space force these are interconnected Satellites with crosslinks and they are there to provide a nice wide field of view with their infrared sensors the space development agency aims to I believe have seven different layers at varying altitudes ranging from 750 to 1200 kilometers each performing features such as observation Communications missile warning and tracking this first transport layer though is aiming to provide the initial worldwide low latency relay system that is going to allow the network to pass information along to military ground systems now apparently with their future fully planned constellation in orbit they're going to be able to get a view of 95 of all locations on the Earth from at least two satellites at any given time in fact 99 of locations on the Earth is going to have at least one satellite in view that kind of reminds me of that old movie Enemy of the State hmm I might be showing my age a bit there anyway obviously plenty of margin for SpaceX to do a full Boost back burn in the case of this Mission all of those satellites couldn't have been pushing the Falcon 9 to the Limit given the return to launch site Mission absolutely beautiful clean footage all the way from before the entry burn and right down into the fog to touch down on the target given the early morning launch absolutely breathtaking views for that one on Friday first thing in the early hours of the morning we had the launch of the Intel sat 40e and Tempo Mission lifting off from slick 40 and one of the best views of satellite deployment that I can remember seeing which I'll get to in a second a beautiful clear looking night view too with booster 1076 on its fourth flight and Landing providing a glorious crisp plume there just after Max Q so this was essentially two missions in one right we've got the Intel sat 40e which is a fairly typical geostationary communication satellite built by maxar technologies that almost five and a half ton satellite to provide coverage to their customers over North America then we also have the second payload attached for NASA the tropospheric emissions monitoring of pollution or Tempo satellite that is going to measure pollution over North America essentially providing state-of-the-art air quality monitoring data on that pollution and ozone levels the destination orbit for both of these collectively of course is geostationary for this Mission which lets the payload hang out at the same point in the sky from a ground perspective that is because the time it takes to do one complete orbit is the same as one rotation of the earth there we have the Falcon 9 boost touching down on the Drone ship a shortfall of Gravitas for this Mission and this was the 23rd launch just this year from the Falcon 9.
at this point the second stage was in orbit but still needed that long burn lasting a little under a minute to pop it into the transfer orbit a little over 32 minutes into the mission there we had I think one of the most spectacular looking payload deployments that I recall seeing terrific Lighting on that one and another big week for falcon 9. now this is a really neat announcement that you may have just missed recently Astro lab have dropped a bit of a bombshell as they will be sending a Rover currently named Flex to the surface of the Moon what's more they plan to do so on a Starship yes how about that Astro lab also stated that this is the first commercial contract that SpaceX has signed for lunar cargo delivery that is really exciting I think you'll all agree and it gets even better it's going to be able to carry up to 1500 kilograms of commercial cargo instruments and experiments that is a lot and in fact Flex as designed is going to be the largest and most capable Rover to ever operate on the lunar surface to top that all off multiple customers have already signed agreements to come on board Astro lab have even indicated that this Rover plans to head to the lunar surface as a ride share mission in late 2026 now this opens up some huge possibilities and who knows where it could lead perhaps we'll see Astro lab taking part in the human Landing system missions for NASA such as art 3 or Artemis 4. in fact I believe that they are also aiming to make the Rover a little more generic so that it can be adapted for a variety of missions who knows perhaps we'll see one of these not just on the lunar surface but eventually on Mars as well another exciting opportunity I think is that this is not just an autonomous robot no it can also be upgraded to carry a crew of two astronauts I think you will all agree that it has been far too long since we've witnessed scenes like this so Astro lab also published footage from Just A Week Ago showing a nice perspective of the Rover's sixth degree of Freedom 2.4 meter long robotic arm this is going to give it the ability to grasp a payload or tools and instruments on board you can just imagine the programming and technical skills it takes to pull all this off imagine how exciting it would be to have a career doing this sort of stuff to gain a competitive advantage in a stem career it is crucial to continually enhance these skills luckily brilliant.org
provides an intuitive Hands-On platform for people seeking to bolster their abilities and knowledge in these critical areas in today's job market the tech industry is thriving with loads of high paying opportunities as someone who spent a few decades as a programmer and web developer I've seen firsthand of the demand for strong computer science math and data processing ability that is where brilliant comes in the platform offers visual bite-sized lessons that break down complex ideas into manageable segments to stand out and Thrive it is crucial to maintain a mindset of continual learning there is just no way that you can stay up with the latest advancements and keep your mind sharp if you don't make learning a fun habit luckily brilliant has made it a breeze to cultivate a daily learning habit ensuring that your personal and professional growth is always in reach the interactivity is just magnificent I think just one that I was looking at the other day was this one made in collaboration with the kurz gazaar channel I'm a huge fan of their work too in this example we could even play with Supernova energy calculations really fun stuff want to give it a try for free for 30 days just visit brilliant.org Marcus house to get started in fact the first 200 to do so will get 20 off brilliant's annual premium subscription the link is in the description below now you will just want to keep your eye out for the Jupiter icy moons Explorer or juice Mission hopefully launching on the Ariane 5 this coming week this is a super cool Mission actually because this vessel is set to explore Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons Ganymede Callisto and Europa given the vast oceans of liquid beneath their icy surfaces they are all prime Targets in the search for extraterrestrial life this is a pretty sizable spacecraft too and it's going to be carrying about three metric tons worth of propellant alone I believe there are several technological challenges to this mission to overcome that I think are very interesting it has many planned gravity assists just to get to Jupiter and that includes flybys of the Earth Moon system Venus and then two more earth flybys once in an orbit around Jupiter you've always then got the pretty harsh radiation to deal with extreme temperatures and then obviously the long distance from the earth is always a communication challenge juice is going to map the surface of Jupiter and its moons and is going to study the composition of their atmospheres and investigate their magnetic fields a pretty fascinating mission for sure and that all kicks off shortly we did also have more bad news for Virgin orbit things were not looking great when I talked about their financial struggles a few weeks back but now the satellite launch company founded by Richard Branson has filed for bankruptcy in a statement CEO Dan Hart spoke of the groundbreaking work of the Virgin orbit team which had already successfully launched 33 satellites into orbit using this new Innovative method however to spot all the efforts to secure additional funding the company has decided that filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy was the best path forward now we've seen other companies come back from such things one web is one great example but they had the UK government and others to bail them out it is worth noting I think that chapter 11 as far as I'm aware is a form of bankruptcy that allows a company to restructure its debts and continue operating rather than shutting down entirely in that case it's still possible for Virgin orbits launch technology to attract a range of buyers we'll just need to see how things play out so there we go my friends you are all caught up thanks as always to amazing subscribers being here and the great many patrons and YouTube members supporting what we do two weeks now until our new deep dive video is going to be released so stay tuned for that can't wait to see what you think of it and yes thank you for watching all this way through to the end that helps more than you can even imagine enjoy the week and I'll see you all in the next video
2023-04-09 22:19
