hey hey Marcus has with you here and this week there are Starship prototypes and test tanks rolling around all over the place as the orbital test flight looms closer and closer diving into all those sweet scenes but what else was mind-blowing this week oh you know these yes they are the never seen before designed for starlink version two the mini versions of course that were launched on Falcon 9 this week and there is a lot to explore here the crew 6 Mission started off a little rocky at the start of the week but never fear just check this out and stick around to the end of this one because a fun little giveaway for all you Kerbal fans out there okay so let's pick up right where we left off last week at Starbase here was ship 25 being parked right in the ringyard just after this though it did something that I didn't fully see coming during the night a rolling closure and it was once again making its way along highway 4. this time though it took a right turn at first I thought it was heading to the Rocket Garden but it rolled right on by making a roughly three-hour trip to the masses test site that's right for the first time this new site here had its first full Starship vehicle ready to start a range of testing once daytime arrived we could see that it had been placed on the ship cryo station now I didn't think that this site was this close to being a productive test area but SpaceX seems to have built up the tank farm in such a manner that they are confident in performing cryogenic tests already here is the question though why ship 25 after all it had passed its cryogenic testing and received all of its engines ahead of a static fire campaign now speculation warning here but bear with me what if SpaceX simply does not need to fly ship 25 anymore after all they have already started testing ship 26 and ship 27 is fully stacked too most likely ready to start its testing campaign not long after the elusive orbital flight with booster 7 and ship 24. in it is possible I think that this could be a case of the ships having already evolved well past ship25 it may instead be that ship 25 is now here to test out the propellant loading systems at Macy's for the first time I guess we'll soon find out moving on to ship 26 it has undergone more cryogenic testing early in the week the full launch site was cleared of workers and the suborbital tank farm kicked into life again faster than a kid can hide a Brussels sprout in their pocket that frost line was already visible on the liquid oxygen tank that test didn't seem to be as impressive as the previous one as it wasn't really filled to any significant degree it was soon detanked and interestingly while the site Was preparing to reopen for the workers this test tank appeared wait hang on though this is a super old test tank a tank made up from booster six it's actually made up of the forwarder Dome section and the common Dome sections of what was previously the full Boost of prototype looking just a little closer you will see all of these stringers a lot more than what originally existed SpaceX over time has added loads more and to top off all of that strangeness here that common Dome section actually had its downcome a hole here welded shut this old monstrosity here also was taken over to the Massey site an ever-growing Fleet of vehicles here so back to ship 26 the earlier testing must have been at least somewhat successful as the crew moved the SpaceX crane to cyberbuddle pad a hooked up the load spreader and up it was lifted and down onto the transport stand this one rolled away destined for the high Bay at the build site alongside the newer sibling ship 27 while we are here booster 10 has also had somewhat of a development although maybe not what you would expect you may have been curious about why booster 10 hasn't been stacked yet well this week we finally got a great view of what looks to be booster 10's after section as was pointed out by the ring Watchers this has been inside the manufacturing tents for well over 200 days before this appearance I think that SpaceX might just be holding back on stacking this along with the rest of the liquid oxygen tank just in case some unknown flaws appeared during the orbital test flight of booster 7 and ship 24 getting closer and closer by the day and hopefully falling sometime later this month here though is a shot way back by NASA space flight as you can see here SpaceX had already worked hard on this with the central thrust Puck and a good chunk of the plumbing already in place now that it has been spotted again it is a great time to explain how this section is constructed to keep the liquid oxygen and the methane separate let's just go from the top downwards so we don't immediately drown in the super complex Plumbing it all starts with the downcomer here which delivers the methane from the main tank down towards the engines at the top of that is the sump which prevents bigger pieces of debris entering the pipe now you may think it is impossible that there would be debris here in the first place but there are these anti-slosh baffles everywhere in both of the tanks and if any pieces of those broke away it could end up being sucked right into the engine itself causing a huge explosion it's very handy to have that protection here now at the thrust section this downcomer gets seriously beefed up and this is more than likely related to the event that caused the collapse of booster 7's downcomer as was leaked here a year ago that image is from the inside of the liquid oxygen header tank and you can see that this is actually peeking out from the top of that aft section here now this is where it gets real complex but thankfully with this cut out by salmon these great renders by Chameleon Circuit working with us this week we can visualize this much easier the methane actually passes straight through that oxygen header tank and has its own manifold here at the bottom at this point it branches off to all 33 Raptor 2 engines I suspect that SpaceX uses this downcome of volume as a methane tank but that's not something confirmed as far as I've ever seen the header tank of course contains the propellant needed for Boost back and Landing Burns the liquid oxygen systems are equally as complex and marvelous the outer Raptor boost engines get their liquid oxygen directly from the main tank and you can see their individual small sumps here now those outer engines are never used for landing so all of these engines are only needed for the initial flight for the Boost back and Landing burns the 13 gimbaling engines are used and they get their oxygen directly from the header tank you may think that this is all incredibly intricate but that is nothing compared to the engines themselves in fact Elon dropped some nice insights this week saying that SpaceX have made a bunch of progress on the startup procedure of the rocket engines under many different circumstances currently they are continuing to improve the start sequence in varying conditions they will need to of course be reliable in a variety of situations situations such as the propellant being at varying temperatures and pressures and whether they are being fired up after refilling for a human Landing system mission in orbit or after the scorching heat after rain tree it is very unlikely that SpaceX could keep the propellants at consistent temperatures in all of these quite different and complex conditions now there wasn't really any more significant testing going on with ships and boosters at the orbital launch site this week however the team has had another colossal week with this shielding here on the orbital launch mount a bunch more added pieces have been installed and it's looking pretty slick now I think you'll agree I don't think it is too unlikely that over time they will fully cover up all of the propellants lines running below the main structure yes I'm afraid the views inside the launch Mount like this are all but gone no more internal views after all this is finished so we had a pretty unique starlink mission that launched from Cape canaveral's slick 40 this week why unique well this Mission had the very first batch of newly designed starlink version 2s on board yes this is what makes this particular Mission especially interesting even though these are of course the first set of the starlink version 2 family these are much smaller than the version twos that we were expecting when they were first announced you see the original Starling version 2s were estimated to be about 25 square meters in size and they were intended to be put into orbit using Starship exclusively but given the delays with the first orbital test flight these mini versions have been manufactured specifically to fit inside the Falcon 9 nose cone fairing now this has caused a little confusion this week the fullest Starling version 2 satellites are expected to begin providing basic cell service to the most remote of places you may recall the T-Mobile SpaceX event back in August last year talking about all of that as far as we know though the mini versions here do not provide this ability at least not yet so it was a beautiful time of day for the flight here early in the afternoon on Monday glorious views right through to Stage separation and the important moment for this flight fairing jettison yes we could finally capture a glance of those 21 new starlink version 2 mini satellites it's also worth noting I think that the camera here is pointed directly downwards compared to the usual forward-facing orientation that we're used to but the reason for that would become apparent much later so while the second stage continued to orbit the booster of course fired back up to land downrange on the Drone ship a shortfall of Gravitas this was only the third launch in landing for booster number 1076 there like all of these Starling commissions lately the live stream ended without deployment footage and given how different all of this is it was a tad deflating as we really wanted to see the satellites floating away well shame on me for thinking that SpaceX would disappoint us all because along with the confirmation of deployment we also got the shot that we all wanted to see and boy was it worth the wait just check that out now this new camera angle made perfect sense it was mounted on the end of the new starlink deployment system the quality of the video here is a little grainy but I think that you will all agree that the view is absolutely breathtaking it just slowly pans around the second stage as those new starlings are released to float gently away so there is so much to digest here in fact we were pretty much left with only two main questions and they too would have been answered if there was just a few more seconds of footage did that new deployment Rod Just Bounce Off the second stage and float away alone as a separate piece of temporary space junk and well how well did the crush pad here actually work although it seems that we're going to have to wait for the answer to that second question we did get a reasonably certain answer to the first thanks to Jonathan McDowell it does seem that the new deployment rods do stay attached to the second stage because otherwise they would most likely be tracked as a separate object or a set of objects as far as we know there is no separate object being tracked now as you may recall starlink launches have caused some controversial publicity due to just how bright these Starling satellites can be especially in the early stages of their orbit raising process but there is good news moving forward many surfaces on The Styling version 2s are coated in a dielectric Mirror film which will reflect light away from the ground and added to that they also have black paint in places where this Mirror film is not possible all of this drastically lowers the reflectivity of the Gen 2 satellites as described by SpaceX in their published document here a link to that is in the description below if you'd like to download that and have a read the idea is that these will be as dark as or even darker than the previous satellites even though they are much larger this I think is one of the best enhancements worth mentioning these satellites are equipped with argon hole thrusters for on-orbit maneuvering and not only do they have a higher thrust and a higher specific impulse or efficiency compared to the first generation thrusters but this is the first time that Aragon hall effect thrusters have ever been used in space and what makes that even more impressive is that these thrusters went from nothing to flying in orbit in just over a year and a half as shared here by Ben the co-founder of swarm Technologies which was acquired by SpaceX back in 2021 and this is presumably to help create amazing products just like this so with the starlink constellation expected to grow over the next few years where are SpaceX going to be manufacturing all of those new satellites I wonder well the word on the street is that they will be using their nearly finished new site near the boring company really great shots of the new facility here from above by Joe texmire and from way above is found by Harry stranger from the saw.earth site of course just yesterday on Friday morning another Falcon 9 launched 51 regular Starling satellites from Vandenberg space Force Base this was launch and Landing number 12 for this booster and down it came on the Drone ship of course I still love you that was terrific clean footage on this one and a freaking Bulls are there making it look way too easy so we've had the sixth SpaceX NASA crew rotation Mission happening this week this enthralling launch was supposed to happen of course on Tuesday and yes nice shots of the Falcon 9 on the pad by Greg Scott here the four crew were on board ready for launch when it was scrubbed due to a ground system issue at T minus two minutes and 22 seconds essentially there was a problem with the system supplying the t-tip repellent what is t-tep well you will notice this flash of green a second or two before the Falcon 9 ignites that is the t-tab propellant being burnt to ignite the engines so after that the Falcon 9 propellant was offloaded the Escape system was disarmed and the crew access arm swung back to the dragon to get the crew out safely it was a little surprising to have such an issue although I'm sure that SpaceX and NASA are more cautious with crude missions as any other it did seem like it wasn't just the audience that was surprised Sultan here tweeted out that he had promised his kids he would return soon but probably didn't mean quite that soon of course after rescheduling the Falcon 9 was loaded and ready for flight again early Thursday morning just after 12 30 a.m the two NASA astronauts Commander Stephen Bowen and pilot Warren hoberg along with UAE astronaut Sultan al-niadi and Russian cosmonaut Andre vadive were strapped in there awaiting the American broomstick to light up and Blast away yes it was off roaring into the night sky the very first flight for this booster number 1078 and up it flew right through maximum aerodynamic pressure it's always great to see everything going smoothly there through Max Q on top crew Dragon Endeavor the same capsule that launched Bob and Doug on the first crude flight for SpaceX and that last flew on the Axiom 1 mission in April last year gosh where did those 10 months go you know what was even more awesome it was exactly four years since the Flight of the uncrewed demo 1 mission to the day stage separation there and the brand new booster made its way down range to land on the Drone ship just read the instructions for this one second engine cut off Dragon separation and there it was crew Dragon was free to begin chasing down the International Space Station and that got there and docked early Friday morning sadly there was no footage of the docking itself which was weird but there they were on board safely this is going to be another exciting mission in orbit with fascinating experiments it's going to study how different materials burn in microgravity research the functions of the heart brain and cartilage through tissue chips and they will even collect microbial samples from the exterior of the space station there's lots of great stuff here and I hear no shortage of arguments suggesting that investing in space is a waste of money but as always you just need to actually look at the details this sort of research pushes the boundaries of scientific knowledge which has the potential to greatly benefit life here on Earth so best of luck to everyone on the station speaking of the International Space Station big thanks to Henson shaving supporting this video the masterful minds behind the Hanson razor who are nothing short of brilliant aerospace engineers have a rich history of crafting Advanced Equipment for a multitude of uses they have expertly manufactured 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from Henson or other retailers and they work out to be about 10 cents each unlike wasteful plastic cartridges that make you pay over and over again if you are looking to secure a supply of blades for free that could last you for years simply visit hansonshaving.com select the razor in your favorite color and add the 100 blades to your cart simply enter in code Marcus in the final step of the checkout process and Bam 100 free blades it is as simple as that upgrade your shaving experience to Aerospace grade thank you Hanson shaving a super exciting event is hopefully happening this coming week something that we've been anticipating for quite a while yes relativity spaces Terran one launch is finally here the first ever orbital classed 3D printed rocket is about to make its debut flight recently of course they secured the FAA launch license needed to blast off and head to orbit and with all things going well this first Charon one named glhf or good luck have fun will liftoff from launch complex 16 at Cape Canaveral at Mid this week do keep an eye out for the official launch schedule as that could easily move backward in this initial Mission it is going to be nothing less than magnificent to see this rocket lift off Tim Ellis and Jordan noon found in relatively space in 2015 only 7 to 80 years ago and being that they are at this stage is absolutely extraordinary to me especially if they can make Orbit on this first flight this 110 foot rocket is one of the largest 3D printed objects in the world and it is said to be around 85 3D printed but future Vehicles could be even higher than that and this is all aiming to reduce manufacturing costs by a huge amount I actually did an interview with co-founder Tim Ellis just last year a link to that is in the description that was an interesting chat going into detail about how they came to be the engineering behind building the Terran one early tests and all kinds of fun stuff so check that one out if you missed it now finally today an exciting giveaway if you love Kerbal Space Program as you probably spotted last week I was pretty thrilled to experience Kerbal Space Program too given that it had been released the day before my video went live I gave it a go right afterwards and although I was fighting a few bugs on my first rocket it was a blast getting to know the new interface and fix that problem after all it is still very early access so there's still a lot of work to be done so in celebration I'm giving away two keys for ksp2 on Steam Yep this highly anticipated sequel to the original Kerbal Space Program promises to take players on an exciting space exploration adventure and although a number of features are quite a while away you can experience it all as it evolves if you are interested in getting your hands on a free copy all you need to do is let me know in the comments below midweek I'll randomly select the two lucky winners and reply to those comments with further instructions so keep an eye on your reply notifications that is it so get ready to embark on a thrilling space journey and good luck to everyone there participating that is all we've got time for this week of course a massive thank you for making it to the end of this video and for being a subscriber supporting what I do here with the team and of course I couldn't do it without the incredible patrons on patreon and channel members as well in the tile in the bottom left today my deep dive video about different engine types and the importance of higher specific impulse on the right a few more episodes about the dangers of long duration space travel and what we can do about those problems thank you for everyone for watching and I'll see you all in the next video
2023-03-05