Replay! SpaceX launches Starship and Super Heavy for first time, ends in RUD

weather and winds are looking good we have been watching the ground level winds they're at 18 miles an hour as the morning continues they will increase but that is below our limits right now we're also looking at upper altitude winds we're waiting for one more balloon but we believe that we're going to be go on the launch vehicle itself the teams the good news they're not working any issues right now but if for some reason we do not make our test flight today if we have to hold we have a backup launch window however we're not sure when it would be it could be 24 or 48 hours after today it'll depend on how far we get into the countdown but right now heading for a 2-0 at 8 28 Central 1328 universal time okay everything is looking good awesome news now in order to make life multi-planetary we need a fully reusable vehicle that's capable of carrying a huge amount of cargo and a lot of people to orbit and have a pretty quick turnaround the idea is to effectively reuse launch Vehicles just like airplanes yeah imagine if you had to wait for a new airplane to be constructed every time you wanted to fly you'd rarely go anywhere and for most of us it would be completely unaffordable in order for us to get to Mars and back with lots of people lots of cargo multiple times reusability really is a must in advance of our first missions to Mars Starship will execute a number of missions with both cargo and people starting with Earth orbit and eventually expanding to the moon and Beyond now in the near term and a bit closer to home Starship will also be critical to other programs once fully operational it'll deliver the full-size and upgraded version of our Starlight satellites and that's super exciting because our next Generation satellites represent a step forward in starlink's capabilities and will allow us to connect millions of more people around the world with high-speed internet to watch watch webcasts such an exciting future ahead of us but first let's talk a little about how we got to where we are today now Starships testing ramped up in July of 2019 with our star Hopper prototype sort of a short version of the Starship that we see today there's a great photo of it it was just over 18 meters tall it had a single Raptor engine and we had it to test fly and perform low-level altitude Maneuvers and attempt Landing the initial test light or hop reached about 20 meters in altitude that was followed by the one that you've got on your screen here this was our 150 meter altitude hop we went up took a little jaunt away about 100 meters or so away from the launch pad use that Raptor engine to fly and actually land and actually this uh Hopper is actually down at Starbase now yeah I love this shot it's just so fun to see it fly after a series of 150 meter hop tests with earlier prototypes the Starship program saw a major breakthrough during a test flight of the vehicle known as serial number eight or sn8 you can see it there on your screen now in December 2020 sn8 demonstrated a first of its kind controlled aerodynamic descent and Landing foot maneuver two words belly flop the sn8 Prototype Rose to an altitude of 12.5 kilometers or 7.8 miles and conducted a belly flop maneuver which you see there during its descent while it didn't stick The Landing the test was a major milestone in the development of Starship in fact we should be able to see that uh unfortunately failed Landing boom it was fun to watch though what happened to unscheduled disassembly but learned a lot of data now the testing continued on to prototype serial number nine it took a 10 kilometer flight it's about 6.2 miles up in February of 2021 we had a nominal Ascent we executed the engine cutoffs once we got to the top of the altitude window we did that belly flop maneuver which is so much more fun to say than controlled descent uh aerodynamic maneuver that was all stable but unfortunately we had a dramatic end on this flight as well we had a failure on one of the engines that resulted in another pretty large Fireball but what was really cool about both of those flights was how much we learned just between serial numbers eight and nine and how quickly we were able to achieve our primary objectives in those two flights in addition to that we've just we got so much data that demonstrated control of the vehicle and met some Sonic regime ultimately we performed nine Starship high altitude test flights in total and then as you see on your screen there in May of 2021 sn15 launched from Starbase reached an altitude of about 10 kilometers performed a number of Maneuvers and safely returned to the launch site this was the first Starship prototype to fly control its descent safely land and be recovered in one piece and people were cheering like crazy now having achieved those successes in our suborbital campaign one of the next big challenges is for the upper stage when it comes to reusability and surviving the Hypersonic really high seating phase of Entry combined with the later ability to refill Starships tank with propellants the fuel and oxygen while we're on orbit that will enable us to have a fully reusable transportation system that's designed to carry both crew and cargo on long duration missions interplanetary flights and will help Humanity get to the Moon travel to Mars and Beyond in our solar system this is all uh just basically our path of progress uh basically an iteration on each vehicle and that iterative process is a core part of how we work here at SpaceX we'd like to test early and often uh public publicly as well in our case um and that's both for hardware and software and while it doesn't always go as expected we learn so much from it and it informs our next attempt yeah we learn a lot from actually putting the vehicle through flight like tests uh even the test on Monday gave us an opportunity to learn more about the vehicle into today's launch attempt and so far things are looking really good now we are continuing into our countdown we're about T minus 12 minutes to go I think it's the perfect time for another check-in with John insparker how's it going John well sure the good news is that uh the Nets are quiet the teams are currently working no significant launch vehicle issues you can see the T clock there on your screen T minus 12 minutes 10 seconds and counting propeller loading is continuing on both the super heavy and the ship stages you can see the graphic on the left hand side of the screen most recently we began loading liquid oxygen and liquid methane fill into the header tanks on Starship those are two small tanks just underneath the nose of the second stage now that started at T minus 27 minutes that'll be wrapping up at about T minus t minus M that will be wrapping up about T minus nine minutes now the Starship second stage main feel and locks tanks are loaded for flight right now the super heavy first stage booster propellant loading is continuing and that'll go till about T minus three minutes we're underway with engine chill as we get ready for t0 and we're also conferring the launch pad for liftoff the booster hold Downs have been unlatched they'll be ready to retract at liftoff and the second stage quick disconnect is beginning its configuration for release the methane and liquid oxygen propellants currently going to the second stage go through that quick disconnect that's that arm that reaches out from the tower to the base of the second stage SpaceX team continues to check in with the Coast Guard good news is we've not heard any reports of boats in the safety perimeter as the launch vehicle heads out over the Gulf of Mexico so right now T-minus 10 minutes 40 seconds and counting everything continues to go well for an on-time launch now today's test flight is taking place out of our star base facility in south Texas and that test site has gone through a huge amount of development over the last couple of years one thing I want to point out this is a great view from our drone not only can we see the pad but in the fog kind of in the distance in the background and to the left of the pad you can actually see our production facility uh which is the other part of Starbase in addition to the launch pad of course as part of rapidly iterating with our test program we're also rapidly iterating on our production system to produce starships and super Heavies last year the star-based team produced four Starship super heavy boosters and five Starships along with their 200th Raptor 2 engine and they're only scaling up from their case yeah it's incredible to think that for 2023 uh production has five boosters and eight Starships going so it's incredible and it's important to have that system fill uh in basically the manufacturing line so that we have product ready to go as soon as we're done uh with this test yeah exactly and ultimately I mean we talked about how starting ship is an order of magnitude more propellant excuse me payload so orbit but if you're gonna go set up a base on the moon or Mars you're going to need thousands of metric tons of propellants and so you're going to need a fleet of vehicles that's capable of doing that yeah one thing to note Starbase directly employs more than 1800 employees it's the largest employer in the area in fact um and we're very thankful to Cameron County for being so supportive This Is A View From the Cameron County Amphitheater um and it there's a crowd there and I can you could tell by the energy here in Hawthorne as well that everyone's getting really exciting I feel my own heart rate going up and up I know it must be really really exciting to go see this and I mean just the sheer amount of power on Starship you're gonna feel it down there when this thing lifts off from the pad we've actually got a great shot here of of the natural surroundings around the pad oddly enough most of the pads end up being around sort of wild locations like this um while locations like this but coming up on T minus eight minutes I think it's another good time for check-in with John thank you silver T-minus just over eight minutes to the first test flight of Starship currently we are pressurizing second stage we are also closing out liquid oxygen and fuel header loads on the second stage we're also getting ready for propellants pressurization on the first stage in fact we are just now closing out header tank load on the second stage now with the header tanks loaded and closed out that means we're down to just the first stage to finish loading that'll finish about T minus three minutes and at that point when both stages are loaded we will have the 10 million pounds of liquid propellant on board now in the next few minutes the guidance system will begin its final alignment for flight during a quiet period when the Rocket's not doing anything automated flight termination system will be armed and a final TVC checkout will be performed those are the engine Wiggles and hopefully we'll be able to see that with the cameras underneath the vehicle and maybe even the second stage engines there's a view looking underneath the super heavy first stage with the 33 Raptor engines now a reminder as we continue counting down if we do need to hold the point where we hold the clock would be a T minus 40 seconds we can pause there typically in the past if we need a little bit more time to finish final checkouts or do some pressurization of the onboard storage tanks that's where we would hold but currently we're not hearing a need to hold so if six minutes 27 seconds everything looks good and of course Kate Shiva as we get close we're going to get into the engine ignition sequence of 33 Rafters and that's going to be something new for everybody I cannot wait for that moment so for those of you that are familiar with how we launch Falcon 9 Rockets you probably know that we light all nine of those first stage Merlin 1D engines all at once it's pretty different than what we do or what we're attempting to do today we're actually going to be igniting those 33 engines in Banks or clusters and that sequence starts at T minus six seconds yeah and the ignition sequence is a little bit different uh both in terms of the timing and also the ignition method so on Falcon 9 we use the chemical called t-tab it's a pyrophoric materials that means when you mix the two together it produces a flame that kicks off that green characteristic spark on Falcon 9 missions but actually on Star Starship we use electrical ignition systems many of those are integrated on the ground system here and the electrical ignition we start lighting the banks at T minus six seconds and then over the next four seconds the three sets of banks will ignite and eventually bring uh the booster up to a Thrust away greater than one and hopefully Ascend super exciting uh like we said pretty different from our Falcon 9 launches and so this will be the first time that any of us have gotten to see this type of of uh integrated test flight with both the Starship and the supermarket booster everyone steering as we get in the team of five minutes we want to remind everyone that success today is anything it looks fun down there for today success is anything that we learned that helps improve the future builds of Starship if we lift off and clear the pad we're calling that a win a great shot of the pad there a great shot of the quick disconnect on the second stage you can see the frost line on the booster where that methane is uh is fully topped up I think we're just coming up on the last few minutes here of propellant fail on the booster and that quick disconnect is going to separate away as we actually get into the ignition sequence but it's providing electrical connections now and uh also providing the propellants that we're loading into the vehicle yeah we're just now under four minutes until liftoff of these Starship flight test we've been following along for it what honestly seems like days and days now but really it kind of comes down to years it has been a long time to get to where we are today now fast forwarding a little bit um we have the opportunity to hold if necessary at 40 seconds and we are able to hold there for about 15 minutes or up to 15 minutes and still be able to lift off yeah and that's a little bit different from Falcon um for the propellant sequence on Falcon that um we don't have the opportunity to hold so that's a cool new capability on Starship right now T minus three minutes 10 seconds and counting we've got some great views from the Drone it's nice that uh the fog is slowly lifting we get some of the blue skies hopefully good views what we're waiting for right now is close out of propellant loading on the first stage that should be wrapping up here shortly in fact it looks like uh fuel fill and drain valves are coming closed that means first stage is fully loaded second stage fully loaded and at 10 million pounds per pellet on board the Starship launch vehicle I want to take a quick moment to say that the cloud energy here is electric I feel like it's Falcon heavy test demo all over again hahaha and hopefully you'll hear us as we get into the plus count but right now next activity is coming up the flight termination system arms the T-minus two minutes thrust vector control checkouts at T minus two minutes and then after that major activity will be the T-minus 42nd gate there's the view looking up at the 33 Raptor engines there are 20 engines and a circle on the outside and as Shiva said earlier 13 engines on the center those are the ones that demo Facebook [Applause] I don't think I've ever seen some of us so excited for TVC Wiggles love this view these are the 33 Raptor engines at the base of the super heavy booster I think we can see those Wiggles now we're currently inside 90 seconds next major activity T minus 40 seconds that is a gate a decision point we're writing possibilities a propulsion team may need a few minutes flight termination system is armed for flight we're getting ready for T minus one minute and Counting [Applause] next we'll see as we get past T minus 40 seconds for final checks of the vehicle [Applause] foreign [Music] okay you can see the clock is recycled flight director has called a home we are recycling for the moment we'll see where they move the clock back to they could hold ft minus 40 seconds they could go to an earlier point give us a minute to listen into the Nets and we'll see if we can get you more information to share found inspector again here at the Hawthorne webcast desk we're holding a T minus 40 seconds what we've heard so far is we have a couple of issues we're working one is the booster tank pressurization uh final pressurization was just a little bit long that's not unusual we've held at T minus 40 seconds before to pressurize that appears to have been resolved the same time on the second stage they're working some final purging we should know very shortly if that is cleared and if we'll continue the countdown everyone especially that person is excited to keep going like John said we should know shortly if we are able to continue but as we mentioned before we are able to hold uh up to 15 minutes and still be able to lift off today yeah on Falcon 9 it's a little bit different once we start propellant loading we pretty much have to go at the targeted time otherwise the propellants can warm up and we may not have the performance for that particular Mission profile it's a little bit different if I can interrupt yeah it looks like they're clearing all the flags and we're going to release at T minus 40 seconds that is amazing news amazing team working quickly through their issues on first and second stages I'm sure all of the rehearsals uh and simulations that they've been doing have prepared them to evaluate this data quickly to try to get us in for today's lunch attempt for those of you just joining we have a brief hold at the T-minus 42nd Mark uh the team is resolving one issue with the police Purge on the state of the state two Raptors like John just said that the teams are quickly working that and it looks like the flags are being cleared as we speak so we should be able to resume the launch countdown any moment now and it's worth noting on Starship that once we resume the countdown it restarts from the 42nd period and then we'd be going unless another condition pops up so stick around because uh Starship could be going here real soon don't walk away that's for sure amazing views here coming to us from Starbase Texas [Applause] 15 seconds [Applause] [Applause] booster up your chamber pressures nominal starts the vehicle Tower cleared we're into pitch over the Coulson reports first stage engines model what a cycle in the grandfathers are flying at twice the thrust of a standard time heading to space [Applause] foreign foreign going through the period of Maximum aerodynamic pressure [Applause] with the velocity increases the depth of the atmosphere is decreasing lessening stress on the vehicle the call out next two miles [Applause] continuing to watch the first stage as we head down range 100 seconds into flight our next major activity of the first stage the Houston tracking station now acquiring the vehicle we're set down we will get separation of Starship and super heavy and ignition of the Starship engines when it starts up separates we light up six engines in a staggered sequence if all goes well those six engines will burn for almost six and a half minutes onboard view from Starship and there's views of the Raptor engines on the second stage as we prepare for stage separation now after safe separation the first stage will flip and begin a boost back maneuver for landing in the Gulf continuing to fly two minutes 40 seconds let's get ready for main engine cutoff beginning to flip for stage separation [Applause] excellent [Music] as of right now we are awaiting stage separation where Starship should separate from the super heavy booster yeah Kate right now it looks like we saw the start of the flip but obviously we're seeing from the ground cameras the entire Starship stack continuing to rotate we should have had Separation by now obviously this is uh does not appear to be a nominal situation yeah it does appear to be spinning but I do want to remind everyone that everything after clearing the tower was icing on the cake [Applause] promise an exciting end to these Starship inaugural integrated test flight the beach [Applause] everyone here absolutely pumped to clear the pad and make it this far into the test flight it's first integrated light of the booster and the Starship vehicle like you bear of our control center at Starbase which we refer to as Star Command as we said before obviously we wanted to make it all the way through but to get this far honestly is amazing well if you're just joining us Starship just experienced what we call a rapid unscheduled disassembly or a rut during Ascent but now this was a development test there's a first test flight of Starship and the goal was to gather the data and as we said clear the pad and get ready to go again so you never know exactly what's going to happen but as we promised excitement is guaranteed and Starship gave us a rather spectacular and what was truly an incredible test thus far as we mentioned at the start of today's program any and all the data that we collected during the test is going to help us with further development of Starship and it's going to improve the vehicle's reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary it's really worth noting that the flight path was designed to be over water and all the air and sea space along with that flight path and those surrounding areas are cleared in advance of the test and of course we're going to be coordinating with local authorities for the recovery operations honestly what an exciting morning oh my gosh liftoff from Starbase Texas at 8 28 a.m central time we cleared the tower which honestly was our only hope we cleared the tower and all the data that we collected all the way through the all those Raptors those 33 although I think we saw that three Raptor engines were out um but we got all that data and we got so far as to hoping to see the the Starship the second stage separate from the first stage the super heavy booster and unfortunately we didn't make that happen but that's okay it was the first integrated launch and honestly today was amazing absolutely incredible day we've made it through a number of those initial test objectives with getting booster Ascent getting hauled away through the countdown working submissions at the end like really fantastic day y'all through the gate of T minus 40 seconds on the second try everything released the hold down quick disconnect arms everything moves out of the way and then we got the vehicle off of the pad through Max Q all the way up the stage separation even starting into the prep for States up and then as we say a lot of excitement honestly my face has had a smile on it so it's left off and now my face hurts no it says we don't have any insights on the cause of our rapid unscheduled disassembly at this point we're going to end our webcast here teams will continue to review the data and work toward our next flight test but before we go a big congrats to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting first integrated flight test of Starship and of course a shout out to our viewers we appreciate you joining us and as always we thank you for your interest in Starship SpaceX and your ongoing support until next time foreign [Music]

Channel: VideoFromSpace

Views: 385,277

Keywords: spacex, starship, live stream, livestream, launch, space, orbital, space.com, spaceflight, super heavy, integrated, booster, first, SC01887

Id: rVLp8nKcOCg

Length: 32min 14sec (1934 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 20 2023