SpaceX Starship Capability Boost, Starlink mission to break record, BE-4 delay and NS-19

this video is sponsored by brilliant hey hey mark s house with you here again a stupidly busy december week running up to the end of the year incredible stuff to share at starbase such as this beast being mounted and this incredible steering footage shared by elon then we have the b 2.1 test tank finally meeting the can crusher and very interesting insights with ship 20. we also have spacex breaking a new record with a starlink launch as well sadly a new delay with the james webb space telescope and then we have blue origins table of two halves on one hand there are still no be4 engines in sight but on the other new shepard took its first fully seated flight we had russia's latest proton launch but also a cosmonaut scheduled to fly on a dragon yep you just heard that right china's launch cadence is attracting more attention of late as well so yes it's been another huge week so an eventful one at starbase on sunday the 12th of december the lr 11 000 crane was hooked up to this massive load spreader lifting it high while booster 4 was rolled closer to the orbital launch pad the crane's load spreader was then attached to booster 4 that night the next morning the lift finally began and for the third time it was lifted up and placed onto the orbital launch mount but this process to get the booster on the launch mount obviously took several hours the part that takes the longest is deploying all 20 clamps individually they have to lower the booster all the way down just a few centimeters above its final resting position while also waiting for the booster to cease all movement before they can begin extending the clamps obviously this isn't feasible in the long term with the amount of time it took and the fact that they have to wait until there is little to no wind to be able to place the boosters into the mount now this is where the arms come in handy unlike the crane this system will have four solid points of rigid contact the arms along with that stabilizer bar will hold the booster absolutely steady with wind having absolutely minimal impact on the boosters movement at all thanks to this the teams will be able to quickly and automatically lower the booster into the exact position it needs to be every single time and stop the sway within seconds therefore they can deploy all of the clamps at the same time instead of one by one and complete the process in less than 20 minutes so just before lift off all 20 booster hold down clamps will retract back into the mount along with the 20 small quick disconnect umbilical panels which will supply each raptor boost engine with the gases that they need to ignite i know right it is a complex series of events that all need to go perfectly the main booster's quick disconnect will also retract and the physical connections will detach from the booster to be pulled back under the hood with a door closing behind it for protection thanks a lot to anna for some more incredible images and zac golden for all the great work documenting a lot of this detail make sure you're following both of these great sources of information there on twitter so yes this time they still use the crane for these tests because the tower arms are not yet finished spacex were gearing up for major fuel farm testing throughout the week we had lab padre sharing footage of the orbital launch mount and the fuel farm venting like crazy on thursday all in preparation for booster force testing campaign finally beginning on friday the road was closed at 7 44 am and venting at the orbital tank farm started a few hours later spacex announced over the speakers at the launch complex to clear the entire pad for booster 4's cryo test as shared by a starship gazer here in the early afternoon venting increased under the massive booster with frost building on the skirt section indicating that liquid nitrogen was being loaded into the bottom tank around an hour later frost began rapidly building on the top indicating that both tanks were now being filled at 3 pm the frost on the vehicle was pretty much all gone with a lot of venting from the booster and the launch mount suggesting the end of this phase of testing this was confirmed after the road was opened soon after over at suburbal pad b spacex removed ship 20's six nose cone hardpoints and without these the ship can't be lifted off the test stand by a crane not unless they mount new hard points or use hard points under the forward fins for lifting instead i mean we're bound to see something though because elon confirmed that spacex are still aiming for an orbital flight test using both booster 4 and ship 20. what was most incredible though was this footage shared of the boosters raptor engines performing a steering test with the inner set of nine engines check that out an even more important announcement though future starships are being upgraded to have nine engines total three c-level engines that gimbal and six vacuum engines fixed to the sides these would all be raptor twos of course which just started production and as also mentioned these will have a thrust force greater than 230 metric tons not only that there is more propellant load in the ship as well so yes what a terrific set of announcements there these orange devices have also appeared and there is wild speculation all around on what these could be ranging from flight recorders to black boxes for recovery what do you think as we look forward into future vehicles ship 21's nose cone was moved over to the high bay for stacking with the rest of the vehicle just look at how good these noses are looking these days as seen in a gorgeous picture here by cosmic perspective and that is even before the big changes that are coming with the much sleeker looking nose cone we also had a ship forward dome with an unknown serial number assignment being placed onto the sleeving stand and it was then later sleeved with a three ring stack and this is unlike the previous ships which have been slaved with fouring stacks then ship 24's common dome sleeve was spotted as a four-ring stack instead of the usual three as such it is likely that we could be seeing some pretty big changes in how the body of the ships are stacked and welded together the new wide bay is making nice progress too one of the cranes at the production yard was hooked up to the first wide bay section of the second level and it was lifted up on top of the first level very nice to see that now rising into the air now if you thought that spacex were done testing the b2.1 test tank after last week's events like i did then think again this week the so-called can crusher cap was lifted on the top we've talked about this can crusher mechanism a few times over the past months and now we might be able to finally see it in action over the coming days it's expected that 20 ropes will pull on the top of the test tank from below crushing it until it deforms this will allow spacex to test the maximum forces that a vehicle could undergo during an event like max q just as one example this will be the first test of this kind now interestingly elon musk announced this week that spacex are starting a program to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and turn it into rocket fuel that i assume means that it could then be used on future starship flights and tests this sabatia process produces methane and water from a reaction of hydrogen with carbon dioxide at elevated temperatures between 300 and 400 degrees celsius and at pressures around three megapascals in the presence of a nickel catalyst now it takes a lot of energy to do that but this process has the potential to neutralize the emissions from starship launches this same process is all critical for colonizing mars as well as this is the way that starship will be refilled and reused in the more distant future now this is quite the challenge but i personally love this idea not only is it practical from a mission standpoint but people often ask how going into space can help us back here on earth small steps can often turn into giant leaps and in this case i have high hopes that spacex's fuel farms will at least be able to demonstrate carbon capture technology which can then be used globally so yes there has been such a huge amount going on at starbase and thank you to all the wonderful photographers nasa space flight rgv starship gazer all of you are so awesome and thanks also of course for supporting what we do here liking and subscribing it means a huge amount to all of us now sadly the starlink launch was scheduled to lift off just as this video was rendering out for publish so if it didn't get scrubbed this record-breaking launch for spacex has placed 52 starlink version 1.5 satellites into low earth orbit so why is it record breaking well it's the very first 11th re-flight of any falcon 9 booster presenting booster 1051 which has exceeded spacex's previously set record for 10 booster reef flights this booster previously supported spacex's demonstration mission 1 for the first crew dragon flight over eight starling launchers and two separate launches for radar sat and sxm satellite constellations this launch places the satellites in a 53.2 degree inclination in the fourth shell of the starlink constellation all launches to this shell have been from the east coast but this is the first such launch from california due to such a steep inclination the flight trajectory is very close to the coastline meaning that it needs a slight dogleg maneuver as shown here by flight club now i'm not exactly sure why this launch takes place from vandenberg instead of the cape but it's always amazing watching yet another launch from the west coast all the same sadly we got another slight delay on the james webb space telescope launch nasa announced on tuesday this week that the team was working on a communication issue between the observatory and the launch vehicle system and this delay means a launch date no earlier than christmas eve december the 24th this would more than likely work out to be christmas day here in australia as well so yes no rest here the good news is that this work appears to have gone well with the 24th being confirmed at least partially late on friday with nasa saying that they will confirm more on saturday the day this video is going live over the past week or two the six tonne 10 billion dollar next generation space telescope was lifted by a crane and carefully placed into position on top of aesa's reliable ariane 5 rocket we are now getting very close to launch date hopefully only a week or so away another launch of new shepard as well with ns19s mission this was the third crude suburbal flight for new shepard but the very very first to have all of the seats filled this time it is for four paying space tourists and two guests as well michael straughan was the first guest being quite famous in the usa he's a former american football player and now active as a journalist and a tv personality therefore offering quite some publicity for blue origin the second guest has some much more historical gravity it was laura shepard churchley does that name ring a belt well yep it is one of alan shepard's daughters he of course was the first u.s american to space and this is where the name for this new shepherd vehicle comes from in the first place it also seems like the wings awarded to these tourism missions are about to become a thing of the past in the future the faa wants to award them only to those who contribute demonstrations of public safety along with other new criteria during the flight so yes yet another sub-orbital flight but don't let that distract you from the news this week that united launch alliance most likely won't get any of blue origins be4 engines as a christmas present this year according to eric berger insiders told him that this will happen earlier next year instead i dearly hope so otherwise we may even be unlikely to see the first vulcan center fly next year either so far it sounds like minor problems producing this delay but yes i do wish to see yet another brand new rocket launch in 2022 someone who definitely will still fit into the new wings program as defined by the faa is anna kikana the only female russian cosmonaut currently in active service and the first cosmonaut planned to launch on a crew dragon recently the current director general of roz cosmos dimitri ragozan tweeted her participation in the upcoming u.s flight to the international space station currently it seems that she'll be joined by nicole mann and josh cassider from nasa and koichi wakata from jaxa on the crew 5 launch sometime late in 2022 speaking of russian news another bigger launch from kazakhstan happened this week with russia's heavy lift launch vehicle the proton from baikonur cosmodrome during the 18-hour mission from liftoff to final separation on monday evening the hypergolic-powered proton rocket launched and placed two russian communication satellites express amu-3 and amu-7 into their designated transfer orbit these satellites are operated by the state-owned russian satellite communication company and have an operating life of at least 15 years the two of these are telecommunication satellites with amu-3 being the heavier of the two weighing in at around 2150 kilograms it's equipped with 39 transponders and will be positioned to provide coverage over russia and kazakhstan amu-7 weighs a little less at around 1980 kilograms also with 39 transponders for coverage over siberia and far eastern russia the launch and the deployment all went well and it will take a little over 55 days for both to raise their orbits into their final geostationary position needed due to its age reliability and increasing launch costs ros cosmos will be switching over to angara a5 powered by rocket-grade kerosene and oxygen and they're going to then quickly wind down the proton launchers to date angara a5 has only flown twice with the most recent launch in december of 2020 but it is making its third flight to orbit on december the 23rd so keep an eye out for that launch in the coming week now i don't often share a lot of news going on around china's space program and this is simply because for whatever reason i get claim requests on the footage a lot of the time i think it's certainly worth covering however because the launch cadence going on is actually quite extraordinary and this should be a real wake-up call for other space programs to ensure that they can stay ahead because this is not going to slow down i'll jump into that in just a second but first our amazing sponsor brilliant running the channel here is extremely time consuming and we are super thrilled that brilliant provide the assistance to help us improve and continue to create this content for you not only that but it is a perfect match for me to work with here given the incredible hands-on interactive math and science courses that brilliant provide they are laid out just like a story and broken up into pieces so that you can work with each chunk at a time at a pace that suits you i've more recently begun running over the solar energy course with my eldest son after he was covering it to a basic degree at school even though some of it is a little advanced for him i've had a lot of fun learning this myself and expanding my knowledge on how it all works we've learned about the principal methods of harvesting energy from sunlight with photovoltaic cells and then concentrated solar power collectors as well but what is just as interesting is the fundamental physics that describe exactly how this electromagnetic reaction provides the energy for almost everything on our planet most life as we know it is simply not possible without our quite small little star well perhaps with the exception of bacteria and small organisms that could live around hydrothermal vents or something like that this stuff creates such interesting discussions that have then led us over to other courses as well as the holiday season arrives brilliant interactive stem learning platform makes an awesome gift for the amazing learners in your life if you'd like to give it a try head to brilliant.org marcus house the first 200 of you to go to the link below will get 20 off brilliant annual premium subscription for yourself or someone else you'll find that link in the description below okay so the number of chinese launchers is becoming very significant recently there was the 400th long march launch which was the 4b variant carrying the xi jin 6 payload then on tuesday this week the second satellite for the tianlian 2 tracking and data relay series was launched by a long march 3be rocket that is a much larger rocket with the four strap-on boosters now many confuse these to be solid rocket boosters similar to the configurations that we see with something like atlas but no these are all liquid rocket boosters saying that as far as liquid propellants go die nitrogen tetroxide and udmh is highly toxic stuff so needs to be dealt with very carefully on top of that we also see private launches becoming quite successful as well in china with galactic energy flying their rockets successfully to orbit twice now with that second launch placing five satellites into orbit and that's without even mentioning the brand new very futuristic looking space station work that has been continuing throughout the year they are sending missions to the moon and mars in the future of course they aim to have manned missions to the moon so the chinese program is not slowing down this i think is a great reminder to everyone out there that when we see inefficiency lack of funding or bureaucratic delays slowing down progress in the united states this is time that is being taken away from this new race to space although we'd love to see all the space exploration benefiting global scientific research it is also a race it's wonderful to see the chinese space agency achieving what they are but it's also a reminder that clear goals timelines and targets aren't necessary to remain the leader in the space industry last week's comments in the thread were great again mick glow here thinks that the holy grail of space flight would be a single staged fusion power spacecraft and yes perhaps musk should call it the holy crawl of space flight with current technology perhaps it isn't as catchy that way fusion power in the future of course if harnessed well would in reality be quite insane compared to chemical rockets and could provide extremely efficient and a lengthy burns to accelerate at a phenomenal speed because of that efficiency it wouldn't need the massive fuel supply either a direct fusion drive has been estimated to have a specific impulse up around 10 000 seconds or so compared to say a vacuum raptor at 380 seconds that would make an extraordinary difference at the same time the fusion reactor can also provide vast amounts of power to use for the ship itself sadly though we seem to be eternally 20 years away from being able to create fusion power with massive reactors here on earth imagine the possibilities though if one day we can nail it bill here making the great point that no launch vehicle is a sure thing reiterating the point that we were making last week starship has many challenges to overcome it's going to be quite some time to become profitable even if everything does go to plan so yes totally agree there bill but i'm also looking forward to watching this adventure play out i'm confident that if any company can do it it will be spacex remember the ore that we all felt watching these starship test flights earlier this year they felt like a huge step towards the goal but we're still a very long way off the orbital flight tests and re-entry tests coming with a new heat shield are big challenges alone even if spacex could not achieve all goals they will still though be left with a stunningly cheap and at least partially reusable launch system for super heavy payloads so thanks for coming back to yet another saturday update with me if you are new i hope i earned your subscription today thanks to all of you always here for watching liking and commenting every bit of that interaction helps watch time certainly seems to be the most beneficial so simply letting a video play right through to the end helps us the most i think if you are directly supporting those through patreon or youtube such as all these terrific people listed here that also makes a world of difference and it also lets us work on deeper dive topics from time to time as well that also goes for the many of you picking up some gear from a merch store including this shirt that you see right here like this candle remember that if you like light colors to pick the dark version of the design so that it stands out you certainly don't want the white text on a white shirt and all that sort of thing today in the tile in the bottom left we have my video from last week talking about ula's stp-3 mission and nasa's xp mission launched by spacex's falcon 9. in the top right is my latest video and in the bottom right a video that youtube has suggested especially for you thank you as always for making it all the way through i'll see you all in the next video

Channel: Marcus House

Views: 336,992

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Id: MUTau0YrktY

Length: 20min 56sec (1256 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 18 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Silly-Schedule-7834]

Less velocity at MECO so easier for superheavy to fly back and land.

Starship is getting closer to an SSTO, this will clearily increase capability beyond low earth orbit after refueling.