SpaceX Starship Testing Finally Kicks Off, NASA's Lucy Mission, Landsat 9, William Shatner in Zero G

this video is sponsored by brilliant hey hey marcus house with you here and starship testing has finally kicked off this week along with loads of super interesting updates both at the launch and construction sites at starbase in boca cheeka texas loads to cover there as we watch the largest rocket ever created get prepared for flight we also have lucy the asteroid mission preparing for launch if you don't know much about this you are missing out so i'll show you why i think that is so exciting we also had an atlas 5 launch for the first time in a while this week with nasa's landsat 9 mission and rumors floating around about william shatner heading up to fly on new shepard in october now okay so we had some interesting action this week with tests finally kicking off the thrust puck tester for the three central c level engines was delivered to the launch site and was later on installed under ship 20 on sub-orbital test stand b three vacuum raptor engine test rigs were then also put into place there as well it has been a long time since we've seen actual ship testing action in fact this here was the first test of a ship in over two months and that occurred on monday evening it was eventful too with action occurring right at the start of the test process before the pad had even been cleared of the last few remaining workers ship 20 spat out several heat shield tiles on its nose cone which you can see if you look fairly closely right here there we go bam a bunch of tiles were ejected elon musk quickly confirmed that the ship had shed the tiles off its nose during a brief event of the liquid oxygen header tank in the nose cone although this may not have been something that was totally unexpected in the early testing phase spacex will certainly be trying to find a way to overcome that problem starship's heat shield tiles have proven to be very fragile up to this point with dozens of them routinely chipping cracking and shattering during and after they were installed on the ship after the original set was installed a month or so ago many were damaged and had to be replaced as it was only the tiles on the nose cone that were damaged this issue was believed to be mainly due to the deformation of the nose cone as it was lifted up by the crane although this seemed like a major issue at the time once the mechazilla lifting and catching arms are complete ship 20 will instead be lifted from below the forward flaps and as such the nose cone shouldn't deform and we shouldn't see all those cracked tiles the next time ship 20 is lifted so it's going to be very interesting to see how things go from here moving past that issue not long after the tiles were blown off spacex began to pressurize the ship for its first tests at around 8 pm vapor started pouring out from under ship 20 skirt indicating that a cryo proof test was beginning frost also started to form on the liquid oxygen tank for a short while as well just an hour later the vehicle was depressurized the road was reopened and workers returned to the pad so it's very good to finally see a little testing there as far as we know that test was successful obviously with the exception of blowing off some of those tiles on wednesday another test occurred which seemed to be a full cryo proof of that same ship a frost line appeared at 8 pm indicating the filling of liquid nitrogen into the tanks with venting of the vehicle starting soon after that frost line grew and held over the next three and a half hours until the vehicle was detanged at 11 40 pm elon concluded that test on twitter saying that the proof was good over at the orbital launch complex it became apparent last week that booster 4 was about to be taken off the launch mount with the booster transport stand being moved to the launch complex this is to allow for the mechazilla carriage and arms to be installed without endangering the booster itself the load spreader was hooked up to the crane here and then that was attached to the booster ready for lifting early on saturday afternoon just after the last weekend video went live booster 4 was picked up off the mount and it was later touched down on the transport stand once there the crane was unhooked and the booster began rolling away stopping on the landing pad here it should just sit temporarily as once the mechazilla arms are installed booster 4 will be placed back on the mount for the third and hopefully final time the first flight could be capable of launching sometime in november however due to the process going on with the programmatic environmental assessment it is likely to fall quite a lot further back than that in fact just a few days ago the faa announced that they have extended the public comment period for the draft assessment to november the first this is where local support is really needed if you're able to put in your say please do as we know there will be positive and negative opinions depending on the points of view we want to see those positive opinions vastly outweigh the negative spacex needs our support so thank you for helping where you can the other hope as well is that spacex will debut the mechazilla arms this month in october with the installation of ship 20 onto booster 4. i don't know about you but i am very much looking forward to seeing that happen now i've seen a few people in the comments asking about the quick disconnect or qd arm wondering how it could perform both the tasks of the filling and quick disconnect system as well as having the ability to hold the booster as well it doesn't seem to have the height to do that looking at it as it currently sits does it i think what we are actually missing here though is a new component that houses the quick disconnect system that would be mounted on top to interface with the ship's quick disconnect panel now i could be wrong about that but it seems logical based on the fact that the arm needs to both line up with a booster and starship with the claw and also attach to and fill the starship just over the past few days a platform has been added so i think that adds further evidence to support that anyway we are missing parts to that puzzle so keep your eye out for hints on that as they come to light thanks very much to oh there for putting in all that time and effort into the visuals included in this is a great explanation of the trolleys that mount to each of the columns for the catch arms as we believe that they will work nice work there oh make sure you're following there on twitter and on youtube some updates with the ground support equipment or gse tanks we have for you as well at the launch site early in the week cryo shell number five was lifted up and sleeved over gse tank number one that is one of the two liquid nitrogen tanks at the orbital launch tank farm this leaves only gse8 as well as shell seven and eight remaining to be put in place before all eight completed tanks sit in the tank farm and are ready for the orbital flight heading all the way over to the build site this week began with the stacking of starship number 21. on saturday the thrust dome assembly was stacked onto the leg skirt in the nose yard its nose cone and barrel section has started to be tiled along with its common dome being flipped to its correct orientation the forward fins spotted at the end of last week were mounted there as well so this is a good indication that rapid progress is going to appear here next week as typically most parts are prepared before stacking starts along with the ship parts of a booster 5 the booster that should be partnering up with ship 21 has continued to appear as well its forward section number four was spotted which is a four ring stack that will sit above the common dome that will be a part of the upper methane tank section along with that is some very interesting news regarding this booster early in the week we saw a very large cylindrical tank-like structure being rolled into the high bay that was later lifted up right beside booster 5. a few days later booster 5 was then lifted up in the high bay moved over to the left and then lowered presumably over the new tank structure back in august elon musk tweeted a list of higher structural margins that are needed for reuse one of these indicated that a boost back and landing propellant tank would be required for the booster itself essentially i believe this serves a similar purpose to the header tanks as we see on starship by containing the liquid oxygen needed for the booster landing in a smaller central tank spacex can ensure that the now mostly empty booster has all of the required liquid oxygen just for these central engines to do their job likewise the massive down comer needed for the liquid methane already serves this purpose so yes lots going on there and we are expecting a lot more next week we create these videos to release every saturday and you might be surprised at what has happened by this time next week thanks also for helping to build the spacex community and supporting nasa space flight rgv aerial photography starship gazer and the amazing 3d artists out there along with many more by subscribing to them liking their content and sharing it all around that helps equally as much as subscribing right here that means the world to them and it helps all of team space to do what we do so spacex's cargo dragon was returned just yesterday being released from the international space station on thursday yet another successful delivery completed there and of course cargo returned back to earth the fact that this barely makes any headlines these days i guess is a good thing it's just becoming a little more mainstream and routine at this point all the same it would still be nice to see some footage of the splashdown occurring the dragon made the usual parachute assisted splashdown off the coast of florida and nasa tv didn't even really bother to broadcast the splashdown live so again that all seems quite routine the great thing about dragon is that it delivers science back to researchers just hours after splashdown so due to this the researchers can then collect the data with minimal loss of integrity that was the 23rd cargo resupply mission all wrapped up with spacex at this point making it look too easy when it is anything but now one mission that i've been really looking forward to is nasa's lucy mission this is being prepared right now for its launch to the trojan asteroids seven of them in total this is an awesome mission unlike anything else that i'm aware of and there has been a fair amount of luck finding an arrangement of asteroids that are all in the correct positions to make this mission work if the schedule holds as planned lucy is going to launch on the 16th of october just two weeks away on united launch alliance's atlas 5 with the 401 configuration this is the exact same rocket configuration that was used on the landsat 9 mission that launched this week which we'll cover over shortly this mission to me is just so interesting lucy is going to explore a record-breaking number of asteroids flying by one asteroid in the solar system's main asteroid belt and then another seven trojan asteroids what is even more mind-blowing is the intricate mission profile invented to accomplish this now if you are not familiar with lagrange points i highly recommend checking out some material explaining how these work essentially a lagrange point is an area of space where the combined gravitational force created by two large celestial bodies like in this case jupiter and the sun come together these regions create a stable position for smaller bodies such as asteroids to park themselves from here they can exist without deviating essentially forever the lucy mission is named after the lucy fossil discovered in the 1970s which turned out to be around 3.2 million years old that was a super ancient fossil and just as that has helped form our understanding of our own evolution the lucy mission is going to hopefully do the same but focusing on the evolution of the entire solar system if we can just look in on the leftover bodies from the formation of planets that would just be incredible these here we call trojan asteroids and they will sit ahead of jupiter's orbit or behind by roughly 60 degrees at the lagrange points as the results of being caught here these objects are the same as those that have built up to form and grow jupiter and saturn after all of this time they remain trapped for us lucky human explorers to snoop in on first off the lucy spacecraft is going to head to an asteroid in the main asteroid belt named donald johnson that is of course the name of the researcher who found the lucy fossil all those years ago next she heads off to the leading set of asteroids to encounter these four targets all of them are different in size color and composition so that is going to be interesting it's going to be a busy time for nasa as well as lucy is going to do two asteroid flybys in only 30 days as she explores the l4 asteroid swarm another flyby of earth will follow sending her out next to the l5 swarm to catch up with the final two objects these objects however are both orbiting each other and are pretty much identical in size as far as we can tell that will all happen over a 12 year period all set to kick off in just weeks so keep an eye out for that in early october it's going to be an exciting one these asteroids are almost totally unknown like so many others out there all we've been able to do is see small points of light by the hubble space telescope the only way to see more detail is to explore them directly and that is what lucy aims to do we also had an atlas 5 launch for the first time in a while this week with nasa's landsat 9 mission on monday the 27th united launch alliance sent up this brand new satellite from space launch complex 3 at vandenberg space force base this was riding on the 401 variant of the atlas v just like that that will launch lucy that tells us that there is a four meter payload fairing which is the smallest available zero solid rocket boosters and only one engine on the centaur stage the launch all went smoothly of course with the atlas v slowly lifting off from the fog with this satellite destined for a near polar orbit booster engine cutoff and stage separation there at just under four minutes and the centaur stage was on its way powered by the single incredible rl10 engine which efficiently delivered this satellite into orbit its final destination a 705 kilometer or 438 mile sun synchronous orbit this one joins its partner satellite landsat 8 which was launched way back in 2013. this landsat 9 mission was actually supposed to launch in december of 2020 but due to the pandemic along with these shortages of liquid oxygen the launch date was pushed to september i always love talking a little about these satellites as they provide such terrific data it is all a huge effort to monitor the health of earth and also importantly helping people manage essential resources for crop growth irrigation and forest coverage what i always appreciate is that this research gets added to free and publicly available data sets as it has done for the past half a century or so in fact it's actually the longest data record of earth's landscapes taken from space so congratulations to united launch alliance and nasa for yet another textbook mission now you've probably seen rumors floating around about william shatner heading up on a flight with new shepard it is certainly a question that i've been getting a lot over the last few days now we haven't heard a lot from blue origin since their last flight for ns17 but ns18 should be coming up in the first half of october we'll talk more about that in a moment but first our amazing spots are brilliant now if you are a regular viewer here you already know how wonderful brilliant have been helping to support what we do and likewise i'm a huge fan of the beautiful educational experience that they've created here as well we choose to work with brands that we love and brilliant is a service that i use myself when i can spare a little time to tinker around believe it or not i don't just love the space related physics and math that you will find scattered throughout these sections such as gravitational physics classical mechanics or astrophysics just to name a few but other areas as well that i also find fascinating although subjects like chemistry are not as closely related to the topics that we discuss here quite as much understanding the elements and chemical reactions at least at a basic level is hugely rewarding just last week i sat down with my eldest son who was asking me all about how a universe that started largely filled with hydrogen has evolved into all the amazing elements that we see elements that make us the world around us and the universe that branches out farther than we could ever measure now i read through the very first chemical reaction section with him and wow the questions and discussions that were had while going through it was just such a great way to learn and bond together and that led us to other videos and topics for that broader understanding as well if it's been a long time since you've learned anything to do with chemistry do yourself a favor and revisit it especially if you haven't done any since high school or something you might be surprised at just how interesting it is with extra maturity and a deeper level of learning behind you if you would like to remember how fun it can be to explore and get curious consider checking out brilliant by supporting them you are supporting us here give it a try by using my referral link at brilliant.org marcus house the first 200 people will get 20 off the first year of brilliant premium the link is in the description below so yes we haven't heard a lot from blue origin recently considering the last few months of negative publicity covering the various lawsuits in progress public opinion has been a little low in that regard the upcoming flight with ns18 should be interesting though a few months ago we witnessed the launch of ns16 where jeff bezos flew straight up to the edge of space with his brother mark wally funk a highly experienced aviator and oliver damon that was the first crewed flight of the new shepard which was certainly interesting and this next mission should be very similar although ns17 was an uncrewed mission for nasa experiments ns18 will be launching humans for the second time that is scheduled currently for the 12th of october just a few weeks away now of course there are rumors everywhere that william shatner will be one of the passengers but there is no official comment from blue origin on this more than likely if this is true we would see an announcement a little closer to build up public enthusiasm right before the flight i for one would absolutely love to see captain kirk in zero g even just for a few minutes of course all of that could just turn out to be a rumor the reason that people are talking about this is because feeds such as this from tmz have suggested this to be the case time will tell there is an official comment on two passengers though one is glenn here the founder of a medical data company and the other chris who is the co-founder of a satellite business while the capsule can carry six passengers ns18 will fly with a total of four with the two remaining seats at this point unconfirmed well at least as this video was being recorded so there we go another week of space updates thanks so much for making it all the way through to the end here that helps more than anything we've been so busy getting the midweek video ready that i haven't been able to skim over the comments or twitter quite as much as usual if you missed that by the way remember to go and check that out a card is popping up right here in the corner you amazing viewers seem to get a big kick out of that one 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Channel: Marcus House

Views: 485,738

Keywords: spacex elon musk, united launch alliance, Spacex starship landing, starship 20, spacex boca chica, nasa lucy mission, spacex elon musk interview, Spacex starship, william shatner rocket man, marcus house, the claw, Spacex orbital launch, Spacex, Spacex launch tower catch, spacex launch, spacex super heavy booster, Spacex starship progress, spacex starship full stack, elon musk spacex, Spacex starship update, spacex faa environmental review, Landsat 9 launch

Id: zkfSndVlzCo

Length: 19min 45sec (1185 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021