SpaceX Starship testing is already underway. What's new with SN15? How is it different?

this video is sponsored by brilliant hey hey  marcus house with you here it has been action a   plenty at the boca chica production and launch  site this week loads of updates on the next   starship number 15. we have just got to check out  what is happening over at the mcgregor testing   facility with the new wrapped engine test stand  under construction what will that mean for raptor   development spacex says bon voyage to the two  falcon 9 fairing catcher vessels we'll explain   why that is an interesting test of an orion test  article making a big splash this week as well   crew one went for a quick spin around the block  to prepare for crew 2 and their arrival later at   the international space station and yet another  exciting starling mission with an awesome live   booster landing to top all of that off we  had the mars helicopter ingenuity placed down   on the surface of mars ready to conduct the  first ever powered flight on another planet on monday spacex rolled its crane tankzilla to  the launch site in preparation for the first   ground support equipment tank or gse tank this  tank was then rolled down to the orbital launch   complex just a few hours later and installed  atop a concrete stand the next day as a full   starship and super heavy stack is going to need  around 5 300 cubic meters of propellant spacex   wasn't able to get such big tanks delivered to the  orbital launch site to accommodate for this and as   such they needed to resort to building their own  tanks this first tank here is expected to be for   liquid nitrogen and hold approximately 1825 cubic  meters in volume now there are probably at least   seven more concrete stands so it's pretty  certain that we'll start seeing many more of   these orbital launch pad gse tanks being built  and transported in the near future at 9am on   thursday that same tank was standing on its own  as the crane was unhooked ahead of sn15s rollout   at 10 am that huge beast rolled out of the  production facility and started making its   way down the road arriving at the launch site  at 1pm just a few hours later the crane then   hoisted starship sn15 off the transporter and  placed the vehicle onto sub-orbital launch pad a   in preparation for that testing campaign it has  actually already had its ambient pressure test so   next week we expect to see a cryotest and static  fire it could perhaps be possible to see a flight   test very late in the week but i'd expect to more  realistically see that happen no earlier than the   week after spacex has also levelled off the large  orbital launch pad supports in preparation to   stack the launch table on top that launch table is  that huge structure that we've seen being worked   on over the last couple of months it is really  nice to see this progressing now as those large   pillars have been sitting there stationary for  quite some time now we have some more information   relating to last week's failed landing attempt and  explosion of sn11 many online rumors had started   saying the flight termination system was triggered  due to the vehicle possibly being off course it is   quite largely understood now that the likely  cause was an explosive engine failure during   the relight process that destroyed the vehicle  itself elon musk was asked on twitter here how   the investigation into sn-11's rapid unscheduled  disassembly was going he replied here saying that   the ascent phase the transition to horizontal and  control during freefall were all good a relatively   small ch4 leak which is of course the methane led  to fire on engine 2 and fraud part of the avionics   causing that issue with the ch4 turbo pump notably  it's possible that the small methane leak blamed   for sn11's failure was visible here on raptor  engine sn52 less than 30 seconds after starship   lifted off this therefore left plenty of time  for the fire to severely damage the faulty engine   and even the adjacent raptors for those that  haven't caught up on sn11's flight check out   the video from last weekend thanks a lot for  everyone's great discussion in the comment thread   for that one and of course for liking and sharing  these videos it really does help this work get out   there along with subscribing to the channel here  thank you as always for the incredible support   now looking towards the future with sn15 i've  collected a short list of major updates that   this starship prototype will include as elon has  been letting us know over the past few months   sm-15 was always slated for these major upgrades  but they are coming much sooner than we may have   expected these changes could drastically  help the starship program with production   reliability and overall development the two most  notable changes include the redesign of the thrust   puck which is at the bottom of the thrust dome  and a minor modification for the soon-to-be   mass-produced raptor engine the thrust puck on  sn15 is set to be tested this coming week to   ensure that the build quality and designs meet the  necessary specification to withstand the raptors   enormous thrust to test this specification  a massive hydraulic ram with a special jig   is connected to the bottom of this starship thrust  park for sn15's thrust ram a special six-point   mount has been fabricated to connect the ram to  the new raptor thrust vector control attachment   points on the thrust park itself this then leads  us into the raptor modifications which are minor   to the overall build but drastically  helps in reliability and reusability   on previous starships prior to sn15 the thrust  vector control arms would sit directly attached   to the thrust dome and not the thrust puck itself  this led to issues of raptors taking up a lot more   room than necessary and the thrust dome required  extra reinforcements and bracing now with this   new design of raptor starting from raptor number  56 and beyond these thrust vector control arms   will be actually mounted directly from the engine  to the thrust puck itself therefore alleviating   any extra stresses to the dome and instead  transferring them straight to the puck itself   this additionally makes the engine much more  compact and less likely to cause issues with   interference and clearance from other things  around it other differences of this new series of   raptor includes the turbo pump spin start valve  placement which is much more tidy and compact   at the raptors gimbal head on the prior engines  dating back before raptor 56 the serial number   for each engine sat 180 degrees to where they are  now which indicates that the methane pre-burner   is now facing away from the center point of the  vehicle rather than facing towards the center   point finally the last major change for these  raptors is the colour of their nozzles now spacex   has been testing these green coloured nozzles on  and off with different raptors since raptor 43   but the very first to fly on a starship vehicle  was raptor 45 with starship number nine since   raptor 56 through to 59 we've seen all of these  engines wearing that green coat instead of the   previously normal grey black coat now we believe  that this green layer comes from the forming   process of taking a sheet of inconel 718 which is  spacex's super alloy of choice for engine bills   and making it into the nozzle of the raptor itself  during this process which occurs in a reducing   atmosphere the inconel 718 forms a thin oxide  layer which slightly helps in corrosion resistance   if this forming process is done in an oxidizing  atmosphere a thicker and more detrimental and   heavier black layer forms which can prove to be a  challenge to work with so overall spacex we think   could be taking an easier approach in their  production by forming these engine bells in   that reducing atmosphere rather than the oxidizing  one which would best allow for mass production and   quick turnaround times so that wraps up the major  updates for the raptor but let me know if you've   seen anything different with these new engines in  the comments below to bring closure to this whole   raptor and thrust puck list of changes the final  one i'll mention is the thrust puck's plumbing   as seen on pre-sn15 starships the plumbing  for the methane downcomer splits inside   of the liquid oxygen tank and then runs through  the thrust puck to the raptor engines for sn15 and   beyond the methane down camera will go directly  into the thrust puck and split in the skirt side   of the vehicle rather than the tank side this is  going to allow for more direct runs to the methane   turbo pump head on the raptor and should hopefully  simplify the plumbing and the connection times for   these engines as well the raptor modifications are  going to help smooth out the installation process   into the starship vehicle while also being more  effective at doing its job propelling the ship now   there have been some exciting starship updates  away from the starbase facility in boko chika   over in the mcgregor testing facility a new raptor  engine stand is currently under construction these   test stands are where spacex test fires the raptor  and raptor vacuum engines to ensure that they're   performing as expected before they get shipped  off this is going to be a really important step in   ramping up raptor production more test stands mean  more engines leave the production line quicker   and spacex needs a lot of engines if they're  planning on starting the orbital test campaign   in july currently only around 60 sea level raptor  engines and two raptor vacuum engines have ever   been produced and an orbital starship will  require at least 31 sea level and 3 vacuum engines   so yes spacex needs to really ramp up production  in any way they can speaking of the vacuum engine   rvac number 2 has been spotted on a test stand the  reason behind this delay is that spacex has been   modifying these engines to squeeze as much  performance out of them as possible the starship   and booster construction progress for the week  here from brendan shows progress on sn16's nose   area by the time sn15 flies this beast shouldn't  be far away we also have updates there with sn20   which should still be an orbit capable ship and  booster number three progress appearing as well   interestingly not seeing much progress on sn19 but  we'll keep an eye out for updates on that thanks   brendan now sadly this week we bid farewell to  the infamous fairing retrieval ships that have   been used for quite some time i'm of course  talking about spacex's recovery ships miss   tree and mischief now these sister ships have been  assisting spacex in their fairing recovery program   since june of 2019 when spacex first leased them  out spacex of course used the vessels to catch   fairings in their nets and had planned to do this  for the foreseeable future these vessels were also   designed to pick up the dragon spacecraft and have  done that on two occasions as well however during   the fairing recovery program spacex have realised  that it was just easier to scoop the fairings   right out of the water instead of catching them in  a net so over the course of february and march of   this year the fairing catching nets and arms have  been removed from these sister ships we have then   seen a new ship the sheila bordelon arriving  in port this vessel is now going to be used   to recover those fairings thank you though for  the incredible service of the vessels miss tree   and mischief along with the crew we all hope that  they enjoy that change of pace speaking of fairing   retrieval of course we have starlink's latest  mission on wednesday this week this starlink   mission was fairly standard with 60 starlink  satellites beautifully deployed once again   hitching a ride there on falcon 9. this was the  seventh re-flight of this particular booster which   first launched crew dragons endeavour for the demo  2 mission last year there were two pretty exciting   things that happened in this mission though the  first is that we got to see an uninterrupted live   landing feed from onboard the booster as it landed  on the drone ship of course i still love you this   is all thanks we believe to the drone ships now  utilizing starlink pretty cool indeed the new   fairing retrieval ship of course sheila bordelon  was out to pick up the fairings as well so a few   interesting updates here that we will hopefully  see more of in future missions greg scott out   there as always picking up those great shots and  also the return as well it does seem like only   one fairing half made it back on this occasion  now on monday this week we saw a first for the   commercial crew program the dragon resilience  craft here carried out a port relocation to make   room for the expected april 22nd arrival of crew  2 to the international space station with all four   of the crew one suited up and secured for a trip  around the block resilience was released from the   international docking adapter 2 forward harmony  port but many may ask why do all four astronauts   need to be on board and suited up as if they were  coming home well just in case there was a problem   with the re-docking process the crew could be  safely returned to earth instead if there was   some issue and those astronauts needed to remain  on the iss without the crew dragon there would   be no way to get everybody home the almost fully  autonomous procedure backed the capsule away to a   distance of approximately 83 meters the crew did  have the opportunity here to issue some commands   just to test drive the capsule as well with the  lidar system activated and tracking the station   the capsule began its delicate move inside the  keep out sphere it drifted above the station   to line up and hold around 60 meters out from the  international docking adapter number three or the   space facing port of the harmony module after  the final clearance the capsule began its move   back in again holding at 20 meters before final  approval to doc was granted with that soft capture   confirmed the crew had all of the excitement  in undocking and docking all in the space of   around 45 minutes pretty awesome stuff that dragon  resilience capsule is set to depart with crew 1   in late april and then interestingly in june  a cargo dragon capsule is going to arrive with   the first set of new solar panels as such the  robotic arm is going to be needed to reach the   trunk of that capsule something that needs  to be done within reach of the zenith port   so yes with soyuz crew dragon and cargo dragon  activities it looks like boeing's starliner's   second uncrew test flight is just going to  have to join the queue having been delayed now   from april the 2nd so with all of this excitement  the mars rover perseverance dropped its special   little visitor to the martian surface this week  we'll talk more about that in a second but first   a huge thank you to brilliant for sponsoring  today's video brilliant is a website and mobile   application that is built to make learning stem  subjects fun engaging and interactive learning is   so much more effective when you can visually  see concepts and break them down into small   understandable components all of the material  with brilliant is built off this very principle   you just pick a subject of interest that appeals  to you and jump right in if an area is not making   sense to you there are great explanations all the  way through to let you find out more the subject   content is always getting refreshed as well this  freshly revamped geometry fundamentals course   is just one great example i'm a big fan of the  gravitational physics subject pathway where   you can learn about newton's law of gravity  this is such a great way to more intuitively   understand the motion of planets along with  the tidal forces on the planetary bodies   and moons if you are naturally curious and you  want to build up those problem-solving skills then   consider checking out brilliant at the same time  you could join me and a community of 8 million   learners and educators by heading to brilliant.org  marcus house that will give the first 200 people   20 off the first year of brilliant premium  you'll find that link in the description below   so yes the mars rover perseverance dropped its  little visitor to the martian surface this week of   course here i am referring to ingenuity the tiny  lightweight helicopter that was hoping to make the   first powered flight on another planet it's quite  surreal to think how far humanity has come with   flight since the wright brothers aircraft flyer  took its flight in 1903. interestingly a small   piece of fabric from a wing of the flyer has been  attached to the underside of ingenuity's solar   panel that is a super cool reference right there  after several days of methodical system checks we   witnessed this little wonder begin its transition  to feet down before finally seeing ingenuity   sitting in its designated airfield testing ground  not long now to wait until the moment of truth   can this technology demonstrator achieve its  objective and complete its test flight campaign   what an amazing moment this is going to be  the first historical flight quite literally   a world away a few quick updates as well on the  space launch system and orion nasa performed   the drop test of an exact duplicate of the orion  command module on tuesday the fourteen thousand   pound test replica was dropped into the water from  a distance of seven feet this was essentially done   to confirm that all data for the splashdown  sequence is as expected this is critical of   course as just the slightest error could lead  to an astronaut being injured on the same day   nasa performed a test of an rs25 engine for the  sls which was streamed live just on facebook the   rs25 engine fired up at 2 20 pm central time  on the test stand at stennis space center that   test there lasted the full duration of 500 seconds  the main objective here was to gather data on how   well the components work and reduce risk in the  new rs25e variant so yes it was nice to see some   more progress there as we conclude the updates  for the week remember as well that we are huge   supporters of the transition to electric vehicles  here on the channel and our partner ev offers the   ability to hire an electric vehicle in australia  perhaps you have wanted to take an extended test   drive you could be touring the country and want to  drive around in a tesla if that sounds appealing   to you you can use the link in the description  for a discount huge thanks as well to my amazing   patrons and youtube members here we simply can't  create content at this frequency and detail   without you all the support that you all here  provide allows us to increase the time that we   can collectively spend and that is all thanks  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Channel: Marcus House

Views: 314,337

Rating: 4.9599018 out of 5

Keywords: spacex starship progress, spacex starship live, Elon musk starship, Spacex super heavy, spacex starship landing, ingenuity helicopter first flight, spacex starship sn15, marcus house, spacex starship sn15 launch, spacex starlink satellite train, spacex starship update, spacex explosion, spacex starship sn15 upgrades, spacex starlink launch, spacex starship sn15 news, spacex super heavy booster, Spacex launch, Spacex starship, spacex boca chica, Spacex starship crash

Id: b_BsDczGqIE

Length: 19min 26sec (1166 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 10 2021