SpaceX's new mystery structure revealed at Starbase! Virgin Galactic's new record and more...

foreign following the static fire test of booster 9 which saw the Raptor engines ignite on the orbital launch mount for the first time in months spacex's Starbase is now entering a new phase the company has collected data about the new water Deluge system and many new structures have been added to the launch pad recently what are these structures is another big boy tank arriving at Starbase which was sent to the launch site yesterday immediately upon arrival the tank was finally in place and the versabar lifter was removed it was quite a long journey for that tank weeks it's been since it first began its Trek on the road the tank is impressive but that transport truck and rig used to transport it may be even more so not to mention having to drive it with the arrival of the tank it appears that we might be bearing witness to the final chapter of the Journey of the tank meant for the booster bidet system for lack of another name marking a significant milestone in its overall completion but more interestingly Starbase Engineers have been working on this peculiar white steel ring there is currently no confirmation from the company about the purpose of this special structure but based on its shape that is a heavy duty table and it's even larger than a Starship We have some ideas to what this might be which include a sub-orbital launch mount a plain old orbital launch Mount or a full stack testing pad it also looks more like a turntable or a workstation for the wide Bay but a sub-orbital launch Mount would be the most likely meaning the current sub-orbital launch pads could be replaced which is a good thing since they've been problematic for a long time however due to its white color it also gives off the vibe of a component of the Starship hls variant you know the one that's supposed to be used for NASA's Artemis program even so it's quite ambitious to think they're starting to make more orbital launch tables remember way back when we were going to have launch pads all over the country and the world it may be time to scale up that processing and get more launch pads built outside Boca Chica first but in the end what could this structure be let me know your thoughts in the comments down below next the new Mega Bay will be completed soon let's take a brief look so far two new extension pieces for the LR 11000 crane at the build site have just been brought in these are the components to make the Derrick used for heavy loads on other trucks you can see the section for the second luffing jib of the crane this will give the additional reach needed to finish off the second Mega Bay structure additionally the star Factory that's under construction is being expanded it is set to replace Factory tents for the production of ships and boosters another building on site has been seen to have stacks of full-size starlink version 2 satellites waiting for launch but it remains to be seen whether ship 28 will be the first to launch some of the spacecraft with all these activities the production site is essentially non-stop working on future boosters and and ships in fact ship 30 got a little bit taller this week SpaceX certainly doesn't let any time go to waste while they test and iterate on current and future designs of Starship hopefully it'll soon get the launch license for the next flight in other notable news Virgin Galactic finally launched its first space customers to the edge of the cosmos a major step toward delivering on Decades of promises the rocket-powered space plane VSS Unity developed by the space tourism company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson took off at 8 30 a.m Mt from a New Mexico Spaceport attached to a massive twin fuselage Mothership it carried three customers entrepreneur and health and wellness coach Keisha sheahaff and her daughter Anastasia Mayers the first space travelers from Antigua who won their seats in a fundraiser drawing as well as former Olympian John Goodwin who competed as a canoeist in the 1972 Munich Summer Games Goodwin became the second person with Parkinson's disease to travel to of space the group's Journey began at Virgin Galactic Spaceport in New Mexico where the passengers boarded VSS Unity as it set attached beneath the wing of the mothership the vmse the eve took off much like an airplane barreling down a Runway before ascending to around 12 and 200 meters after reaching its designated altitude the eve released the unity which then fired its rocket engine for about a minute as it swooped directly upward setting it vaulting toward the Stars the vehicle ventured more than 80 kilometers above Earth's surface and altitude the US government considers the edge of outer space though internationally speaking the Carmen line at 100 kilometers above sea level is often used to Mark the boundary between our planet and space but there is a lot of gray area the space plane reached supersonic speeds as it hurled upward and at the peak of its flight the vehicle spent a few minutes in weightlessness as it entered free fall and glided back to the Spaceport for a Runway landing at 9 30 am mmt the journey lasted an hour after returning to Earth Goodwin described the flight as a quite surreal but without a doubt the most exciting day of my life I was shocked at the things you feel mayor said you are so much more connected to everything than you would expect to be you felt like a part of the team part of the ship part of the Universe part of Earth that was incredible and I'm still Starstruck this experience has also given me this beautiful feeling that if I can do this I can do anything she have said the flight was virgin's second commercial Mission following on the heels of a flight on June 29th that carried three Italian Air Force researchers to Virgin pilots and a company engineer to an altitude of nearly 53 miles that flight was chartered by the Italian government while Thursday's flight was the first with private astronauts version officials say some 800 applicants are on the waiting list to fly aboard the company's space plane blue origin owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has offered commercial sub-orbital flights aboard its new Shepard spacecraft since 2021 but the company is currently grounded amid work to resolve a booster problem that derailed and unpiloted research Mission last year Thursday's flight was virgin's seventh piloted sub-orbital Mission since an initial test flight on December 13th of 2018 after two more test flights Branson and a crew of six completed the company's fourth space flight on July 11th of 2021 climbing to an altitude of 53 miles after standing down to upgrade the eve carrier jet virgin launched a fifth piloted test flight with six company employees on May 25th followed by the Italian research mission on June 29th virgin plans to eventually ramp up to a flight per month and for our last piece of news today Russia launched its first robotic mission to the moon since 1976 on Thursday the Luna 25 spacecraft also known as the Luna Globe Lander lifted off at 7 10 pm EDT or 2310 UTC if all goes according to plan Luna 25 will spend the next five days journeying to the Moon then proceed to circle the natural satellite for another 5-7 seven days the spacecraft will set down on the moon's South polar region near bugoslowski Crater once down safely and sound Luna will work on the lunar surface for at least one Earth year it took longer than expected for Luna 25 to get off the ground its liftoff was delayed for nearly two years one major countdown delaying issue was sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine which began in February of 2022. the European Space Agency Issa had been set to provide the pilot D navigation camera built specifically to help Luna 25 perform a Precision landing on the moon due to the invasion however Issa canceled the camera cooperation along with a number of other collaborative space projects but getting Luna 25 on its way to the Moon remained a priority One highlighted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in an April 2022 visit to the vastnachni cosmodrome he said the sanctions placed on Russia by the U.S the European Union and others would not deter the nation from carrying out space exploration despite all the difficulties and attempts to interfere from the outside we're definitely going to implement all our plans with consistency and persistence Putin said in terms of Landing the 1.6 ton Luna 25 is fundamentally different from its predecessors past Soviet lunar Landers touched down on the moon's equatorial Zone this new Lander will set down within the circumpolar region of the Moon in a site that involves tricky terrain and That's all folks if you want to support our Channel and get access to exclusive content please consider becoming a patron by clicking the link in the description below we appreciate your generosity and your passion for space exploration and as always this is Kevin from Great Space

Channel: GREAT SPACEX

Views: 68,688

Keywords: spacex, nasa, starship, SpaceX's new mystery structure revealed at Starbase! Virgin Galactic's new record and more..., spacex news, starship boca chica, starlink, spacex starship, starship spacex, elon musk, spacex today, space x, great spacex, labpadre, spacex live, star ship, spacex boca chica, space x starship, starships, elon, musk, spacex structure, starbase, Virgin Galactic, spacex new structure, spacex news today, elon musk news

Id: ABQRrtRVmrY

Length: 8min 49sec (529 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023