- We were right! (light music) How will the second Starship flight differ from the first one? Did SpaceX and Elon Musk just confirm our
speculation about Starship? Who was selected for the Crew 7 mission and did Vulcan get delayed, again? My name is Felix. "Welcome to What About It!?". Let's dive right in. Starship Updates. The pace of activity at the launch site has surged, even surpassing previous progress speeds while Ship 25 has just successfully undergone a significant inaugural test. Last week we delved into the intricacies of the
water cooled steel plate. Today we'll focus on the
Orbital Launch Mount itself. Starting from the bottom. During Elon Musk's Twitter
spaces session last week, he dropped a fascinating tidbit about the launch platform's base. A labyrinth of reinforcing
steel rods destined to provide structural integrity
to the Launch mount and withstand a super
heavy blast. Pun intended. To accomplish that, it needs to be bonded
together with concrete. But did you know how much
concrete will be needed? What does it take? We're not talking about a
few buckets here and there. We're talking about a
whopping 1000 cubic meters or 35,000 cubic feet. That is 52,834 standard buckets. One concrete mixer truck can lug between six and 10 cubic meters, let's say eight cubic meters
or 282 cubic feet of concrete. So to fill the orbital launch mount base, SpaceX is going to need an army of about 125 of these trucks. Trust me, when this process
gets rolling, you won't miss it. It will be quite the spectacle. Remember when the orbital
tank farm was refilled after the Starship launch
attempt was scrubbed? That was a really long line of trucks. Back to the launch deck. Over the last few days, we
spotted some interesting activity at the Booster Quick Disconnect Arm. The cryogenic hoses were put back in place after they'd been removed
shortly after the flight. Workers didn't stop there though, a protective metal sheet, the BQD or booster quick disconnect
hood also got reinstalled. This arm is key to fueling and powering Starship's lower stage and it's designed to
retract during the lift-off. Things didn't end there. New cryogenic piping was installed, leading up to the section we
fondly called the dog house, for obvious reasons. While the auto launch mount is still far from welcoming another booster, the pace is definitely
quickening even further. We might not be there in a week or two, but give it a month or
six weeks and it should be in a good enough shape to
continue Starship testing. And that's precisely what
Elon gave as an estimate on the recent Twitter space,
and I do share his estimate. Now do me a favor and take
a look at Suborbital Pad B. Here, Starship 25 has been
playing the waiting game for a static fire for over a month now. We haven't seen any flames yet, but the test campaign has
reached a significant milestone. On June 21st, once the road was empty and the pad was cleared, Ship 25 was fueled and
performed a spin prime test. Remember how in our previous episode, I told you to look out for a white cloud underneath the engines? There it is, a successful test. With more media activity in recent weeks, it's not surprising that
just after the spin prime, SpaceX shared this remarkable
drone shot with us. Way to go SpaceX, this
is very much appreciated. This means that engineers at Star Base are lining up the next challenge, a static fire of six Raptor engines. And you know what? At the time of recording this
episode, the potential date for this grand event is or was June 26th from 3:00 PM to 12:00 AM with
backup dates for June 27th and 28th from 12:00 PM to
12:00 AM, all Texas time. Get your popcorn ready. If anything happened between
me recording this episode and you watching it on release
day, we'll show it here, fingers crossed. (rocket firing) As the countdown for the second orbital
flight attempt continues, curiosity might be nibbling at you. You might be wondering what are the odds of this mission succeeding or how does the B9 Ship 25 stack differ from its predecessor? Excellent questions. Thanks to insights from
Elon Musk recent talk and some guesstimates, why don't we try to answer them together? First, let's tackle the ship as its closest to being ready for flight. By now, you probably know that Ship 25 is in essence,
Ship 24's doppelganger. It continues to utilize the
second generation raptors with a hydraulic thrust vector control, or in simpler terms, it
employs hydraulic pistons to maneuver the raptors nozzle physically. While this mechanism was a point of failure for Booster 7,
Starship 25 uses TVC only for the three sea level
engines, so it should work fine. Don't jinx it Felix. Much like its predecessor, Ship 25's pez dispenser
has been welded shut, meaning the deployment of
Starlinks or any other payload during the second orbital
flight is off the table. Shifting focus to the booster, here we see a plethora of
important design modifications. Naturally, as a new generation prototype, most of the changes are purely internal. According to Elon Musk himself, this new orbital stack boasts
over a thousand changes. So it looks almost the
same on the outside, but it isn't at all. This overhaul includes the
most anticipated feature, an electric thrust vector control system. Looking at one of the pictures captured by our one and only
WAI Cam operator Chief, you'll notice that
Booster 9 lacks two boxes on the outside. The transition to an electric
vectoring system saves weight as the hydraulic power units that resided in these boxes on Booster
7 are no longer needed. Such a system is also easier to maintain and can be more reliable due to the absence of
leak prone fluid lines in the actuators. It is much less complex. Crucially for Starship, each gimbal functions
independently from the others, meaning that if one
component has a bad day, it shouldn't cripple the
entire booster anymore. Booster 9 was also designed with engine shielding from the get-go. While super heavy Booster 7
shields were an afterthought. Other subtle distinctions
include longer chines with a Starlink dish on top, ulage vents with different
nozzles to function as RCS thrusters and a greatly
simplified thrust puck. However, the most unexpected
change has received a stamp of confirmation from Musk himself. You might recall our speculation around SpaceX's potential addition of hot staging capabilities to Starship as a staging and launch escape system. That thing got a lot of comments. It appears that we were
on the right track. Starship will indeed employ hot staging but not for aort purposes,
at least at first. Instead, akin to the N1 and
various Russian rockets, it will use hot staging
simply to separate the stages. This implies that the ship
will ignite its engines while still atop the booster. Quite a shock, isn't it? Well, not for you as you're a WAI watcher. If our interpretation of
Elon's statement is correct, this change is set to
be already incorporated into Booster 9, meaning that
a top its forward section, the one where the grid fins are located, a ring will be installed to allow raptor exhaust fumes
to disperse once ignited. It will be either the one that's almost
completely hollowed out, the one previously suspected to be a part of the Starship Moonlander or both. While hot staging and reusability don't sound
like they would work together, provided the booster's top
is adequately shielded, employing this system could
very well prove feasible. Now, you rightfully should
ask why complicate things? Another excellent question. You are on a roll today. Despite the ship's separation from the booster occurring in
the upper atmospheric layers, drag is still there, slowing it down. Every time you lift your foot
off the gas, you slow down. Elon argues that igniting the upper stage without first cutting
off the main engines, the booster could allow for an additional 10%
payload mass increase. Never stop thrusting. To give you a scale, the extra 10% is equivalent to the total payload a reusable Falcon 9 can launch into space. Musk shared his estimates, everything should be ready
to launch in about six weeks. Once it actually lifts off, the chance of complete
mission success is 60% according to him, so not bad. However, approach all of
this with a grain of salt, especially the six weeks part. If it takes longer, it'll
still be insanely fast, keep that in mind. As confirmed by SpaceX, the flight profile of the second launch will mirror that of the inaugural attempt. This implies a water
landing for the booster in the Gulf of Mexico and a splashdown for the ship near the island
of Kauai in the Pacific. Now that you're armed with more knowledge about the upcoming second orbital flight, let's take a virtual tour
of the construction site where prototypes are
popping out left and right. Before we can do that
though, here's some epic news from today's sponsor. Greeting Space Cadet, as we prepare to traverse
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and save 25% right now. Alright, back to rocket development and to the star base construction site. On June 24th, in a
surprising turn of events, Booster 11 was hoisted
onto a transport stand and embarked on a brief journey to the increasingly crowded
water tower parking lot aka, the Rocket Garden. Somehow SpaceX has carved out a space for one more booster stand
there, but if you have OCD, you might want to look away as its position is just slightly offset from the rest of the stands. With a growing family of parked rockets, it may become challenging
to keep track of them all. However, fear not, as that's
where "What's About It" steps in to assist you. Starting from the left,
we have the freshly transported Booster 11, closely neighbored by Booster 10 in a state
of testing readiness. Moving further, we find the retired Booster
4, followed by Ship 26. Chief recently noticed its
engine shielding lying nearby, suggesting that it's
close to being complete. Moving along, we encounter the seasoned
veteran, Serial Number 15, which was the first to land successfully. Next in line is Ship 27, patiently awaiting its
engine installation. And finally Ship 20, which unfortunately never had
the chance to prove itself. You have to admit, that's quite
an assembly of prototypes. Want me to shock you? That's only the early beginnings. Back at Mega Bay, on June 20, the Booster 12 liquid
oxygen tank was completed, swiftly followed by the completion of the methane tanks
constructed on June 22nd. All that's left is to
unite these two halves, finishing Booster 12. Given the current pace of
progress, I wouldn't be surprised if by the time you're
watching this episode, this prototype is already complete. The remaining question is,
which Starship will be mated with this Booster? Ship 27 with its Starlink deployer, or maybe the new generation Ship 28? Perhaps even a prototype
with serial number 30 plus? What are your thoughts? Please let me know in the comments and while you're at it,
poke that like button, share this video with your friends and consider becoming a WAI supporter. For just a dollar per month, you get access to daily
Starbase photo galleries from our one and only Chief. That is over 100 photos every single day and really countless other extras on top. Regardless of how much you decide to give, everyone gets the same
supporter content and access. Money doesn't decide
everything, after all. A link to our Patreon page can
be found in the description. Thanks to the thousands of supporters we already
have, you rock so much! Now, did you know that
during a Falcon 9 flight, the booster isn't the only
thing that's being reused? Of course you did. Even though the concept of a reusable second stage
didn't come to fruition, Falcon 9's fairings
tell a different story. Originally, these were
retrieved using large nets suspended above two recovery
vessels named Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief. No, not that Chief. It's a wordplay on mystery and mischief. This recovery method, however, didn't yield a high success rate. Imagine you have to catch
a giant fairing falling from the sky with a giant boat. Yeah, nope. In the end, SpaceX concluded
that it is more cost effective to allow the fairings
to fall into the ocean, after which they can be
retrieved and refurbished. On June 23rd, another Starlink launched from Florida's SLC-40. This time, 56 V1 Starlinks
were deployed into orbit. This launch marked the first time one of the payload fairing halves was reused over a record 10th time, an achievement that other
companies can only dream of. Of course, Falcon 9 wasn't created solely for satellite deployment. Human transport utilizing the
Crew Dragon capsule is one of its most important features. On June 20th, we finally learned about the two remaining
members of the Crew 7 Mission, giving us a complete team of four. As part of Expedition 69/70, American astronaut, Jasmine
Moghbeli will embark on her first space journey
as the Dragon's commander. Even though she lacks
previous space experience, she boasts over 2000 hours of flight time as a test pilot for the US Marine Corps. So no need to worry, she's got this. Next we have Andreas Mogensen, a Danish astronaut from
the European Space Agency. He previously traveled to the ISS in 2015 for an intense, albeit
short, nine day mission. During the Crew 7 Mission,
he will be Dragon's pilot. The first mission specialist
is Satoshi Furukawa, an astronaut from the
Japanese Space Agency who spent six months in space
during a mission in 2011. Finally, the seat of the second mission
specialist will be occupied by a cosmonaut from
Roscomos, Konstantin Borisov, who will be venturing into
space for the first time. The mission is scheduled for August 15th with the crew launching
aboard Dragon Endurance, marking its third flight up to space. Up next on our launch list
is the penultimate lift-off of the renowned Delta IV Heavy. On June 22nd, this behemoth of a rocket, complete with its striking
liquid fuel boosters, ascended from SLC-37,
illuminating the skies in the middle of the night. I was the only guy out
on the street in front of our house at three in the morning. Space nerds, right? It was worth every second. As the mission name NROL-68 implies, it was a classified mission for the National Reconnaissance Office which means we were left
guessing about its payload. Got any theories? Feel free to drop them in the comments. With the final Delta IV Heavy emerging from the Alabama factory, the Delta Rocket production line was subsequently closed down, signaling the end of an important era. Can you believe that the first rockets from this family were
launched back in the 1960s? All in all, over 300 different
Delta variants were produced with an overall mission
success rate of 95%. Not bad for something that started as a modified ballistic missile. The last Delta will
also launch from SLC-37. If you are keen on seeing it in person, there's still time to prepare, as it will launch no earlier
than the first quarter of 2024. Yet again, this will be a National
Reconnaissance Office mission, meaning no views from
the rockets second stage. Though it's always a bit
sad to see rockets retire, there is a valid rationale behind United Launch
Alliance's decision to phase out both Delta and Atlas rockets. Progress in technology is inevitable. Hence, Tory Bruno's
company is working hard on transitioning to the
new Vulcan Centaur rocket, although the engineering
behind it is seemingly stubbornly resistant to this change. You might remember that during the Centaur 5 upper
stage testing a while back, a hydrogen leak led to
a significant explosion which was captured on
one of ULA's cameras. This incident resulted in a pause in the Vulcan test campaign in Florida. The initial investigation allowed
for the rocket to go ahead and conduct a static fire,
which ended up being a success. As everything was starting to look like it was back on track
for the inaugural launch, the more in-depth analysis of Centaur 5 revealed some issues. The forward dome of the upper
stage will, unfortunately, need reinforcing, meaning
the rocket will have to be disassembled again. Neither Tory Bruno nor ULA has
provided a new launch date, but it's still unlikely to occur until the fourth quarter of this year, if it happens at all this year. You know the saying, "Space is hard." I want to wrap up today's
episode, Together with Me, I'm pleased to share some encouraging news from the European Space Agency. First at Kourou, French
Guiana engineers have replaced the three
pyrotechnic cords responsible for the postponed launch of
the last Ariane 5 rocket. Now that everything seems
to be working again, the launch campaign has resumed with the new launch date slated for July 4th, Independence Day. Make sure to follow me on Twitter for this epic Independence Day rocket @FelixSchlang to catch all the updates. It's going to be your last chance to witness this majestic rocket in action. While Ariane 5 is nearing retirement, Ariane 6 is showing promising
signs of advancement. Although we don't expect
it to launch this year, it's made a significant stride
as part of its test campaign. The rocket was rolled out to its pad showcasing its full beauty. But don't be fooled, despite
its ready to launch appearance, it's worth noting, that this isn't the vehicle
slated for the inaugural flight. Instead, it's a ground testing prototype. The rocket intended for the maiden flight will
be transported in parts from France and Germany to French Guiana where its assembly won't begin
until November of this year, so there is still some time to go. Arianespace has also revealed
some new advancements regarding its reusable
rocket stage named Themis. In Vernon, France, a rigorous
hot fire test campaign of this vehicle culminated
with the ignition of the methalox engine called Prometheus. As is common in rocket engineering, this test campaign is
experiencing a slight delay. Originally, this phase
of testing was scheduled for 2021 with the initial
flight tests intended for 2023. Themis is a test bed similar to the Grasshopper or the early F9R. It was created to research
the technology needed for the Ariane Next rocket, a Falcon 9 style reusable launcher that isn't projected to
take flight until 2030. The next stage of development is testing
the engine to its limits. This phase will proceed at the German Aerospace Center located in Lampoldshausen in Germany. I really do hope that one day we will see a
fully reusable European rocket, better late than never. That's it for today. Remember to smash the like button and subscribe for more awesome content. Check out our epic shirts in your favorite Space Nerd Store, link is in the description. And if you want to get
even smarter about space and rockets, watch this video
next to continue your journey. Thank you very much for watching and I'll see you again
in the next episode. (light music) How? Who was? How an orange starship. Yeah, let's not do that. One more time. Three seconds to. I'm sorry. (tone beeping) (laughing)
