That was the most boring blow job I have ever watched
There was very little new information in the video, unfortunately. It was interesting to see that SpaceX weren’t confident in the fin heat shields ahead of the last launch though.
The majority of the video was “wow, rocket factory is big and empty”.
I guess other important piece is confirmation that they use gases after preburner for tank pressurisation.
Pretty sad that the coolest part of the whole video is what user effi on the NSF forum spotted:
Even in the Raptor room behind the Mega bay they watch NSF :D .A Screenshot from 46:14:
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=60962.0;attach=2294746;image
I love that everyone from Starship engineers to Starliner CAPCOM watches NSF.
TL;DW highlights:
- 01:15 Current Starfactory designed to produce 100 ships per year.
- 02:30 Aiming for 200 tonnes to orbit with full reusability
- 11:20 Starlink missions on Starship are not a priority for 2024
- 15:00 Currently design not able to cope with the loss of a single tile on the pressurized tank portion. Future designs incorporating a backup ablative layer underneath tiles.
- 17:30 Mass savings of passive vs active heat shield might not be as much as they originally thought, since the mass of the ceramic heat shield has grown. Elon still confident that passive shield is best for reentry from interplanetary transfer.
- 21:30 Linear-adjacent flow (assembly line) for vehicle production.
- 27:20 IFT-3 loss of ship control. Valves got clogged by ice. Elon confirms that they are tapping off the preburner for ullage gas to repressurize the oxygen tank. They’ve added better “ice strainers” and will add redundant valves in the future.
- 33:45 Reducing number of grid fins is not a high priority.
- 36:00 Still several thousand changes between each vehicle. Primary payload on these test flights is data.
- 42:00 Future raptor versions will have cooling circuits integrated into various parts, reducing the total number of parts, bolted joints, welded joints, and the need for engine heat shields
- 47:30 Long-term goal for raptor thrust is 330 tonne-force.
- 50:00 Separate propellant depot likely not needed for Artemis, just dock tankers directly to Starship HLS.
- 54:30 Tile attachement points
- 56:45 Ship header tank
- 57:45 Pez door test on IFT-3 “had some issues”.
- 1:00:45 Tesla drive units are still used for actuating the booster grid fins and ship flaps. Striving to eliminate all hydraulics on the vehicle.
Side note at 01:40 on Falcon 9 upper stage production: Close to 200 this year, likely over 200 next year.
Thanks for posting. Love seeing everyday astronauts enthusiasm.
SpaceX is such an amazing company. Sad people can’t see it because they are too interested in circle jerking their hate boner over Elon.
Giving government money to a corporation tun by narcotics abusing idiot does feel wrong to me.
How long till he needs $53bn from them to „stay motivated”?
What has Spacex achieved under Elon musk? Why did Nasa look for private businesses? What other car companies have made EV’s? How many exactly?
Oh wait you just hate him so nothing matters.
Plenty of other car companies have made ev’s. Fucking plenty. Like wow, there are a lot of EVs out there and they don’t even have sharp corners or missing mechanical door release.
Why did nasa look for private businesses? I don’t know, because the american government loves to spend money at private businesses because thats where their colleagues are waiting with pockets wide open.
Musk has made as wild claims about starship as he did about the cybertruck. The rocket is already behind schedule and underfeatuerd. And I would gladly remind you that when the american government wanted a giant rocket in the sixties they got it man rated and operational in 8 years. Maybe because the whole project wasn’t in the hands of a megalomaniac billionaire asshole with little to no formal education.
NASA went private because they wanted to save money. Falcon 9 have achieved so much more than any government ever has. Shows how little you know about spacex or even space in general.
How much of american GDP went towards Apollo? How much is going to SpaceX?
NASA saved a fortune on SpaceX. Elon must be a genius then if he managed all this with no formal education. What a legend.
Starship is overdue so is SLS. It’s rocket science. No one said it was easy.
Again SpaceX is trying to do something that no one else is even trying. This year is just data collection. Also they have been slowed by government, but they would still be behind anyway.
You just can’t face or you are just ignorant to what Spacex has actually achieved. Go look it up.
I know they achieved a lot but elon musk is still a cunt. I will hare everything he is tied with because he is a symbol (to me and many) of everything wrong with the current gilded age of capitalism. I know quite a lot about space, and Im very enthusiastic about it. What im not enthusiastic about is leaving a science frontier in the hands of this fucking idiot.
By the way the spacex community must be the last bastion behind elons back besides right wing insurrectionists on twitter. Good company.
Its more of an engineering frontier and that has always been advanced best with capitalism. Unfortunately nothing has come along that’s better.
