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Starship Launch was a Success! HUGE Milestones hit! · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
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  This is a show where we discuss the critical Crossroads, the
• 0:08
  Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink.
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  And I'm. Your host.
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  Will Walden if you want uninterrupted episodes of the
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  Elon Musk podcast. Please go to club.
• 0:20
  Elon.supercast.com to find out how there's a link in the show
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  notes. This morning SpaceX launched
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  their massive Starship rocket and they completed 1/2 world
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  journey after launching from South Texas Starbase Boca Chica.
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  Now this is a low Earth orbit launch.
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  It's a crucial capability for future launches for Starship,
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  and the launch occurred from Starbase at about 8:25 AM
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  Central time. This is the third iteration of
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  the full stack Starship rocket flight.
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  It's 397 feet tall and its width is bigger than a 747 jumbo jet
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  is huge. It's about 30 feet around and it
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  had its take off time adjusted to ensure the surrounding waters
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  were clear of any vessels. So people in boats were hanging
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  out in the no fly zone and SpaceX had to take extra little,
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  a little bit extra time to move those boats.
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  Get those boats out of there. They were supposed to launch in
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  about 7:30 AM Central time, so 8:30 AM my time and Eastern
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  Time. And they had to push it back
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  about an hour to get those boats out of there, which is very
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  crucial, very beneficial to those boats because it's very
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  dangerous to be under the giant shrapnel tube that is Starship.
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  That is if it didn't work out right.
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  But this launch went pretty well actually.
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  So this flight built on previous test, there's marked
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  improvements, and now they're moving closer to operational
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  satellite launches for the Starlink.
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  They're going to accelerate Starlink satellite deployments,
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  and this will contribute to the company's expansive network of
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  satellites orbiting the Earth right now and also accelerate
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  their bottom line. They make money from Starlink
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  and if they can deploy hundreds of Starlinks more per month,
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  they will have more coverage and people will be able to get the
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  the coverage more and they'll have better coverage for the
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  people on the Earth and therefore make more money.
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  So Elon Musk celebrated this launch.
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  He's prideful about what happened with the team.
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  He said Starship reached orbital velocity, which is a huge deal
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  for a Starship because the next, probably the next phase is to
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  get it to orbit. IFT 4 to get it to orbit, make
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  sure that everything works right.
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  They open up the Hatch door today, they did a propellant
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  transfer demonstration. They closed the Hatch door.
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  It was a pretty big milestone, a bunch of little milestones that
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  were pretty big. And there's several firsts that
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  happened during this flight, and one of those was the payload
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  door. That happened.
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  The payload door opens and closes sort of like a Pez
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  dispenser. That's what they call it.
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  And that was that happened for about 20 minutes straight, and
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  there was also an internal transfer liquid oxygen
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  propellant. They're stepping stones towards
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  in orbit fuel refueling, which is a necessity for more extended
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  space missions, including the Artemis missions for NASA lunar
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  landings and also Mars missions. Now, not all objectives were
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  met, though. The Super Heavy booster failed
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  to execute a controlled splashdown leading to an
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  uncontrolled descent into the Gulf of Mexico, which is you
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  know, they plan for these things and they'll learn from it.
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  Additionally, a planned Raptor engine restart in space did not
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  occur with SpaceX yet to provide any explanation about why that
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  happened or why they didn't happen.
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  So Starship also allows for substantial payload
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  capabilities, promising to deliver up to 150 metric tons to
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  lower Earth orbit and an expendable configuration.
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  This capacity nearly double S to about 300 metric tons, which is
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  an absolutely massive amount of things to send to the Earth
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  orbit. It's it's incredible how much
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  300 tons, 300 metric tons of things are.
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  Now Musk is talking about Starship.
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  Recently he envisaged it as a cornerstone in his plan for
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  interplanetary human settlement, particularly Mars, and in the
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  shorter term, Starship will play a crucial role in satellite
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  deployment in an integral role in NASA's Artemis program for
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  lunar exploration. Starting with Artemis 3 in about
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  2028 probably, the flight demonstrated the reliability of
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  the Super heavy booster's 33 Raptor engines, all of which
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  performed great. The thrust powered the rocket on
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  its initial climb and subsequent trajectory over the Gulf of
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  Mexico, now approximately 2 minutes and 42 seconds post
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  launch, the booster began shutting down its engines,
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  initiating a hot staging process.
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  Now this technique, which was inspired by Russian rocketry,
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  allows for a seamless transition between stages, avoiding any
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  interrupted thrust. So basically the booster is
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  still going up and out and as that's happening the stages
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  start separating, but when they separate the ship actually
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  ignites its engines and it pushes the booster back a little
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  bit while also pushing the second stage, the Starship
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  vehicle itself up towards orbit faster.
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  Now the upper stage is 6 Raptor engines then propelled the
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  vehicle to a near orbital velocity reaching a peak
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  altitude of 144 miles and like Elon said, they did get to
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  orbital velocity. Eventually the design trajectory
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  ensured that the spacecraft would re enter the atmosphere
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  before completing a full orbit, preventing it from becoming
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  space debris. We don't want that.
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  We don't want it to burn up. We want to test all the systems
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  on the way back in. Now comparing the 1st 3 orbital
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  test flights of Starship though, a clear trajectory of
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  improvement is evident. The initial flight faced engine
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  failures and caused huge damage to the launchpad.
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  The second flight saw no engine failures, though a propellant
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  tank led to the Rockets destruction.
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  Now also the reliability of the Raptor engines has been
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  confirmed over the last two flights, addressing earlier
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  concerns regarding their performance.
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  This is a huge achievement for Space XS rocket technology.
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  It shows that they can continue to build these and they're on
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  the right track to build hundreds of these.
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  According to Elon Musk now on boards, cameras during this
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  flight were unprecedented, including the hot staging
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  process and the rocket. Its whole journey across the
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  gloom, their valuable insights into the rocket's performance
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  and the behavior in various phases of the flight for SpaceX,
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  but also we got to see them as well.
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  So that was a really, really great treat for all of us rocket
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  fans out there. And this flight was a success,
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  but it concluded over the Indian Ocean where Starship Re entered
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  the Earth's atmosphere and was ultimately destroyed.
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  But we also got great video of that.
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  So if you haven't seen that yet, please check it out on Spacex's
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  X account. But despite all the failures, it
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  was deemed the most successful today, fulfilling several
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  crucial objectives. And NASA's anticipation for this
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  mission stems from $4 billion investment in Starship for lunar
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  missions. The test represents a
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  significant step forwards for humans to return to the moon,
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  especially with that propellant transfer.
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  That's something they'll have to do for the Artemis missions to
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  get people back to the moon. Now SpaceX has several more
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  starships in production. They're continuing to aim for
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  test flights throughout the year.
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  Elon said he wants to have nine test flights.
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  Realistically, if they can get to 9 test flights, that would be
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  ridiculous. Everybody that I've talked to so
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  far in the Space Flight category has said six at best.
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  More than likely they'll have four more this year, but six at
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  the best. But if they can get nine, they
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  still have to get approval for the 9 as well, which they
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  probably will get approval now with each subsequent flight,
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  though, they're going to be refining Starships design and
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  capabilities every single time. The iterative process is crucial
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  for developing the future success of Starship, and every
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  single ship will be better, faster, more powerful, more
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  reliable, and be able to get things to low Earth orbit in a
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  more timely manner. And each test is a learning
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  opportunity. Hardware is evolving, Software
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  is evolving, The ground systems are all evolving every single
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  launch. And SpaceX advances its mission
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  of space exploration, and they're inching closer to its
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  goals of interplanetary travel and also habitation.
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  Every single launch of Starship. Hey, thank you so much for
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  listening today. I really do appreciate your
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  and each other and I'll see you tomorrow.