Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Elon Musk is Right! SpaceX Starship Enters Final Phase Before IFT-4 Launch

Transcript

Elon Musk is Right! SpaceX Starship Enters Final Phase Before IFT-4 Launch · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:00
  What are the key missions for Space XS next Starship launch?
• 0:03
  And also how many launches from Kennedy Space Center at NASA
• 0:09
  does SpaceX want to do for the Starship in the future?
• 0:13
  We'll find out. They've successfully stacked
• 0:16
  Starship and the booster at Starbase Texas.
• 0:19
  So the next step, this is a fit test right now.
• 0:22
  So the booster and the ship are mated together on the launchpad
• 0:26
  and they're testing all the internals, the electronics, the
• 0:29
  plumbing, everything that's inside of the Starship, but also
• 0:34
  the ground systems, everything that makes Starship and the
• 0:38
  booster work for the flight of IFT 4.
• 0:42
  Now once this is all done, once the fit check is all done, and
• 0:45
  once they make sure that all the systems are go, they will remove
• 0:50
  the ship from the booster and maybe they're going to take it
• 0:54
  back to the Bay and do some work on it.
• 0:57
  Now some of this work is probably going to be some heat
• 1:00
  tiles. There is about 7 I believe heat
• 1:02
  tiles missing from the Starship right now and that's OK Right
• 1:06
  now they're just fit testing it and they're going to do the
• 1:09
  final tiling before they stack it up one more time before the
• 1:14
  flight of IFT 4. Now, in the background, SpaceX
• 1:19
  is working with the FAA and they're working on closing out
• 1:24
  items for the IFT 3 report. Now, the incident report is
• 1:30
  important because everything that happened with IFT 3,
• 1:33
  everything that went kind of wrong with IFT 3, they have to
• 1:37
  fix that before they launch IFT 4 Starship.
• 1:41
  So what are those things? We're not exactly sure.
• 1:44
  SpaceX hasn't really released any information about that, so
• 1:48
  your guess is as good as everybody else on the Internet,
• 1:50
  including mine. But SpaceX and the FAA are
• 1:54
  working hand in hand to make sure that all of those items get
• 1:58
  closed out before IFT 4. Now, what's going to be
• 2:02
  happening during IFT 4 as well? They know that the booster will
• 2:08
  probably make it back down to the Gulf of Mexico because IFT
• 2:12
  3, they were very close. So SpaceX is confident that the
• 2:15
  IFT 4 booster will land in the Gulf of Mexico doing a soft
• 2:20
  landing. It's going to be a virtual
• 2:22
  landing on the landing pad and the catch arms.
• 2:26
  So the launchpad, as you see here at Starbase, Texas, those
• 2:30
  arms will kind of virtually catch the booster as it lands in
• 2:35
  the Gulf of Mexico. And that will be hopefully the
• 2:40
  last time they do a virtual landing of Starship before they
• 2:45
  actually land it back at Starbase, according to Elon
• 2:49
  Musk. Now, Elon Musk has promised some
• 2:51
  stuff in the past, and we all know this Elon is kind of one of
• 2:54
  those. He's a sales guy, right?
• 2:56
  So I trust the guy. I believe in him.
• 3:00
  But he wants to do a landing of the booster at Starbase, Texas
• 3:05
  for IFT 5. If this works out well in the
• 3:08
  Gulf of Mexico. Let me know in the comments if
• 3:10
  you think that's a good idea. Do you think the ship or sorry,
• 3:13
  the booster, do you think the booster could fly back to
• 3:16
  Starbase and land on the launchpad, on the arms like this
• 3:21
  right here, land like that for IFT 5?
• 3:27
  It's pretty close. I mean IFT 5 could be a few
• 3:30
  months away because IFT 4 will probably be the beginning of
• 3:34
  June. So if they could nail this IFT 4
• 3:37
  landing booster landing in the Gulf of Mexico, then there's a
• 3:42
  possibility that they go for it for IFT 5.
• 3:44
  Let me know in the comments down below.
• 3:45
  And while you're down there, hit the subscribe button, because
• 3:48
  not only you're going to get content from me, but you're
• 3:50
  going to get content from other content creators out there about
• 3:53
  Space Flight, NASA and SpaceX that you might not know about.
• 3:57
  It's going to be better for you in the long run because you're
• 4:00
  going to get more people giving you great content on YouTube.
• 4:04
  So let's get back to the news of IFT 4 and what's going to be
• 4:07
  happening. There's another thing that's
• 4:08
  happening with IFT 4 that didn't happen with IFT 3.
• 4:12
  Didn't really completely happen and we think that's going to
• 4:15
  work out well this time. It wasn't a complete success, I
• 4:19
  should say. I have T3.
• 4:20
  They tested the Bay door that they're gonna be launching
• 4:24
  Starlink satellites out of now. They opened it pretty well.
• 4:28
  It looked like everything went well, but it looked like there
• 4:31
  was a little hitch on the way back in so that the the opening
• 4:36
  was like this. He has it open up and when it
• 4:38
  came back in it was like chik chik, chik chik, give a little
• 4:41
  chik, chik, chik on the way back in.
• 4:44
  So when they were closing it. So it seems like they might be
• 4:47
  working on that in the future as well.
• 4:50
  I FT 4 perfect time because if they want to launch I FT-5 and
• 4:56
  actually land the booster at Starbase, they might do that as
• 5:01
  the big thing for I FT-5. We're going to talk about I FT
• 5:05
  four's big thing in a minute, but another huge thing for I FT
• 5:09
  five could be Starlink satellites.
• 5:13
  Now IFT 4's big thing is pretty big.
• 5:16
  They're gonna virtually land the booster in the Gulf of Mexico
• 5:18
  hopefully. So I guess there's two big big
• 5:21
  big things. The booster landing in the Gulf
• 5:23
  of Mexico softly and not doing a flight termination system style
• 5:28
  explosion over the Gulf of Mexico, but also the Starship
• 5:32
  itself. The ship re entering the
• 5:34
  atmosphere and not burning up. Elon Musk has stated that that
• 5:38
  is the big deal for this mission.
• 5:40
  So could they maybe land the Starship?
• 5:45
  All signs point to know that it's going to hopefully get back
• 5:49
  through the atmosphere, but they're going to FTS this thing
• 5:55
  before it hits the ground or let it hit the hit the water.
• 5:58
  Sorry, not the ground, but hit the water in the ocean and let
• 6:01
  it sink. And in my last episode, we
• 6:05
  talked about what could happen to the ship itself when it lands
• 6:09
  in the ocean. What would happen to the ship?
• 6:12
  Does it just sink? Does it float for a while?
• 6:15
  How do we protect this thing while it's out in the ocean?
• 6:19
  Well, it's more than likely going to sink within the first
• 6:24
  hour. Being out there, there's gonna
• 6:27
  be holes all over the thing. Think about it.
• 6:29
  Engines holes, there's ducts holes.
• 6:34
  They could have TS this thing too.
• 6:36
  So there's a, there's a plan in place by SpaceX and by, you
• 6:41
  know, the the government bodies to protect this while it sinks.
• 6:45
  Then when it sinks, it's going to be at the bottom of the
• 6:47
  ocean, so no one's going to go dig it up and pull it up to the
• 6:51
  top. They're going to make sure that
• 6:52
  nobody does that, and they're going to make sure that nobody
• 6:55
  gets the engines, the Raptor engines.
• 6:57
  And if they do, SpaceX is already working on the next
• 7:00
  version of Raptor engines. So even if they do get these
• 7:02
  ones, SpaceX will have the next version ready.
• 7:05
  By the time they learn about these engines, SpaceX will have
• 7:09
  another modified version that's even better.
• 7:12
  So it's going to take a little while for that to happen.
• 7:14
  Anyway, the pool of Starship from the bottom of the ocean
• 7:17
  would take a while. So if they get this completely
• 7:21
  nailed and they launch Starlink satellites for IFT 5, I believe
• 7:25
  IFT six other star like satellites and they're going to
• 7:29
  continue working on the the mission which is mission
• 7:34
  critical here is Artemis. They have to get a Starship to
• 7:37
  the Moon to work with NASA for the Artemis program and all of
• 7:43
  these things that they're doing now.
• 7:45
  It's paramount that they land a booster every single time.
• 7:50
  And when they land this booster, they can reuse the booster to
• 7:54
  fuel more starships, because they're gonna do in orbit
• 7:58
  fueling of a Starship and they're gonna need 10s of these
• 8:01
  things. Maybe a dozen, maybe two dozen.
• 8:03
  Who knows? Yet They haven't tested it yet,
• 8:06
  so they're not exactly 100% sure what's going to be happening.
• 8:09
  It's sort of like a Starship. You don't know exactly what's
• 8:11
  gonna happen when you get out there in the wild.
• 8:14
  So NASA is set anywhere between 10 and 20 of the refuelling
• 8:20
  tankers, refuelling tanks. And there's the possibility Elon
• 8:26
  said about 10. So Elon is always optimistic and
• 8:31
  he always has to sell this as the best thing ever because
• 8:34
  that's what he does the best. He's a good sales guy.
• 8:37
  He's also a great engineer. So don't get me wrong there,
• 8:40
  he's really great at that. But the fact that SpaceX needs
• 8:45
  to do this within the next 5 launches, they need to start
• 8:49
  flying tankers. So by IFT 10, I believe they're
• 8:52
  gonna start flying a version of a Starship that could be a
• 8:56
  tanker. I just give it a few more flies
• 8:59
  and I believe they could they could pull that off.
• 9:01
  It's gonna be a while though. They still have some time too.
• 9:03
  You know the Artemis program, Artemis 3, probably not gonna
• 9:08
  launch till 20302020292030. So they have 5 four to six years
• 9:16
  to get this done. And you know, I I think if they
• 9:20
  continue at the rate that they're going now, they could
• 9:23
  get an Artemis ship into orbit where they transfer people,
• 9:27
  probably Polaris program within the next few years, you know,
• 9:31
  three years or so. They could get people into a
• 9:34
  Starship and they would dock with a Starship with a Dragon
• 9:37
  capsule, of course. And they'd load people in the
• 9:40
  Starship just to check it out, to make sure everything works
• 9:43
  right, make sure that people can survive in it, basically like a
• 9:45
  mini space station. So how cool is that?
• 9:48
  Yeah, they're working towards that.
• 9:50
  So let me know what you think about IFT 4.
• 9:53
  Also, there was some information from a a a document that was
• 9:59
  released lately. Just recently a document was
• 10:02
  released that was from the federal government, from the
• 10:06
  Federal Register. There's a proposed action from
• 10:08
  the FAA vehicle operator license to SpaceX at Kennedy Space
• 10:14
  Center. This is a wild thing.
• 10:17
  Think of it the it's Starbase. Right now, SpaceX is possibly
• 10:22
  looking at 5 launches per year. Only 5 launches.
• 10:27
  They need 100 launches, according to Gwynn Shotwell.
• 10:32
  To put people in this thing, to launch people in this thing,
• 10:36
  right? And in 2019, the FAA and SpaceX
• 10:40
  works worked together to do an environmental study at Kennedy
• 10:44
  Space Center so SpaceX could launch starships.
• 10:47
  And everything was good. They're all ready to go.
• 10:50
  And they were ready to launch that version of Starship in
• 10:53
  2019. Whatever that version was, the
• 10:55
  scope of that Starship has changed dramatically since then.
• 11:01
  So the FAA, SpaceX, are working together now for a a new
• 11:07
  proposed lost launch license, vehicle operator license at the
• 11:14
  Kennedy Space Center and also an environmental review of
• 11:17
  Starship. Now, the real kicker here is
• 11:21
  that SpaceX said that there's a possibility they could do 44
• 11:26
  Starship Super Heavy launches per year.
• 11:31
  Launches may occur during the day or the night in each
• 11:34
  Starship. Super Heavy Orbital launch would
• 11:36
  include either landing the Super Heavy booster in LC39A or
• 11:41
  downrange in the Atlantic Ocean on a drone ship, or expending
• 11:45
  the booster in the Atlantic Ocean no closer than
• 11:48
  approximately 5 nautical miles off the coast.
• 11:53
  Starship could also land on at LC39 or on a drone ship, or be
• 11:58
  expanded in the high seas between 55° S latitude, 55° N
• 12:03
  latitude. And SpaceX would continue to
• 12:05
  launch Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy missions at LC39A while Starship
• 12:09
  Super Heavy is operational. So they're going to continue
• 12:14
  launching everything from from LLC39A while doing the Starship
• 12:22
  stuff. This is gonna be a very busy
• 12:25
  launchpad. So they go on to say.
• 12:30
  The FDA goes on to say the potential environmental impacts
• 12:33
  of all proposed construction and operational activities,
• 12:36
  including those from launch and landing, will be analyzed in the
• 12:40
  new report. So they're going to
• 12:43
  environmental impact study. It's going to be air quality,
• 12:46
  biological resources including fish, wildlife and plants,
• 12:49
  climate, coastal resources, Department of Transportation
• 12:53
  Act, Section 4F, farm lands, hazardous materials, solid
• 12:58
  waste, pollution prevention, historical architecture,
• 13:02
  archaeological and cultural resources, land use, natural
• 13:08
  resources and energy supply, noise and noise compatible land
• 13:11
  use. The list goes on and on and on
• 13:15
  and on. It's a huge list of things that
• 13:18
  the FAA has to go through. So this is going to be an
• 13:24
  ongoing operation for SpaceX and the FAA to work together to get
• 13:29
  this done, because if SpaceX wants to launch Starship for the
• 13:33
  Artemis program, they need to get this cleared.
• 13:36
  The HLS program is paramount. It's so important to the future
• 13:42
  of spaceflight and to the future of NASA that they need to get
• 13:46
  this done. And this scope hopefully isn't
• 13:48
  that bad because SpaceX has made a bunch of changes to the
• 13:51
  Starship, but they can lean on what the environmental impact
• 13:56
  study that they had at Starbase and look at that information
• 14:00
  for, you know, some data. It's not going to be exactly the
• 14:03
  same because of course, Starbase and Florida are definitely not
• 14:08
  the same thing. They're near parallel, not the
• 14:12
  same thing, though, not even close.
• 14:14
  So the FAA has to make sure that SpaceX is all good down there.
• 14:18
  So that's about it. That's all we have for right
• 14:20
  now. Everybody, please take a second.
• 14:23
  Hit the subscribe button and the like button.
• 14:24
  Let me know in the comments down below what you think about IFT 4
• 14:27
  and also 44 launches. That's incredible.
• 14:32
  All right. Thanks, everybody.
• 14:34
  Take care of yourselves and each other, and I will see you in the
• 14:37
  next one.