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SpaceX Launches and lands the Most Powerful Starship Rocket Ever · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
• 0:05
  This is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads that
• 0:08
  shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company and Neuralink.
• 0:13
  I'm your host Will Walden Space XS Starship rocket launched
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  successfully from Starbase in Texas.
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  This marks the 4th test flight aimed at missions to the Moon
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  and to Mars in the future. This rocket is 400 feet tall and
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  it flew over the Gulf of Mexico. It achieved a controlled
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  splashdown. This marks the longest and most
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  successful flight for Starship to date.
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  Now, another thing that happened which was very cool is Spacex's
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  Super Heavy booster did a soft landing successfully in the Gulf
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  of Mexico, which is an important milestone for the company.
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  Now, the Starship, known as the most powerful launch vehicle
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  ever built, completed its fourth test flight with a successful
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  landing, burn, and splashdown by the booster.
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  This flight received approval from the FAA and included
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  upgrades and software changes to enhance performance.
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  Now, despite some of these challenges in the Starship
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  lineup, the flight was successful, showcasing the
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  rocket's resilience and the potential for future space
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  exploration to the moon and beyond.
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  Now for the first time, both elements of the nearly 400 foot
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  tall rocket launched successfully from Spacex's
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  Starbase facility near Brownsville, TX and return to
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  Earth for controlled splashdowns at sea.
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  This demonstration paves the way for future Starship test
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  flights. They'll bring the booster and
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  eventually the upper stage back to land at Starbase for rapid
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  reusability. Now the two stage rocket took
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  off from Starbase it's 7:50 AM CDT and headed E over the Gulf
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  of Mexico with more than £15,000,000 of thrust, roughly
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  twice the power of NASA's Saturn 5 rocket from the Apollo lunar
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  program of the 1960s and 70s. And the success of the flight is
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  crucial for SpaceX as it aims to develop a fully reusable
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  transportation system for crew and cargo to Earth orbit the
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  Moon, to Mars, and into the outer solar system.
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  Now, NASA also has a significant interest in Starship success
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  because the agency selected it to serve as a human rated lunar
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  Lander for the Artemis program, which aims to ferry astronauts
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  to and from the surface of the moon.
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  However, dozens more Starship flights will be necessary before
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  it can carry astronauts, likely not before the latter part of
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  this decade. Now the 4th flight of Starship
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  made major strides to bring us closer to a rapidly reusable
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  future, said SpaceX on its website.
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  Also said its accomplishments will provide data to drive
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  improvements as we continue rapidly developing Starship into
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  a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew
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  and cargo to Earth orbit the Moon, Mars and beyond.
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  Now this flight was the 4th launch of a full size Starship
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  rocket and was the first to end with the booster in the ship
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  reaching Earth's surface in one piece.
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  While it wasn't perfect, the flight success cannot be
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  overstated. The payload for this test was
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  the data says SpaceX in Starship delivered.
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  The launch involved two of the 33 methane fueled Raptor engines
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  of the Super Heavy booster, failing one on ascent and 1:00
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  during the boosters final breaking burn just before
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  splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
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  And despite these failures, the remaining engines guided the
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  booster to a gentle splashdown after a vertical descent just
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  off the coast of Starbase about 7 1/2 minutes after liftoff.
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  Engineers identified a filter blockage in the lines feeding
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  liquid oxygen propellant into the Raptor engines as the cause
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  of the landing failure in March. However, this did not appear to
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  be a significant issue. On Thursday, SpaceX also made
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  another change to the booster descent by jettisoning the
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  Rockets hot staging ring where the Starship's upper stage
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  attaches to the Super Heavy booster for launch.
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  The Starship's upper stages 6 Raptor engines burned a few
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  seconds longer than planned to compensate for the boosters
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  performance shortfall. This adjustment put the ship on
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  the proper suborbital trajectory, reaching a peak
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  altitude of 132 miles before Earth's gravity pulled the 160
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  foot long vehicle back into the atmosphere around 47 minutes
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  after launch. During Spacex's third Starship
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  test flight in March, the scorching heat of re entry
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  destroyed the rocket as it descended into the upper asses
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  here over the Indian Ocean. Clogged thrusters caused the
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  ship to lose control of its orientation, leading to its
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  destruction, but this time, Starship maintained control
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  throughout the flight. Dazzling live views from cameras
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  aboard the rocket, relayed to the ground through Spacex's
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  Starlink broadband network, showed purple and orange plasma
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  pouring over the vehicle as it glided through the atmosphere
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  over the Indian Ocean. And although some ceramic
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  thermal protection tiles peeled away, the damage control flap
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  still functioned, allowing the vehicle to maintain control
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  during re entry. Starship made a controlled re
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  entry, successfully making it through the phases of peak
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  heating and Max aerodynamic pressure, and demonstrating the
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  ability to control the vehicle using its flaps while descending
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  through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.
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  These were mission objectives as outlined by Elon Musk before the
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  launch. Finally, three of the Raptor
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  engines on Starship reignited, flipping the rocket from a belly
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  down orientation to a vertical position a few 100 feet above
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  the Indian Ocean. Despite these challenges, the
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  rocket managed a soft landing in the ocean.
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  And despite loss of many tiles at a damage flap, Starship made
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  it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean.
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  Congratulations to SpaceX on an epic achievement.
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  Now SpaceX employees celebrated at the company's headquarters in
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  Hawthorne, CA. It was a little bit of use your
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  imagination as you were going down with what we could actually
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  see, but we were able to hear the ship do its landing burn,
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  said a spokesperson for SpaceX during the flight.
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  And Starship made it through re entry and did its first ever
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  landing burn from South Texas to the other side of the Earth.
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  Starship is in the water. SpaceX engineers were
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  particularly interested in observing Starship's heat shield
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  performance during Thursday's flight.
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  The thermal barrier consists of around 18,000 hexagonal ceramic
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  tiles, similar to those used on NASA space shuttle temperatures
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  during re entry can reach 2600 Fahrenheit.
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  Now that's hot enough to melt aluminum, a metal commonly used
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  in launch vehicles. Engineers selected a stainless
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  steel alloy for Starship's primary construction.
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  This material, though heavier than aluminum or carbon fiber,
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  is strong at cryogenic temperatures, an important
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  characteristic because Starship consumes methane and liquid
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  oxygen chilled to several 100° below 0.
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  Stainless steel also has a higher melting temperature than
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  other materials commonly used in rockets.
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  For a reusable ship, you're coming in like a meteor.
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  You want something that does not melt at a low temperature.
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  You want something that melts at a high temperature.
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  And this is where steel is extremely good as well.
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  Now looking ahead, the 5th test flight of Starship could occur
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  within a couple of months. The FAA ordered mishap
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  investigations following the 1st 3 Starship launches, but this
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  likely won't be necessary this time.
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  SpaceX has already test fired the ship for the next flight,
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  and the booster could be hot fired soon.
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  The successful soft splashdown of a Super Heavy booster in the
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  Gulf of Mexico has made Musk confident enough to aim for an
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  onshore landing next time, he said.
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  I think we should try to catch the booster with the Mechazilla
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  arms next flight. We'll see how that works out.
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  Other priorities for the next phase of Starship testing
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  include demonstrating the ability to restart a Raptor
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  engine in space. This capability is crucial for
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  putting Starship into a stable low Earth orbit and guiding it
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  back for reentry. Now, once in orbit, Starship
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  could deploy Starlink Internet satellites and perform refueling
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  tests necessary for SpaceX to fulfill NASA's lunar Lander
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  contract. Now, SpaceX may also make
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  changes to the Starship heat shield to address the loss of
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  tiles encountered on Flight 4. Engineers will investigate the
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  reasons behind the two Raptor engine failures during the
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  launch and landing of the booster, aiming to refine the
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  design and improve future flights reliability.
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  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
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• 8:40
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