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SpaceX Starship Flight 10 Update · Elon Musk Podcast

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  Your ultimate authority for daily Elon Musk news.
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  Exploring the world's biggest ideas with your host Will
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  Walden. There's something new every day.
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  Elon Musk believes that SpaceX has an 80% chance of having
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  fixed the engine bait issues that caused explosions in
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  Starship's last two flights. So he talked about the 9th
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  Starship flight South Texas recently.
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  As a question though, how close is Starship making a reliable
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  and reusable vehicle that can actually support future Moon in
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  Mars missions? Now the current Starship test
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  flight is focused on collecting data, especially at about the
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  spacecraft's heat shield tiles, teams experimenting with
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  different tile coatings, fabrication methods and
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  attachment techniques to see what performs best during the
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  intense heating of re entry. SpaceX also wants to ensure that
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  they have addressed the failures in the upper stage engine Bay
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  that previously led to explosions.
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  Now, this is going to be a step by step approach to making
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  Starship ready for repeated use, and they're going to continue
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  doing this until they get it right now.
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  Elon Musk said the team discovered that they needed to
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  tighten bolts connecting the thrust chamber to the injector
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  head after each engine firing. During earlier tests, some bolts
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  loosened slightly, creating tiny gaps that allowed fuel and
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  oxygen to miss where they should not have.
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  Now, that unwanted mixture led to engine explosions.
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  Now, Musk also admitted that while an 80% solution feels
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  good, the team won't reach full confidence without redesigning
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  certain engine parts. Now, SpaceX already demonstrated
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  that it can reuse boosters efficiently.
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  Starship's booster is designed to return to the launch site,
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  get caught by a tower, and reset directly out of the launch
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  stand. Now, Elon Musk has pointed out
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  that this method eliminates the need to transport the booster
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  back from a drone ship, saving days and reducing the work
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  needed between flights. Starship's design goal as
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  immediate reflight readiness, we're In principle, propellant
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  loading could begin just minutes after the booster returns and
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  lands at the chopsticks. Now, SpaceX aims to fly upgraded
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  Raptor 3 engines by the end of this year.
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  The new engine design eliminates the need for heat Shields around
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  the thrust chamber and the turbo pump.
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  This change will simplify the booster in upper stage
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  structure. The new design exposes more of
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  the engine hardware, creating a cleaner look of fewer parts that
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  can burn off. And this pushes his team hard to
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  remove any unnecessary secondary structures that could cause
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  problems during flight. Now Starship remains Spacex's
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  most important bet for the next decade.
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  It's a key to building a fully reusable orbital launch system,
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  something no one has ever achieved.
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  So things like the space shuttle, which despite its
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  reusable parts, proved very expensive and difficult to
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  refurbish. The shuttle's high cost per
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  flight and a Saturn 5 as well, which could carry four times the
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  payload. But it was expendable.
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  Now, the success of Starship will unlock the ability to build
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  a civilization, civilization on Mars.
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  It's kind of like the Union Pacific Railroad on California's
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  growth. We need to get supplies to Mars,
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  and SpaceX and Starship are the way to do it.
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  How do you get people to Mars? Right now you don't really do
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  it. There's no ship that can take
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  you there without extensive overhauls.
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  There's this is a reliable transportation that goes to
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  Mars. It's the foundation for creating
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  new opportunities from essential industries here on Earth all the
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  way to Mars and everyday businesses on Mars eventually,
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  and that's going to take a long time, That's not going to be in
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  our lifetime. There's not going to be a
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  Starbucks on Mars, by the way. But Spacex's main job is to
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  solve the transportation challenge so others can focus on
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  building everything else. A society will need to SpaceX,
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  build the Rockets and the transportation to get the stuff
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  there. And other companies will build
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  the stuff and the businesses that will be on Mars.
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  And so Elon Musk has also stated recently that the US space
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  program should aim beyond returning to the moon.
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  He believes that Mars should be the goal, given that the US
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  reached the moon more than half a century ago, over 50 years
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  ago, and the current lunar plans are lacking ambition and future
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  missions should aim for something more advanced than the
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  Apollo program. He thinks that people shouldn't
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  just go collect rocks on the moon anymore.
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  If the US goes back to the moon, Elon Musk thinks building a
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  permanent base would be a meaningful next step.
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  They can also launch rockets from the moon.
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  They can. They can mind the water ice on
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  the moon and make propellant and then send those rockets off into
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  space. Elon Musk also said that he
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  recently said that he's been spending too much time with
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  politics over the last year. The media coverage of his
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  political involvement, According to him, made it seem like he
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  larger distraction than it actually was.
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  But Elon Musk also said that he has now shifted his attention
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  back towards his companies, with SpaceX once again at the top of
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  his priorities. He described reducing his time
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  spent on government matters within the last few weeks.
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  Now Spacex's flight 10 is coming up, hopefully within the next
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  month. That's projected next month ish
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  and if the FAA is good and SpaceX Starship is being tested
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  at Massey's within the next week.
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  Booster is down at the launchpad and if they can get the booster
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  in the ship ready I don't see why they shouldn't be able to
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  launch it in around a month. Everything seems OK.
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  You know, if the FAA signs off on the next launch, that's great
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  and we'll start seeing signs of the launch as far as, you know,
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  the the test flight plans and also the no fly zones, no
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  boating zones, things like the keep out zones, basically we'll
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  start seeing those things pop up pretty soon.
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  But they're going to basically do the same thing they did with
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  Flight 9. There were some Starling
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  satellites that they wanted to launch with Flight 9, some dummy
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  test satellites that they didn't get to do because basically the
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  easiest part of the flight, which is the Bay door didn't
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  open. And you think to yourself, it's
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  a door. You just built this gigantic
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  rock that's around 400 feet tall that can launch into Earth's
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  orbit, can launch to the moon, into Mars, but you just can't
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  get the door right now. They didn't get it right in
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  Flight 9. Also, the booster exploded on
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  the way back down to Earth, and there's reason for that.
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  They wanted to push that booster, which is a reused
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  booster, the first time it's ever been reused.
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  They wanted to push it to its limits so they can test for
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  data. They want to see how far they
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  could push it and what kind of data they can collect with this
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  thing. And also, the ship blew up.
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  That's what we're talking about earlier with the leaks and that
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  caused the explosions. They have to figure that out.
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  And if they can figure this out, like Elon Musk said, there's an
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  80% chance that they can successfully do Flight 9's
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  mission and then move on to Flight 10 and 11.
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  So right now it's going to be 10, but they want to redo Flight
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  9's mission. Basically, except for the
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  expendable booster. They're going to send the
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  booster back to Starbase so they can keep testing the landings of
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  these boosters. No reason to land in the ocean
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  or in the Gulf. Nobody, nobody really wants to
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  dig that thing out or pull that thing out again.
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  They want to land that back at Starbase.
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  So when this flight 10 happens, booster will land, Starship will
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  make it to the Indian Ocean and do a soft landing in the Indian
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  Ocean. And if they can figure those two
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  things out, Flight 11, Flight 12, Flight 13, they're all going
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  to see. I don't know if there's going to
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  be an exponential growth here. They do need to do some really
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  interesting things for the next few flights, but I don't think
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  there's going to be a big jump as far as technology goes.
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  Elon Musk wants to land a ship back at Starbase by the end of
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  the year, but we're going to see how that goes.
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  The they've already landed a booster, but they also have to
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  orbit the Earth. You have to get into Earth
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  orbit, deorbit the ship. They have to also do in orbit
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  refueling. There's so many things that they
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  need to do in order to get the NASA contract, or they have the
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  NASA contract, but they need to get the Starship to the moon.
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  So they need to refuel in the Earth's orbit.
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  So there's incremental small steps along the way that they
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  need to do. It's not like the way that
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  somebody like Blue Origin does it, which builds the whole thing
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  and then launches it. They do all the tests in, you
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  know, on computers. They test all the scenarios they
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  do in wind tunnels that they do, you know, all those things.
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  So they do all the tests before they fly.
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  And basically SpaceX is testing as they fly.
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  They're gathering data as they fly.
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  They think it's the best way, Blue Origin Ula etcetera.
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  I think it's a different way to do it.
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  It's still a good way, though. You know ula sends things to
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  Mars. That's cool.
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  SpaceX hasn't sent a Starship to Mars yet, so there's a direct
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  comparison. And Starship is built for humans
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  to go to Mars Ula does not have a plan for that.
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  So what we're expecting for Flight 10 is going to be pretty
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  impressive. But SpaceX continues to move
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  forward, making Starship the first truly reusable orbital
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  rocket, while also working to resolve the final technical
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  challenges with engines and heat Shields from Flight 7-8 and
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  Nine. And hopefully Flight 10 coming
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  up will be a success. Hey, thank you so much for
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  listening today. I really do appreciate your
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  support. If you could take a second and
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  hit the subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast
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  appreciate it. It helps out the show
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  tremendously and you'll never miss an episode.
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  support the show even more, go to patreon.com/stagezero and
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  please take care of yourselves and each other and I'll see you
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  tomorrow.