Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / SpaceX, Boeing and Virgin Galactic Updates

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SpaceX, Boeing and Virgin Galactic Updates · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
• 0:04
  Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
• 0:07
  the critical crossroads that shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The
• 0:11
  Boring Company. And Neuralink.
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  And I'm your host, Will. Walden So Boeing is kind of
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  going through some stuff right now.
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  They've initiated a legal action against Virgin Galactic, and
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  they've alleged the unauthorized retention of proprietary
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  information exchanged during their collaboration on a new
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  mothership project. And this is for Virgin
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  Galactic's space program. The aerospace Titan of Boeing
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  seeks the judicial directive to prevent future further misuse of
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  this data. In a legal filing to a federal
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  court in Alexandria, VA, Boeing claims that Virgin Galactic
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  continues to hold on to confidential Boeing data
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  originally shared under a 2022 partnership agreement.
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  This situation has escalated to a formal lawsuit highlighting a
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  breach of trust between the two entities.
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  Now, at the heart of this dispute is the mothership's
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  development. This is part of the system that
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  launches space planes to significant altitudes.
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  Now, Boeing and Aurora Flight Sciences had a partnership, and
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  it was aimed at producing an advanced mothership for Virgin
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  Galactic's future space tourism endeavors.
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  Now, Virgin Galactic's ambitions include the rollout of its Delta
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  space plane, designed to offer more frequent suborbital tours.
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  The company is simultaneously enhancing its current mothership
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  EVE to boost production efficiency and maintenance
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  simplicity. Now, despite the initial
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  collaboration, the partnership between Virgin Galactic and
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  Aurora Flight Sciences dissolved, leading to the
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  current legal standoff. Virgin Galactic's failure to
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  destroy certain trade secrets as per their agreement is central
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  to Boeing's lawsuit. The trade secrets in question
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  encompass decades of Boeing's expertise in aircraft
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  development and operation. Boeing argues that Virgin
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  Galactic's actions not only infringe on proprietary rights,
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  but also pose a risk of exposing these secrets to competitors.
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  Virgin Galactic has responded to the lawsuit, denying the
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  allegations and asserting its intention to contest the claims
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  vigorously. Boeing, on the other hand, has
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  refrained from further comments on the matter.
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  This lawsuit surfaces as Virgin Galactic progresses in its space
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  tourism ventures, having successfully conducted its first
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  commercial spaceflight and several subsequent missions
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  bringing private astronauts to suborbital space.
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  Virgin Galactic's financial strategy hinges on the success
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  of its Delta space plane, though, projecting substantial
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  profits from its operation. Despite the potential of the
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  existing EVE Mothership to launch Delta, a new mothership
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  could enhance operational capabilities.
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  Now, the legal complaint also addresses Virgin Galactic
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  cessation of payments to Boeing and Aurora linked to the
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  Mothership Development Project with outstanding invoices
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  mounting to about $27 million. You know, the breakdown of the
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  partnership reportedly stemmed from budgetary and timeline
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  constraints leading to the premature cessation of
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  Mothership's development efforts.
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  Boeing and Aurora's lawsuits delineates the alleged
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  misappropriation of specific technical equations and test
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  data, which are considered proprietary and offer a
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  competitive edge in aircraft design and performance modeling.
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  The dispute extends to Virgin Galactic's refusal to eliminate
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  documents containing these trade secrets, The Virgin claiming
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  rights to this information under the terms of their agreement.
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  The aerospace conglomerate is seeking financial redress for
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  the unpaid work and additional compensation for the
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  unauthorized use of the trade secrets.
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  Aiming to safeguard its technological advancements,
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  Virgin Galactic's focus has recently shifted towards the
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  Delta class space plane with less emphasis on developing a
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  new mothership. This pivot reflects the
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  company's adjustment to more demand for space tourism in this
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  market. Now it's complex thing going on
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  here. Intellectual property
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  partnership dynamics. If a company dissolves, who gets
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  the ownership of the data and who controls the ship?
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  There's challenges here, and the collaboration between Boeing and
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  Virgin is going to continue, but more so in the courtroom.
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  The outcome of this lawsuit could have ramifications for
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  both Boeing and Virgin Galactic, potentially influencing future
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  partnerships between the two and the sharing of proprietary
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  information between them. Now let's shift focus a little
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  bit. Let's go over to SpaceX.
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  Let's go to their Starship program.
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  Just recently, Ship 29 was on the pad.
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  Now this means that they're testing for the next flight of
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  the Starship, which is IFT 4. Now IFT 4 is an important flight
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  because IFT 3 went really well and IFT 4 which means integrated
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  flight test 4. This is the number, the 4th one
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  that they're doing. They're gonna be doing something
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  that we didn't really know, but Elon Musk tweeted about it and
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  I'll let you know what happens there in a second.
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  But on the 25th they did a static fire A6 Raptor engine,
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  static fire of the Starship ship 29, and then they did a single
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  static fire of a single Raptor engine using the header tanks
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  for flight 4 yesterday on 3/27/2024.
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  Now the ship is currently being lifted off the pad as I record
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  this, which means it seems like testing is done.
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  They're gonna probably move it back to the Bay and do some fine
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  tuning of the ship, fine tuning of the engines and get it ready
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  for the flight. Now when this happens, Booster
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  is going to come out towards the flight deck, go down towards the
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  pad. Booster 11 is the booster that
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  they're gonna be using and there will be testing on Booster 11 in
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  the upcoming week or so. So they have to do some
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  cryogenic testing, which means they fill it full of really cold
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  liquid, subzero liquid. And also they're gonna be doing
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  some static fire testing of their engines.
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  Fair enough. Fire is they basically just test
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  the engines on the pad so it doesn't actually fly.
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  They clamp it down, they shoot off the engines real quick.
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  Sometimes it's a full duration, which could be anywhere between
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  a few seconds and a few minutes depending on the rocket and the
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  engines. But we're expecting a full
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  duration static fire test of the booster and some spin Prime
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  tests in the coming week or so. So it will be moved down to the
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  pad within the next few days, before the weekend probably.
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  So once that's done, Elon and company said that they want to
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  get this done by mid-april and I think that's possible with this
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  testing schedule here. But the most important thing
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  that Elon has said is that after this single engine, Raptor
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  engine static fire for the Starship 29, Elon tweeted goal
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  of this mission is for Starship to get through Max re entry
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  heating with all systems functioning.
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  So the goal of the next mission, we thought everybody in the
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  aerospace industry, we're leaning on Starlink, Starlink,
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  Starlink. They have to get something done
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  with Starlink. They have to launch a Starlink
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  into orbit, or you know, something like that, or at least
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  get the mechanism working properly.
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  They did a a Bay door test last flight on IFT 3 seemed to go
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  pretty well. There's a little hitch in the
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  giddy up when they were closing the door, it seemed like, but
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  they'll fine tune that and get it ready for this next flight in
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  subsequent flights. So what they're really focusing
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  on, according to Elon, is to get to maximum re entry heating with
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  all systems functioning and if they do a maximum or if they do
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  a re entry with maximum heating, they know that they can go to
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  orbit and come down wherever they're going to come down in
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  the future. Right now for IFT 4, they're
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  going to be coming down the Indian Ocean for subsequent
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  flights as well. So we're not exactly sure where
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  they're going to go for flights when they go to full orbit, but
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  for the foreseeable future, it's going to be be in the Indian
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  Ocean. So it's gonna be exciting.
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  We should have onboard cameras for the whole flight, so take
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  notice of that. You can check out the flight on
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  our YouTube channel, Space News Pod on YouTube, and you can also
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  check out more analysis on that Channel as well.
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  So please take a second, check that out and I'll see you over
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  there. Hey, thank you so much for
• 9:02
  listening today. I really do appreciate your
• 9:05
  support. If you could take a second and
• 9:06
  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.
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  Never miss an episode. And each episode.
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  Is about 10 minutes or less to get you caught up quickly.
• 9:21
  And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
• 9:24
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• 9:30
  and each other and I'll see you tomorrow.