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SpaceX Fourth Starship Test Flight with Major Overhauls: Will It Finally Stick the Landing?" · 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. I'm your host, Will.
• 0:15
  Walden SpaceX is moving towards the 4th integrated test flight
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  of Starship, the largest rocket ever constructed.
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  Though a May launch did not materialize, Elon Musk has
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  indicated a June 5th launch date on X Preparations are currently
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  under way at Spacex's Starbase, where a launch rehearsal was
• 0:32
  completed on May 20th. A recent blog post by SpaceX
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  elaborated on the issues encountered during the third
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  test flight in mid March. The flight managed a successful
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  separation from the Super Heavy booster and executed a full
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  Ascend burn, marking the first significant hot staging
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  milestone where Starship ignites its engines while still attached
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  to the booster. However, the Super Heavy booster
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  failed to soft land in the Gulf of Mexico as intended. 13 Raptor
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  engines were ignited for the boost back burn, but six engines
• 1:01
  shut down prematurely, causing insufficient thrust during the
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  final landing burn contact was lost with the booster at 462
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  meters altitude just under 7 minutes into the mission.
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  Flight data analysis pointed to filter blockage in the liquid
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  oxygen supply lines, which led to a loss of inlet pressure in
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  the engine oxygen turbo pumps. Despite previous attempts to
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  address similar issues with hardware modifications, the
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  problem persisted, necessitating further enhancements to
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  propellant filtration and engine startup reliability.
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  Starship itself faced separate issues after reaching orbit.
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  The spacecraft's attitude control thrusters experience
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  valve blockages, preventing proper roll control during the
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  coast phase. Consequently, Starship could not
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  relight its engines for controlled re entry, resulting
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  in uncontrolled disintegration as it re entered the atmosphere
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  with telemetry lost at approximately 65 kilometers
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  altitude. For the 4th flight, SpaceX plans
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  to add more control thrusters to improve redundancy and upgrade
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  hardware to better withstand blockage.
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  Additionally, the Super Heavy booster will jettison it's hot
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  stage adapter post boost back burn to reduce mass during the
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  final flight phase. Spacex's focus is shifting from
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  achieving orbit to demonstrating reusable capabilities for both
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  Starship and the Super Heavy booster.
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  This involves executing a landing burn for a soft
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  splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico and ensuring a controlled re
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  entry of Starship, critical steps for proving the rocket's
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  reusability. The Federal Aviation
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  Administration FAA is expected to modify Spacex's launch
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  license for this next flight. Given there was no public safety
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  impact from the debris of the third flight, a launch license
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  modification can proceed without formal closure of the mishap
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  investigation, allowing for a quicker subsequent launch.
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  The upcoming launch aims to test Spacex's ability to return both
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  stages of Starship intact. The 4th flight will forgo in
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  flight tests such as payload Bay door operations or propellant
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  transfers, focusing instead on trajectory and safe splashdowns.
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  The hardware and software changes for the 4th flight are
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  designed to address the failures from the third.
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  Improvements include additional filtration inside oxygen tanks
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  and enhancements to the Raptor engine start up mechanisms to
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  ensure a successful landing burn.
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  Elon Musk has stated the goal for the upcoming flight is to
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  demonstrate a virtual tower landing for the Super Heavy
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  booster in the Gulf of Mexico. If successful, a future flight
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  may attempt a return to the tower at Starbase.
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  The ultimate vision for Starship involves not only NASA's Artemis
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  missions to the Moon, but also Musk's long term plans for Mars
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  colonization. With £16.7 million of thrust,
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  Starship's capabilities far exceed any current rockets,
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  including NASA's Space Launch System.
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  Spacex's trial and error approach has yielded results,
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  with the Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule both now integral to
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  NASA and commercial operations. However, the pressure is on to
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  ready Starship for NASA's 2026 Moon mission deadline.
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  The 4th flight will carry no payloads, aiming instead to
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  gather data on the Starship vehicles performance.
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  This data is crucial for addressing technical issues
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  observed in previous flights, such as propellant filtration
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  and attitude control during re entry.
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  The strategy to jettison the interstage section between the
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  booster and ship after separation aims to improve
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  flight dynamics and reduce mass, thus enhancing the final phase
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  of the flight. Spacex's engineers are keen to
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  observe the effects of these changes in real world
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  conditions. Additional roll control
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  thrusters and upgraded hardware are expected to enhance
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  resilience against blockages. This upgrade is a direct
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  response to the attitude control issues faced during the coast
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  phase of the third flight. Successful tests of these
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  enhancements will pave the way for more advanced missions,
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  including booster landings at launch sites and deployment of
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  payloads such as Starlink satellites.
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  As SpaceX continues to iterate on Starship's design, the next
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  flight represents an important step in demonstrating the
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  feasibility of a fully reusable launch system.
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  With further hardware improvements, SpaceX is poised
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  to address the challenges highlighted in previous tests
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  and advance toward its goal of making life multiplanetary.
• 5:40
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
• 5:41
  I really do appreciate your support.
• 5:43
  If you could take a second and hit the subscribe or the follow
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  button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening
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  on right now, I greatly appreciate it.
• 5:51
  It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
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  miss an episode. And each episode is about 10
• 5:57
  minutes or less to get you caught up quickly.
• 6:00
  And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
• 6:02
  to patreon.com/stage Zero. And please take care of
• 6:08
  yourselves and each other, and I'll see you tomorrow.