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SpaceX Starship IFT4 Update · 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, The
• 0:08
  Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink,
• 0:13
  and I'm your host, Will Walden. If you want uninterrupted
• 0:17
  episodes of the Elon Musk podcast, please go to
• 0:20
  clubelon.supercast.com to find out how there's a link in the
• 0:26
  show notes. And this episode we're going to
• 0:28
  be talking about the SpaceX I FT3 launch, but more
• 0:31
  importantly, we're going to be talking about what could
• 0:34
  possibly happen during the IFT 4, the integrated flight test
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  four of the Starship Super heavy rocket that they launched from
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  Starbase, Texas. Now the IFT 3 launch went really
• 0:46
  well. They made it to space.
• 0:51
  SpaceX made it to space again and the boost back burn of the
• 0:54
  booster was really great. The save stage separation was
• 0:59
  absolutely perfect. The booster didn't quite make it
• 1:03
  for a soft landing in the Gulf of Mexico, but you know, you win
• 1:07
  some, you lose some, right? They tested the payload door.
• 1:10
  The mechanism for the payload door seems like it went OK.
• 1:13
  It didn't go perfectly. There's a little bit of hitch
• 1:16
  there. So I think they have to clean
• 1:18
  that up a little bit. The propellant transfer
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  apparently went really well. They did not do the booster or
• 1:27
  sorry, the engine relight while they were in space.
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  So that's one thing they didn't get done, but that's one thing
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  that they can do for the IFT 4 launch.
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  Now, we all know how important, really important it is for
• 1:42
  SpaceX to get these missions absolutely perfect, but SpaceX
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  also knows that they can build upon every single launch.
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  So I FT1 absolutely obliterated the launchpad.
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  I have T2 launchpad's fine. I have T3 launchpad's fine.
• 2:02
  I have T2 booster blew up right after stage separation.
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  They lost the ship, they had to destroy it and this time booster
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  did the boost back burn, did the flip move, didn't blew up right
• 2:17
  away and though it didn't do the soft landing in the Gulf of
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  Mexico, I would say this is a pretty good success story for
• 2:25
  the booster this time. Now the ship continued on with
• 2:30
  its mission for a long time and almost almost made it back to
• 2:36
  the Indian Ocean where they were supposed to splash down, made it
• 2:39
  back through the atmosphere. Beautiful video from SpaceX of
• 2:43
  this RE entry. You can see the plasma building
• 2:46
  up on the heat tiles. Heat tiles seem like they're in
• 2:49
  really great shape, so that's another test that they had to
• 2:52
  get done. So they are in a really good
• 2:55
  spot right now with the Starship, if they've made
• 2:58
  adjustments to the Starship for IFT 4, which they more than
• 3:01
  likely have. I mean, every single rocket,
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  there's an iterative process and through software updates,
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  through hardware upgrades. SpaceX is building the next
• 3:11
  generation of starships right now and they're already being
• 3:16
  built. Elon says version one is not as
• 3:20
  good as version 2. Version 2 will not be as good as
• 3:22
  version 3 going forward. Version 4, version 5, but it's
• 3:27
  going to be astronomical, if you will, for the future of Space
• 3:31
  Flight. Now they needed to get the
• 3:34
  propellant transfer done for the NASA emissions.
• 3:37
  It's a milestone they needed to do in order to do a transfer
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  propellant of propellant in orbit.
• 3:44
  And they got a small version of that done, which is a a key
• 3:49
  milestone for SpaceX and NASA for the upcoming Artemis 3
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  mission where they will be landing people back on the moon
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  for the first time in about 50 years.
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  So it's a huge, huge deal that they did a propellant transfer
• 4:01
  demonstration and maybe next round, IFT 4, possibly they're
• 4:06
  going to be doing more propellant transfer in the ship
• 4:10
  itself. We're not exactly sure what
• 4:13
  they're gonna be doing with that, but I'm assuming they're
• 4:15
  going to up the ante, up the game a little bit, do more
• 4:18
  propellant transfers as they go on, test the systems internally,
• 4:22
  test the plumbing. Everything seemed to go well,
• 4:24
  though everything seemed to go well.
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  There was no word that anything went bad with the propellant
• 4:28
  transfer. So as of right now is this
• 4:31
  recording, everything looks good for the propellant transfer.
• 4:35
  Now, like I was saying before, the Bay door, it's a Pez door
• 4:38
  and it opens up like a Pez dispenser and the Pez dispenser
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  dispenses Starlink satellites and it looks like the door
• 4:47
  worked OK, not 100%. It looked like a little bit like
• 4:50
  a little bit slow closing, little bit of a it's kind of
• 4:54
  like like a garage door, you know, like if you pull up on a
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  garage door, it's like it's sorted to that.
• 5:01
  But. It didn't seem like it was bad.
• 5:03
  They may just have to work on some mechanical issues, you
• 5:07
  know, get it to a place where it's a little bit smoother and
• 5:11
  then that'll be completely fixed.
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  So we may see another another version of that in the next
• 5:18
  flight, but also they may add on to that.
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  So internally in the Starship there needs to be a payload for
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  these Starlinks. There needs to be a mechanism in
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  there. To push them down, push them
• 5:29
  down, push them down, push them out.
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  Of the payload door. So possibly we're going to see a
• 5:35
  demo of the payload door opening and also the Starlink satellite
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  Pez dispenser mechanism itself in IFT 4.
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  Now, is there going to be a Starlink?
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  There might be one, one or two for this mechanism, but is it
• 5:53
  worth it to possibly disrupt the whole mission for a
• 5:58
  demonstration of a Starlink exit from the Starship?
• 6:04
  I don't know at this point for IFT 4, I think IFT 4 is going to
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  be the mechanism and the door and that's it.
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  I don't think we're going to get a Starlink ejection from this
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  one because it's not worth it. I mean, because if a Starling
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  gets stuck and starts tumbling out of control, they're going to
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  have to destroy the whole mission.
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  And that's not worth it for, you know, for the propellant
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  transfer, for more NASA missions to get more data from RE
• 6:33
  entries. I don't think it's really worth
• 6:35
  it until they get the mechanism and the door fixed.
• 6:37
  So it's iterative process. I think they're going to do the
• 6:39
  door and I think they're going to be doing the mechanism during
• 6:42
  this next launch. Like I said before the
• 6:45
  propellant transfer, I think they're going to be doing like a
• 6:47
  little bit bigger of a demonstration.
• 6:49
  I don't think they're going to be.
• 6:50
  I think they're going to up the ante a little bit.
• 6:52
  Not exactly sure how much they're going to up the ante.
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  But they do have to move some propellant around when they go
• 6:59
  Starship to tanker in orbit. And if they can show that they
• 7:04
  are capable of doing that at a smaller scale, we may see a
• 7:08
  tanker by the end of 2024 flying into orbit.
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  And if that's the case, we may also see a propellant transfer
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  from a tanker to a Starship in 2024, which would be absolutely
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  mind blowing. I don't know, I don't know if
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  that's going to be in the first half.
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  I I'm pretty sure it's going to be in the second-half of 2024,
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  probably fourth quarter 2024, around September, October,
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  November, December, you know in that area.
• 7:38
  I think they're going to be doing something like that,
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  something big to top off the year, because like Eli said
• 7:44
  before, they want to do 9 launches this year.
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  And at the rate that they did them, that they've done them so
• 7:50
  far IFT 1, IFT 2, and IFT 3. Each one got subsequently
• 7:55
  smaller in range, so it took less time for IFT 2 than it did
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  for FT1 to get ready. And then IFT 3 was less time
• 8:01
  than IFT 2. So we're hoping IFT 4, because
• 8:05
  there wasn't any real bad damage to anything.
• 8:09
  SpaceX is going to do a protocol where they talk to the FAA and
• 8:13
  tell them about a they're going to report on what happened and
• 8:16
  how they're going to fix it. And then if the FAA signs off on
• 8:19
  it, and if SpaceX has already fixed it, then the FAA will sign
• 8:23
  off on it immediately. And if SpaceX still has to do
• 8:26
  all of the testing for the booster and the ship still, so
• 8:32
  it's going to be a little bit, it's going to be a little while,
• 8:34
  but it might be two months. I'm.
• 8:36
  I'm guessing 2 two to three months before we see another
• 8:40
  launch which ift 4. I want to go.
• 8:42
  Let's let's try to get me there. Hey, thank.
• 8:44
  You so much for listening today. I really do appreciate your
• 8:47
  support. If you could take a second and
• 8:49
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• 8:51
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• 8:54
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• 8:56
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• 8:57
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• 9:01
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• 9:03
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• 9:07
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• 9:12
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