SpaceX's FINAL Starship Static Fire! But why?

It's been another week of disconcerting scenes around SpaceX's Starship development sites. We had

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with a new twist, we had this beast rolling for the first time and a minefield of things like this to catch you. Combine the constant action and the immersive setbacks, and yes, it was another dense week. This video is sponsored by Novium and creates innovative space-inspired Hoverpens to stimulate curiosity and creativity! Hello, Hello, Marcus House with you here. Over the past week there has been a strong push to finish new upgrades at the launch site as we inch closer to Flight Test 4.

Several toolboxes were lifted from the orbital launch pad and workers began to give a new coat of paint to some areas that were particularly rusty. The scaffolding hasn't been removed yet, but as we've seen in the past, your entire ring can be gone in a matter of hours. In fact, it can even be removed after stacking the reinforcement! The sights we've seen throughout the demolition sometimes tend to involve flying excavators too! The large SpaceX crane was moved back to the vertical tanks to continue dismantling. The rest of the hull of this converted water tank was removed and cut away in the blink of an eye.

Last week we saw the team remove the perlite insulation from the nitrogen storage tank next door, and that continued into this week. Thanks to the amazing Vix here, we know that a total of approximately 218 vacuum trucks were seen making a trip to remove perlite from the tank farm. With numbers this high, we think it's a good bet that perlite is also being removed from another tank for scrap. It actually makes a lot of sense. Since SpaceX has fully utilized the horizontal tanks for liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen, they may actually manage to remove the perlite from all the remaining vertical tanks, as it turns out to be quite a lengthy process.

Last weekend I got a little scared when we saw that Starhopper suddenly had a new steel plate welded to the top. This little unit has been here at the site since its incredible flight tests in 2019. It has become this indestructible icon at the launch site. The community's immediate thought was that SpaceX might be planning to scrap it or move it elsewhere. But the rumors were soon dispelled when teams installed a weather station on it! In fact, it's most likely the same weather station they removed from one of the tanks at the suborbital tank farm a few weeks ago.

On Tuesday, the highway closed right at 8 am, and since we received a press release from Mary with NASASpaceFlight right there on the scene, we expected that we would be in for some intense action from Ship 30. Before that happened and even Before the road closed, the orbital tank farm was awakened with the beginning of ventilation. In fact, SpaceX appeared to be carrying out another round of verifications of the orbital tank farm's ground support equipment! I mean, it makes sense to test everything you can see here, since we've had so many changes at the same time that you have an obstacle to a

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Before long we were watching the frost line slowly advance on Ship 30, but with minimal ventilation coming from the suborbital tank farm here, it initially appeared to be a tank test to first check everything on the vehicle and the ground support team working nearby. expected before continuing. That level in the liquid oxygen tank soon reached the maximum height and the tank was soon emptied again. Now, during this operation, on the orbital side, the launch tower began to explode in what we call cascade mode. Not only cold gases flow through there. In reality, the propellant is still largely in its liquid form and simply flows.

Was that all for the day? No! The suborbital tank farm began venting generously, meaning that both the liquid oxygen and liquid methane were now completely cooled before flowing into Ship 30. Engine cooling began just in time, but there must have been some kind of problem. , because soon the ship began to ventilate. This is a sure sign that the propellant charge has stopped and was an abort. After all, we weren't going to see a

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fire that day. Interestingly, we saw the new vent right next to the payload compartment hatch in action, indicating that it may actually be a vent to exhaust the methane tank.

The location there would be just above the front dome. By the way, it's also quite similar to the five vents just above the forward thruster dome. I suspect the placement of this is probably because they want to be able to remove any pressure even when the propellant charge is depleted. After all, we don't want to see another situation where they are forced to release liquid methane. Yes, this is something we saw in the Wet Dress dress rehearsal of Booster 7 and Ship 24. Anyway, Ship 30 was completely defueled during the day and testing was completed. The next day we got another post from Mary telling us all that we were going again!

This time, when the tank farm woke up, we knew immediately that they were going directly to load the ship with liquid oxygen and methane due to increased ventilation activity. As expected, the cold engine started just over 30 minutes before the expected fire, but would they perform a spin priming test first? Well, apparently not. It appears that SpaceX has eliminated an important step in the ship test campaign routine, as Ship 30 is the first ship with Raptor 2 engines to not perform a primed turn before a static fire. Very soon we had fuel dumped and began to wrap up what seemed to me to be a successful six engine static fire!

SpaceX agreed and they released the always impressive images of the drone. It seemed very soft. They must have had at least 3 drones in the air because they also shared these two shots from different angles. I'm telling you, they don't waste any time because before we knew it the crane was hooked up so we could

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ly lift it off its transport stand. This time they didn't follow up with a single-engine static firing to simulate a deorbitation fire, so they should be comfortable having tried it enough with previous ships. Now in the area of ​​the second new orbital launch pad, work continues steadily!

The most important element that seemingly disappeared overnight is the large berm just behind the Gate to Mars sign. In fact, even before Ship 30 was lifted off of suborbital platform B, they had already begun demolishing the nearby berm. Once dawn broke and Ship 30 was in position, dismantling also continued with the suborbital platform B itself! Yes, the fire of these pipes really marks the end of the road. We can now say with certainty that all future Skeep static fires will take place at Masseys. Shortly after the last day, Boat 30 returned to the construction site to continue work, and it looks like our Tower will have two sections transported in the next few days.

With any luck, we'll see two of these towers fly in the future, not unlike this sweet little 3D printed model sitting here behind me flying. Definitely one of my favorite pieces from the Stardesk set. Links to it in the description if you want to see how it works. They could always use some followers and subscribers to promote the great work they do. It helps us all do what we need to do here. It's crazy to think that we have almost the same number of subscribers here as the population of my entire state. I'm very grateful that you like these topics as much as we do.

Okay, off to the Starbase construction site, Ship 29, the beast piloted on Flight 4, has its heat shield plates looking pretty good right now. It seems SpaceX sees the heat shield as Starship's biggest remaining challenge. That would certainly explain why we've been seeing so much mosaic lately. Stay tuned to see this ship move soon. Her flight companion, Booster 11, arrived at the launch site last night to be elevated to the Orbital Launch Mount. Soon we will see again a full stack, a wet dress rehearsal and all the exciting preparation work for that incredible spectacle that will be Test Flight 4!

The Starfactory glassware seems almost finished and it certainly looks great. It's a little difficult to appreciate the scale of the structure since everything around it is also huge, but from above you can see how huge it is. I hope that in the near future we will be able to see magnificent photographs of ships' noses through the illuminated glass there at night. Now, more importantly, there were intriguing vehicle movements. Ship 26, the mystery ship without flaps or shields, remains a mystery. This week she joined Megabay 2. Many people immediately thought she might

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ly be scrapped when they brought her up to the central workstation inside!

Would it suffer the same fate that Booster 4 suffered not long ago, or was something more mysterious going on? Well, with this newcomer leaving the Masseys test site and becoming the second Megabay, it quickly became clear that Skip 26's future was far from over. In case you're not familiar with this strange boat stand with extended legs, it's the static fire boat stand that will be used at the Masseys test site above the new flame trench. In fact, it looks like this site is almost ready to go into action! Just keep in mind that the ship's quick disconnect that will supply propellant and other products to the ship is located on its own platform at Massey's.

This means that none of that is necessary on this site. Soon, with the stand in Mega Bay, Skip 26 was lifted to the top, and almost exactly 24 hours after the stand's arrival, it was moving again on its way to Masseys! As it remains the mystery ship, we're not entirely sure what the purpose of Ship 26 will be, but we at least hope that the tank tests here will certify the tank farm at Masseys, and maybe even the static fires? After all, this boat is fully equipped with Raptor engines. Now there will be more on this story soon and I still think that Skip 26 may get another chance to fly on one of the upcoming test flights, which will be awesome!

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However, if you really want to go all out, the Meteorite Embedded option includes an actual Meteorite shard placed right at the tip. When I asked Novium about this, they told me that the fragments came from a discovered meteorite that formed 4.56 billion years ago. That makes it older than the Earth itself, so with that version of the pen you literally have a piece of ancient space on your desk. Novium also offers the Hoverpen Future Edition, a 2-in-1 refillable fountain pen and rollerball pen designed for those who like the feel of a fountain pen but also need the convenience of a rollerball pen.

Whether you're looking for a special gift for a loved one or just want to treat yourself, these pens are perfect for any occasion. They come beautifully packaged, making them ideal for the upcoming Mother's Day and Father's Day, or any special occasion. Plus, you can get a cool 10% off and free shipping when you use the code “MARCUSHOUSE.” Go there now from the QR code on the screen or the link in the description below. Thanks Novium! Now, referring to Ship 26, is it possible that it will be part of the next test flight campaign? Well, that brings us to the most recent meeting of the Human Research and Operations Committee.

Part of the NASA Advisory Council. They shared that the Test Flight 3 in-flight propellant transfer demonstration was indeed a success, contrary to many opinions. It's good news to see confirmation of that. But that leads to more complex future development of propellant transfer hardware and the upcoming demonstration of ship-to-ship propellant transfer. You will see in this rough timeline that many items related to the Human Landing System are now marked as "Completed". This includes the designs ofStarship's high-end hardware, key subsystems, and integrated preliminary models and analyses. This is actually a very good example of how much work is being done in areas that we can't observe.

Work continues on docking mechanisms, navigation sensors, quick disconnects and I'm glad to see hot gas thrusters returning. A long time ago, Booster 3 had one, but we never saw it tested. What you'll notice here, however, is that the ship-to-ship propellant transfer demonstration will take place in 2025, so I think it's a pretty safe assumption that SpaceX probably wants the second block up and running at Starbase for this demonstration. I mean it makes sense because they have to launch two vehicles very close to each other to perform this test. The first to launch will be the Starship Target vehicle with active docking mechanisms, followed by the Starship driver vehicle with passive docking mechanisms.

The booster will transfer propellant to the target and then both will deorbit. I can't wait to see him play. We have now spent the last month preparing for this big event. The first Crewed Starliner CFT-1 mission. Counting down, we got great views of Greg Scott. Atlas V launched on SLC-41, carrying the Starliner capsule. Of course, it's a bit difficult to overcome the official opinions from the inside. Boeing shared great images of the interior of the ULA Vertical Integration Facility. The most common question I get about Starliner in the comments is why does it have this strange fuselage attachment under the Starliner.

Chris Combs had a good thread on this a few years ago explaining the science behind it. I've linked it below. Oddly enough, the Starliner, which has a larger diameter than the Centaur stage beneath it, creates some interesting challenges in terms of the strange aerodynamic forces that arise from this design. The newer design here seems to alleviate those impact issues quite well compared to the older ideas. The entire stack measures about 52 meters or 172 feet tall and the team deployed it at a breakneck speed of 1.6 kilometers per hour. Naturally, anticipation for this launch event was quite high, as they expected it to be one of the last milestones before the first crewed flight test.

Yes, it has flown twice before, but both were autonomous missions. United Launch Alliance had already published the mission profile, so we had a good idea of ​​what to expect from this mission based on that and previous test flights. NASA broadcast a beautiful quality countdown on Monday in preparation for the launch. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams followed the elaborate steps before reaching the launch site. They finally arrived at the pad three hours before takeoff time, and an hour later they were all ready to enter Starliner to prepare for the countdown of the final steps... and cleanup, just before the mark. time T-2.

It turned out that they were not going to space that day. Yes, unfortunately the problem was not with Starliner itself, but with the Atlas V upper stage. In fact, this was another setback for this mission. At first it looked like we might try again on Friday this week, but now that has been postponed to next week because a valve needs to be changed. SpaceX has just presented its new extravehicular activity suit that it will use on the next Polaris Dawn mission. Of course, this new design is based on the inner vehicle suit they've been using for a while as part of Crew Dragon missions.

However, these two suits have quite a few differences. Of course, there are plenty of new improvements, as this spacesuit will also be used on actual spacewalks, as well as the pressure suit that will act in its place during launch and reentry. The new helmet update has a visor to protect them from the sun, plus it has a built-in screen to help astronauts during spacewalks. There is also a head-mounted camera. Hopefully this means we have a good chance to see what the event will be like from the team's perspective. The entire suit is now made from new, stronger materials, making it strong enough to withstand the harsh pressures and temperatures experienced in a vacuum.

Here we saw that the Polaris Dawn team was testing everything, but keep in mind that the inside of the dragon will be very different here in the real mission. All that is needed is to depressurize, open the hatch, do a spacewalk, and then repressurize the capsule. Yes, this is not a normal mission and it happens very soon. As far as we know, this should happen in the middle of this year. This week we've had some back-to-back Starlink launches from SpaceX. At first, our Booster 1069 was on top of the SLC-40, ready to fly. Aboard a new group of 23 Starlink satellites in orbit, but there are a few little twists with this one.

It was a stunning morning when it blew into the sky. It's always a pleasure to see the launches at this incredible time of day, which was quite early in the afternoon. The view changed very quickly to the booster camera, which gave us a continuous view all the way to the main engine shutdown, stage separation, and we saw a small glimpse there of the stack of Starlink satellites in the main engine separation. But soon we will have a better vision of this again. The booster returned to shore after re-entry and there it was back to the unmanned ship.

Just read the instructions! Now let's zoom in on the drone camera and replay that landing. Look at that shadow crawling across the deck. Seems pretty wild, doesn't it? And the landing site is quite off-center compared to what we're used to. It was the 15th landing of booster 1069. Then, SpaceX surprised us by publishing these incredible images of the deployment. Just look at the different colors in the pile. Some appear to be a dark color and others, nothing at all. I wonder if they are testing a new coating or something. Interesting anyway! I really love that we can clearly see the 23 walking away from the second turn.

All of course with that beautiful orbital sunrise in the background. What a view! Two days later, Booster 1083 roared into the sky from Launch Complex 39A with another group of Starlink satellites. These were very similar lighting conditions to the previous launch, which may seem a little repetitive, but we can actually put it together to show the differences in the launch profile of the two different launch sites at Cape Canaveral. Shortly after the stage separation we had the notch and the next Starlink stack. Now the plot thickens! All 23 of the 6-56 group here have the same dark color!

Again, a wonderfully clear view of the sea below, as this time the booster returned to land in a Gravitas deficit that was only visible from a few kilometers due to the booster itself shutting it down until the final moments, and bam, is another one! one! They kept coming this week and the next flight took off the next day from Vandenberg, California, for Starlink Group 8-2 Mission. A night flight for this one, and I just want to share a snippet shared by Quilty Space that their forecast for Starlink is on track to generate an incredible $6.6 billion in revenue by 2024.

That's way beyond dreams crazier than any previous prediction. I repeatedly see people argue that SpaceX doesn't have the revenue to support Starship development and advances in new technologies like Starlink. Well, think again. This figure will continue to grow, especially, of course, once the larger version 2 satellites are deployed with Starship. With more than 2.7 million subscribers in 75 countries, SpaceX is becoming a giant that can finance the dreams of the future. It's just incredibly exciting to me and we're not even talking about implementing the new technology directly into mobile. Speaking of which, there was a display at the fairgrounds and you can clearly see that of the 20 on board this flight, 13 of them on top, were cellular-enabled satellites, so SpaceX is now getting major hardware there .

For that. In fact, Elon shared this great image of what Australia looks like here in radio frequency from direct satellites to cell phones. It's so good. The bottom rank was Of Course I Still Love You, number 4 for that 1082nd booster! Now, interestingly, we've had some interesting launch action from my corner of the world in Australia. This is the SR75 launched from Koonibba in South Australia and is a commercial launch vehicle developed by HyImpulse in Germany. Although this is a suborbital rocket, there is still a great need to conduct research missions for many reasons like this. With a height of 12 meters, this rocket is designed to transport small satellites weighing up to 250 kg to an altitude of about 250 km.

However, for this first flight an altitude of only 60 kilometers was planned, so technically we did not exceed the limit that we classify as "space", but it turned out very well as they continue to advance. The most interesting thing to me is that this engine is a paraffin-powered hybrid propulsion engine. Yes, it is essentially candle wax used with liquid oxygen as fuel. They made these decisions because they believe it will result in an incredibly cheap rocket while greatly reducing the risk of explosion. Actually, very similar to the decisions made by Gilmour Space and its Eris rocket that I talked about a few weeks ago.

A quick side note on that. They are still waiting to get approval for the flight, which is why we haven't seen the flight yet. Anyway, with this successful liftoff of the SR75 rocket, HyImpulse was not only able to collect a lot of useful data for this suborbital flight, but since it was suborbital, they were also able to conveniently retrieve it. It was packed in his suitcase and was already on his way back to Germany for further testing. With all of these lessons learned, it will prepare them well for their upcoming SL1 orbital launch vehicle, which has about twice the mass of the SR75.

They are designing it to have the capacity to send up to 600 kilograms to low Earth orbit. Let's hope we see its first release late next year. A quick update on the Chang'e-6 mission to land and return the first samples from the far side of the moon. Since its launch just over a week ago, it has already entered lunar orbit. Its near-lunar braking process allowed the vehicle to reduce its relative speed below the moon's escape velocity. I assume it was just below escape velocity to give them enough time and better conditions to adjust grade and elevation as needed.

The Q2 relay satellite is also in the game testing them at the same time to ensure they have an uninterrupted signal while out of direct line of sight to Earth. You know, I'm a little surprised that we don't have a permanent relay satellite around the Moon now. If we did, we wouldn't have those signal losses while NASA's Orion passed by on the other side. I guess after all this time it wasn't a priority. Now, interestingly, with this Chinese lander mission, it was discovered that there was a small rover hiding on the side that wasn't mentioned before, so it will be interesting to see if we get some views of it on the surface in the near future.

Of course, I'll keep you updated on the mission in the coming weeks, as it's always exciting to see how lunar landing missions develop. I hope you enjoyed this video! If you did, don't forget to subscribe so we can keep doing it. Thanks also to our wonderful sponsors who help support what we do. If you want to continue with more space goodness, the algorithm thinks you'll enjoy this video next, or maybe these videos. Thanks for watching this far and I'll see you in the next video!