SpaceX's Announced Starship Upgrades are Ludicrous and Awesome!

So, ummm... a lot of things happened this week! How can you even present a video with such a rollercoaster of emotion and amazing moments that unfolded over the course of a few days? You don't have time for niceties or long mentions. Yeah... just roll the thing. Hello, Hello, Marcus House, with you here and boy, it's been another packed week. There's a lot to delve into about the Starship development process at SpaceX's Texas facility, and what we're seeing is an absolute game-changer if SpaceX can really achieve everything it wants in the next exciting show. Flight 4. Will we see the largest rocket ever created with full reusability in mind achieve all its goals?

The story continues. Last week we saw the epic 33-engine static fire inferno of Booster 11. Man, when you slow down this footage and see those shockwaves, it's crazy. So with that complete, would they leave it there to fly? Or was there more to do before that? Well, that question was soon answered with self-propelled transporters that moved the transport platform here to the orbital path. The booster released the quick disconnect and the arms rose ready for takeoff. Yes, Booster 11 was back in the air and they are taking it down again. It looks like someone forgot to close all the engine covers all the way, but that's okay.

Once back on the ground and safely secured in the bracket, the arms were reopened and, in preparation for deployment, crews reinstalled the slings to the reinforcement light points. These additions allow the bridge crane on Megabay to connect and lift the booster later, if at all. As soon as the sun set, he set off to leave the launch site. He encountered the usual police escort taxiing down the highway and soon entered the production site, passed Starfactory and turned towards Megabay. The next day we were able to see him being taken to that workstation on the right side of the bay.

It's a good thing the door was partially open so we could see it. Of course, this means that both Flight 4 vehicles are back at the production site for final inspections and work. The overall pace is definitely faster this time, but at the launch site we saw the team remove the link arms from the holding clamps. As time went on, we saw over a dozen of them removed in total, but I think that might have more to do with the inspection work. Especially considering Booster 11 didn't even have his static shot a week before! To continue the trend, the booster's quick disconnect mechanical hood has been removed.

We could see that it was at least partially dented during Flight 3. We believe this new door on the old payload processing facility has a slightly modified design to better seal the door to the hood, so it appears there is a replacement in path. Fortunately, the link arms are already being reinstalled, showing that this could simply be routine maintenance. They also have several booster retaining clamps that have been removed for testing and which we have also seen before on other flights. Above, the main hydraulic drives on one of the tower arms have been removed. A replacement in Sanchez's area is already in the works, so once again it looks like it will be a quick turnaround.

Around the launch site, external views are a little more limited. A new concrete wall rises just in front of the nine horizontal tanks. At the same time, it seems like at least the first four have finally caught on, as we recently saw the vent appear! At the construction site in Highbay, boat 29 continued tiling. More and more tiles were installed on the nose, and in this shot from NASASpaceFlight we saw text below the tiles to indicate which ones go where. After all, it's a pretty complicated area. Further down, near one of the additional reinforcement belts, the tiles have now also been removed.

The tiles are also glued in this area. Like the nose. I think they need to improve the way these tiles adhere to the surface. In the second Megabay, we saw the six Raptor engines deployed and lifted for installation on Ship 30. Throughout this day, three Raptor vacuum cleaners and engines were deployed at sea level, and what surprised me was that they appeared to have been installed 6 in 24 hours. If they're so eager to get this Ship 30 ready, we might even see the SpaceX static fire that preceded Flight 4. Now, of course, the big news of the week was when SpaceX dropped a bombshell of information on us when the Nothing published a 44-minute talk about the future of Starship.

It all starts with Flight 5, in which SpaceX could attempt the first attempt at capturing a booster! Yes, you heard right! We can probably assume that this requires a perfect performance from the Super Heavy on Flight 4, but yes, it's possible we could see something like this this year. Of course, this means they can risk the only tower they have at the Mars Gate site. If they take down the only set of turret arms they have here now, that could cause some pretty long delays. I must admit I assumed they would wait until they had both towers almost ready to go.

For the repair of the ship they are going to take things a little slower and will only begin returning to the launch site once they have successfully made two simulated landings of the ship in the ocean. For the future of Starship towers, the plan is to have two platforms at Starbase, of course, but also two in Florida. The first one we've seen up and running in a few years, of course, on Road 39A, which should be online by the middle of next year, they say. But the location of the other? It is still uncertain. They have a very busy year ahead of them to make all of this happen and are currently planning to build six more boosters and ships during 2024.

I assume they have staff beyond those that are almost full on the production line as it is now. Needless to say, some of it will most likely be needed for the ship to send propellant transfer tests next year. It's crazy to think about and we've also gotten some surprising information about future versions of the Starship vehicle. Using Ship 28 as a reference that flew on Flight 3, SpaceX will be able to put between 40 and 50 tons of payload into orbit. However, Starship version 2 is expected to be able to carry 100 tons to orbit with full reusability. They obviously have to with updates like Raptor 3!

That engine, by the way, will produce 280 tons of thrust at sea level and a staggering 306 tons for the Raptor Vacuum variant. This raises the thrust to 1,600 tons for the ship and 8,240 tons of water for the propeller. There will be some very strict requirements for this version of the engines, because they must be able to survive in flight without much of the current thermal protection or detonation-detonation containment. Yes, the Booster business aspect for version 2 will look really interesting! As the Raptor's design evolves, so must the vehicles themselves. The boat will have a standard 6-foot ring, making it slightly longer to just over 52 meters.

However, the Booster, on the other hand, could see bigger changes in the future with what appears to be a modified grille fin design and a redesign of the hot star ring. Yes, it looks a lot like the ones used on the Soyuz, doesn't it? Now we come to the next version. Here we see some surprising changes. In reality, the propeller increases to just over 80 meters in height and the boat gains almost 20 meters, taking it to just under 70 meters. If this happens now, the entire Starship stack will be 150 meters high! It seems pretty absurd at this point.

As has already been stated several times, this major change will require three more Raptor Vacuum engines on the boat. This, along with new Raptor

upgrades

to the ship, will raise thrust to 2,700 tons. Just to put this in perspective, the first stage of the gigantic Saturn V weighed just over 800 tons more than that. Wow! The propellant, on the other hand, would be even more incomprehensible with 10,000 tons of thrust. Yes, by the way, a third of the current thrust was added to the top. Now I don't know if it will be an evolving version 3 of Raptor or a completely new version 4.

But when I asked him about the real limitations of this engine, Elon responded and said that "Raptor operates near the warped edge of physics." It's quite difficult to believe that the engine can withstand the pressures and temperatures we are talking about here. With that drivetrain and a massively lengthened full-stack design, the thrust-to-weight ratio should still be pretty similar to what we currently see at around 1.5. Now, the intended goal later in the presentation, which seems strange to me, is that with full reusability a mission with this giant could cost less than an original Falcon 1 mission. Even with fast and complete reuse, it seems a bit excessive to me, but anyway, competing with that mass-to-via cost will be almost impossible for any other supplier.

They have now confirmed for the first time in a long time that they are still looking for offshore launch platforms in the more distant future. For lunar missions, the propellant tank needed in low Earth orbit will be equipped with maximum insulation so that there is a minimum boiling point. All of this would have to happen very quickly to even come close to the plans for Artemis. Anyway, one step at a time! However, as we count down to Flight 4, I just have to mention this new footage from Flight 2 that was recently released by Skyshow.tv. It's not a name you've heard before, perhaps because their social platforms have been filled with releases of never-before-seen footage of some incredible performances.

In fact, they've been providing NASA with extraordinary space sensing materials for about three decades and now they're even including some SpaceX items here. I was impressed with these as they have some of the most detailed shots I have ever seen. Yes, this is the ultimate team of experts that does it. What surprised me was that they were excited to give me some unseen images to show them so I could share my excitement. Check out this ridiculous view of the Falcon 9's stage separation. You can see every puff of cold gas from the booster's attitude control as it falls in beautiful detail.

What about this!? A shot of New Shepard separating in detail you've never seen before, not even from Blue Origin itself. In fact, there is already a lot to explore here, but they open their vault with much wonder. I have links to the website, skyshow.tv, YouTube channel and account X there in the description, so check them out. I have a feeling we'll see some new insights from SpaceX's Flight Test 3 soon. Thank you as always for supporting ongoing community work. It is very important that they receive enough attention to be viable in the future. It's no different than you wonderful people who subscribe here and support what we do.

Oh, and speaking of Flight 3, Spreadsheet finally offered free shipping on all product designs, including the new Flight 3 patch here. So yes, it makes a big difference in the total cost of delivery, so if you want to pick up any of the new stuff, that free delivery period runs from Saturday the 13th, the day this video is posted, until Wednesday the 17th. Of course, this applies to any of the designs. Now we also had an interesting return of the Soyuz MS-24 vehicle. NASA's Loral O'Hara returned home after a six-month research mission, but then astronaut Oleg Novitskiy and Marina Vasilevskaya also returned after only about 14 days.

They boarded the reentry vehicle on April 6, separated from the Rassvet module, and returned to Earth a few hours later for the iconic parachute-assisted landing in Kazakhstan. You know every week if you scroll through the comments you'll see people asking my opinion on the International Space Station cruise program, where astronauts and astronauts swap seats on Soyuz and Crew Dragon. On the one hand, those who maintain that cooperation is critical, especially in times of conflict, and those who maintain the opposite. It is quite common to see misinformation and prejudice spread around the world through these stories for that reason.

That's why I'm excited to have Ground News as a recurring sponsor today. Founded by a former NASA engineer, its app and website bring together all the world's media in one place, allowing us to compare coverage and even get context in the sources themselves. You've probably seen this story on the internet at this point where it talks about the recent docking of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS. On board, NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, astronaut Oleg Novitsky and Belarusian Marina Vasilevskaya, who wonthe trip in a contest. Although space news doesn't always dominate the headlines, this story received worldwide coverage with nearly 40 articles published about it.

You can check them out at Ground Point News, slash Marcus, or by scanning this QR code on the screen. Using Grondnuus, I can even access articles published by the Russian and Serbian government, right next to mainstream media coverage! It is so useful that we can read it side by side and provides context such as how biased or credible your journalistic practices are based on linguistic analyzes carried out by expert news monitoring organizations. I relied on Grondnuus to make sure I had a complete view of the world, verified my information, and came to my own conclusions. What's more, understanding the bigger picture is especially valuable at a time when we're all trying to make sense of many more geopolitical issues.

I think what you're doing is incredibly useful, so I invite you to go to Groundpoint News, Marcus bar, and you can sign up through my link to get 40% off unlimited access this month, which is what I'm using. Thanks Grondnuus. SpaceX had its first launch of the new Bandwagon Rideshare program from Launch Complex 39A this week. These missions are different from the Transporter spacecraft missions, which carry satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit. Instead, the satellites on this mission were intended for medium-inclination orbits. It actually offers a number of different benefits depending on the customer's mission requirements, but one that was particularly mentioned was higher revisit rates than a sun-synchronous orbit.

But what does that mean? For many observation missions, it is important to be able to obtain data from a specific area of ​​the Earth more frequently. In these medium-inclination orbits, the spacecraft on board can fly over the same geographic location more frequently. Additionally, with the lower inclination, you also get a little more benefit from the Earth's rotation, which requires less Delta V, so you could put more total mass into such an orbit. As always, it's great to see that SpaceX is now offering rideshare options for these orbits as well. This was another launch just before sunset, and the views were spectacular as booster 1073 separated and turned to return.

We had tons of amazing ground camera views for this mission. Yes, in fact, we had another mission on our hands back to the launch site, as the booster was here on its 14th flight. I suspect the second stage probably had the shorter and cheaper nozzle, like the other travel missions, but we never got a shot aboard the stage separation, or the second stage, so I don't know. So why did the second shot on board miss? Well, the main payload here was the second DAPA launch, the Defense Program mission 'Korea 425', so unfortunately SpaceX was not allowed to share those views of the second stage for security reasons.

It's a shame actually, because it's always great to see the deployments on these escort missions. On board, the second phase had 11 spacecraft from 6 different customers, of course the South Korean DAPA, but also HawkEye 360, Capella Space, iQPS, TAS and Fleet Space. Yes, there were many on board. SpaceX made up for the missing images of the second stage with its fantastic tracking shots throughout the entry series. This booster on its way here has landed at Landing Zone 2 only once before. That was with the iSpace M1 mission in December 2022. However, today it was heading to Landing Zone 1 for the first time.

It was another flawless landing and that's where SpaceX had to end the broadcast. Hopefully, the upcoming launch of Centerline ridesharing will allow us to see those lost views. The other day we had another Falcon 9 mission for SpaceX's second national security mission of the year. A morning flight from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base began the USSF-62 mission for the Space Force. Inside the screens was the microwave satellite monitoring the weather system. Its microwave imager measures ocean surface winds, the strength of tropical cyclones, and things like that. Of course, for military intelligence and all that. This gave them room to return this booster to landing zone four, and it was booster 1082 that landed there for the third time.

Now Starlink stock was back in full force, but along with it was some intriguing Starlink news to share. Almost a week ago, on Saturday, we had the first of this week's Falcon 9 launches, the first taking off from Vandenberg Space Force Base. It was another beautiful sunset launch and climb. I have to say the launch profiles really fit this time of year for a lot of these sunshine launches. Now on board this one were not only the regular Starlink version 2 minis, but also the previous six with the new direct-to-cell capability. This is only the second time they've been on board, so the initial set released in January must have done well, so there's another one.

Interestingly, Michael Nicolls, VP of Starlink Engineering at SpaceX, mentioned that in the future they will have 13 on board with direct-to-cell compatible satellites, so we should start to see a lot more stacks connected to this new skill. The drone, of course, I Still Love You was remotely awaiting recovery and Booster 1081 landed for the sixth time. If you've been counting, since the Eutelsat flight the previous Saturday, that's five Falcon 9 launches and five drone landings in just over 7 days. Wow! It must be some kind of record! There was also some good news after that release, as we got to see another rare deployment view released shortly after the mission ended.

If you look closely, you can clearly make out the six Direct to Cell satellites up there. For SpaceX to expand that network and start providing the service to consumers they really want, launch at least a few hundred of them within this year. At a minimum, this should enable the direct-to-cell SMS service that was tested and validated a few months ago, and then voice and data services should follow in 2025. Starlink has powerful service options. The other day, Vast released an announcement saying that its commercial space station Haven-1 will now be equipped with a Starlink laser terminal to provide Gigabit plus speeds with low latency to those on board.

Seeing that mission in the game will be amazing. It's pretty easy to think that some of these lesser-known companies are small startups and organizations that don't have the funding, team, or infrastructure to pull this kind of thing off, but trust me, Vast is doing a great job at achieving this. space station components right now and it's incredibly exciting. Now, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, we had another launch of 23 from SLC-40, and you could tell from the notch spacing that it was again the standard set. This booster number 1083 is almost new and flies here for the second time, and in what seems routine is the landing on the drone ship.

Just read the instructions. This was SpaceX's 295th successful landing in total, so in the coming weeks they will surpass 300. Can you believe that this thing that seems routine today is something that no other rocket in the world can do yet? As if to almost drive home that point even further, here my friends were the ones who broke the record! Another 23 Starlinks aboard this flight from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral last night Friday night. However, the surprising thing to note was that it was the first booster to launch and land 20 times with A Shortfall of Gravitas waiting below to receive that kiss of fire from Booster 1062.

The same booster that once launched the mission into orbit Inspiration 4. What a great week it has been for Falcon 9! Now for a sweet Starlink segway for this week's massive total eclipse, I have to start with this clip that was shown a few days ago. Yes, this is the eclipse from the perspective of a Starlink satellite. It's also definitely the best direct track from a Starlink satellite we've ever seen. The only one that has occurred to me in the past that I can think of is this view here. Pretty low quality in comparison, but in this one you can see the solar panel move slowly over time and find the best position.

Note that of course this footage is very accelerated, as we can see from the orbit speed, but this folding truss structure holding up the panel is something we've never seen before. It's connected to this slowly rotating gear type configuration. It has a little fluffiness to it. Also, they don't even seem to bother securing the main cable to the panel. It just hangs there loosely, which I think is by design. Still, the eclipse that brought thousands of people together across North America earlier this week had some surprising scenes. This 2024 total solar eclipse began crossing the Pacific Ocean, and as the Earth rotated, the giant shadow moved away from Mexico, across Texas in the US, and continued to Montreal in Canada before entering the Atlantic Ocean. .

An eclipse like this is quite rare and the next time a total solar eclipse will occur over North America will be in 2045. Totality can only occur when the Moon is as close to Earth as possible in its orbit. Yes, the Moon's orbit is not perfectly circular and can range between 363,000 and 405,000 kilometers. In fact, it can block virtually the entire solar disk when close to that minimum distance. If you could go right in the path of totality, it would be a very strange thing to see. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit tricky in many areas, but still many incredible views were shared from the most favorable areas.

Lucky for us, NASA had camera views of so many places that were incredible to see. They also didn't waste the opportunity to investigate to launch those sound rockets from Wallops that I talked about in last weekend's video. These were full of instruments ready to study this always surprising event. On top of that, NASA had high-altitude research planes, aerial images and spectroscopic observations, high-altitude balloons, and even more interesting things to study the eclipse and its effects on the planet. We had cool stuff from the International Space Station. He also shared other shots like that of Sen. It's also

awesome

and this team does a great job of providing such high quality material for education and general inspiration.

Definitely worth following them from sen.com or the X account there. Look at it. Unfortunately, of course, I was in Australia away from all the excitement, but if you've been somewhere great, share your experience in the comments below. Earlier this week we had the bittersweet and spectacular final launch of the Delta IV Heavy. Of course, there were some delays for various reasons over the past few weeks, but the candles were lit and it went out. It was the last time we fired up those glorious orange triple thrusters. In fact, we saw the NROL-70 mission and the final goodbye in an also mysterious payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.

A beautiful projectile fired from the ground early Tuesday afternoon. It takes a good four minutes for those side thrusters to burn up and separate, and then another two minutes until we have separation of the center thrusters, and one of my favorite engines, the RL-10, has made the rest of the trip. . That was all we saw, as brief a coverage as it should have been for the NGO. Thanks to the people at ULA, they have really gone to great lengths over the years to make this one of the most powerful rockets out there. At its core is this wild tri-core configuration with three motors working together to take off with that almost transparent exhaust.

Product of the combustion of liquid hydrogen and oxygen together, producing only water vapor as exhaust. It really feels like the end of an era here. Do not misunderstand. Of course, we welcome the new generation of vehicles, but with it we also say goodbye to the beloved previous rockets. The truth is that Delta rockets were too expensive. However, we have to backtrack a bit before SpaceX changes the game. The Delta IV Heavy was an engineering spectacle that spanned decades of innovation and collaboration in aviation. Each of the three thrusters generated 3,137 kilonewtons of thrust. With all three combined, that's just over 952 metric tons of thrust.

Still, since its first flight in 2004, it has been instrumental in a wide range of missions. The first flight test of Orion in 2014, the launch of the Parker solar probe in 2018 and a series of payloads critical to national security. Without a doubt, Delta IV Heavy has left its mark on the history of space flight. Unfortunately, those costs made it impossible to continue. They were neededleast $350 million to start one and, in some cases, even more depending on who buys. Of course, this is why we've seen them develop the next-generation Vulcan. It was very difficult because the new rockets out there like the Falcon 9 just eliminate the overall cost of mass to orbit.

For most reasons, SpaceX doesn't even need a Falcon Heavy for any of those missions. Even if they did, it would still be less than half the cost of the Delta IV Heavy. So yes, with Starship expected to enter the launch market soon, one has to wonder how long the Delta IV successor will last. Vulcan Centaur is an impressive beast, but remains completely expendable. With ULA set for a possible sale soon, one wonders if they regret not investing as much in reuse as SpaceX a decade ago was not. I hope you enjoyed this video! If you did, don't forget to subscribe so we can keep doing it.

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