What is that? SpaceX conducted recovery operations for Ship 31. How did it go?
The first parts for a possible block 2 booster were spotted, and you won't believe how big they are. Parts for a new launch mount were spotted, and this time, they aren't at Starbase. And Rocketlab made huge progress with Neutron.
My name is Felix. Welcome to What About It! ?
Let’s dive right in! Starship Updates They actually managed to do it! SpaceX has finally recovered the upper stage of Starship, or at least they kind of did.
Back in July, we reported that SpaceX was in talks with the Australian government and Regulators here in the US to recover a splashed-down Starship. Thanks to a truly remarkable investigation by Interstellar Gateway, we've learned that these talks were successful! We can see that a ship was hard at work in the Indian Ocean shortly before Starships' sixth launch.
This ship was the Limitless, and it has been working for SpaceX for all previous Starship splashdowns, including those of flights 4 and 5. Its job has been to place the floating buoys at the Landing sites and gather as much information as possible about the landings. However, this time, after a Starship splashed down, it had one more job: along with the vessel Barton Renegade, it had the job of recovering ship 31!
Unfortunately, after successfully splashing down, ship 31 tipped over, and the force of hitting the water was enough to snap it in half. Payload Bay and tanks separated. This made a full recovery impossible.
However, the ship's tank remained intact enough to stay afloat, meaning this didn't have to be a complete loss. Over the next few days, the two vessels stayed with the floating debris, stripping it of as many parts as possible before the tanks were finally sunk. As the ships returned to Port, Interstellar Gateway captured video and images of the Treasure trove of flight Hardware they had brought back.
This includes multiple COPVs or composite overwrapped pressure vessels, which are meant to hold high-pressure gases for engine start, as well as a literal bag full of heat tiles! A bag full of heat tiles. Unfortunately, these are the only things that could be distinctly made out.
However, multiple other containers were covered, meaning this is far from all the components they were able to recover. While this isn't a full ship recovery, it is arguably just as valuable during these early flight tests as any hardware recovered can inform future design choices. The heat tiles, in particular, will likely be precious as SpaceX can analyze them in great detail to determine what needs improvement.
How much did they wear down? How did they take the heat? These pieces may now be loaded onto a ship or plane and brought back to Starbase for intense investigation.
This recovery effort will arguably be even more important going forward than the recovery effort of booster 11, as shortly after those pieces of booster 11 were recovered, booster 12 was caught. So they had a flown booster. With all the data SpaceX gathered from booster 12 now back on the ground, they'll also be able to build an even better block two booster.
The new design is even closer than you may realize. In a recent video by Kai Madison Trump, Musk revealed that the first block two booster will be flying before the end of 2025! He also confirmed again that the new booster would be taller; however, the exact amount remains unknown.
Given that the second tower being built at Starbase was also supposed to be taller but turned out to only be around 6 feet or a bit less than 2 meters taller, the exact height increase of the block 2 booster is a bit of a mystery. One thing we do know for sure, though, is that the block 2 booster will be equipped with Raptor 3. Raptor 2 has a thrust of roughly 230 tons, and Raptor 3 will increase this by 50 tons to 280.
With this substantial increase in thrust between Raptor 2 and 3, this new booster design will be in a league of its own when it comes to thrust, sporting close to 10 thousand tons of thrust, which is around three times that of the Saturn 5 and 14 times more than the Falcon 9. Imagine 14 Falcon 9 boosters lighting at the same time. That’s Super Heavy Block 2’s output.
In fact, it's possible that we have already seen the first parts for this new block 2 booster. But first, we’ve looked into our channel metrics, and there are over 2 million returning monthly viewers who have not subscribed yet. Help us improve the channel even further by double-checking that you’ve hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss our updates!
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Thank you so much! You Rock! Now, back to the possible first block 2 Booster segment!
Check these out. Thanks to the wonderful Windows that SpaceX decided to install, we got a chance to peer inside the Star Factory to get a glimpse of the work going on inside, and during that, some photographers for NSF managed to spot this! From what we can tell, this is the aft section of a booster.
However, the design Sports many changes from previous boosters, meaning this will likely be the first aft section of the new block 2 booster! The change from the block 1 to the block 2 booster is based mainly on the need for more thrust. Starships are heavy.
Block 1 already showed that the current design is capable. Now, it just needs to be even bigger. And that wasn't the only exciting thing spotted; on the 27th, this odd piece was seen rolling out of the star factory.
If it's flight Hardware, it's likely a new header tank. However, for reference, this one piece of Hardware is roughly the same size as a Falcon 9 booster! That's crazy!
While the increased thrust of the Raptor 3 engines will require more fuel, it's unlikely that it would need that much of an increase. A better explanation is that this tank might be used for boost back and reentry burn on top of landing. This would make sense as the booster has had quite a few problems especially with heat in the engine section in the past.
A reentry burn would shield the engines in the same way that it does on a Falcon 9. Falcon 9 basically uses its engine exhaust at reentry to form a heat shield to protect itself from reentry heat Another piece was spotted a few days ago, which appeared to be a small tank dome that could be attached to the top of this; however, this still needs to be clarified. Anyways, what do you think this piece of mysterious Hardware is?
Do you think it's a piece of a Block 2 booster or perhaps a Pathfinder tank? Let us know in the comments below, and let's see if we can figure it out together! Work has been ramping up in preparation for the next phase of the Starship program.
These first flight tests have essentially been proofs of concept to show that Starship is feasible and a test bed to learn what works and what doesn't. However, Starship is now transitioning into a much more finalized design, incorporating the lessons learned from these earlier test flights into a more robust design. This can be seen in the differences between block one and two ships.
There are hundreds of differences across the whole vehicle, from the tank size to the flaps. A lot has changed. And even more is expected to change soon as SpaceX begins to build variance on the ship.
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The current one is designed to deploy Starlink payloads. Then there’s the tanker ship, the depot ship, and, of course, the lunar lander. The only question is when will we start seeing parts for those?
So far we've seen parts for five block two starships, the most recent one being ship 37, whose nose cone was recently spotted. It's possible that one of the nose cones currently in the Star Factory will be converted into a different variant, as the sooner they build it, the sooner they'll be able to begin testing. The timelines for the first flights of these different variants are quickly approaching.
However, SpaceX's goal is to be able to build ships rapidly, and as they ramp up production, we should begin to see even more Ships coming down the assembly line. If that's the case, SpaceX may opt to push the initial construction for those other variants just a little longer and possibly even past Ship 42 or later. No pun intended.
I swear. Moving past the ship, the most obvious example of this next phase is on the ground Hardware, as the difference between pad A and Pad B is night and day. This second pad's design has been completely overhauled.
It takes all the lessons learned from the first one to design and build a pad that can withstand the fury of 35 Raptor engines multiple times a day. To build this new heavy-duty hardware, you need some pretty heavy-duty equipment, and the new LR 11000 crane that SpaceX has been working on over the past week has finally raised to assist in the construction of the new tower and pad. The interesting thing about this is that it's all happening twice, as almost the exact same work is being done here in my neighborhood at the Cape.
After months of appearing to be almost abandoned, the new launch pad at Cape Canaveral is finally getting some work to. Yes! Like the crane at StarBase, the crane here is also being raised for the first time, and now, thanks to some images shared by Greg Scott during a recent flyover at the Cape, we were able to spot something extraordinary!
Check this out! These are parts for a new launch mount! In fact, these are identical parts to what we've seen at Starbase, which confirms that the cape will receive the new launch Mount design.
We've speculated about this in the past, as some satellite imagery had shown some wrapped pieces around SpaceX's facilities in Florida that appeared almost identical to the pieces for the water-cooled launch deck of the new launch Mount at Starbase. But now it's confirmed, and it's likely there are more pieces just like this elsewhere, so we should begin seeing work on the launch mount soon. Of course, this doesn't mean this will be the definitive design for the launch mount; technically, there's already a complete launch Mount at Cape Canaveral that SpaceX decided to scrap after they realized how many problems the old design had.
Although SpaceX is working on this launch pad almost in tandem with pad B at Starbase, work will likely be slower here at the Cape as it is a highly active spaceport. In fact, this Spaceport just recently broke a record, but for that, we need to move just down the road to SpaceX's other Launchpad here at the Cape, SLC-40. Because a recent Falcon 9 launch, which took place here, broke the record for the fastest turnaround time ever, and not just by a little.
That being a mind-boggling 13 Days 12 hours and 30 minutes! This beats the previous record of 21 days by around a week and shows just how advanced the Falcon 9 is now. An important thing to note is that a large portion of these 13 and 1/2 days was spent by the booster just being transported, such as from the drone ship back to land and then to the refurbishment facility.
This is mindblowing, and SpaceX could likely reduce this time even further, as their original goal was to have a 24-hour turnaround time for a booster. However, there's no real need for this. At this point, the main bottleneck is likely the upper stage, which is not reusable, and therefore, a new one needs to be built for each launch.
A new upper stage leaves Hawthorne every two and a half days. SpaceX is pushing the boundary of space flight and paving the way towards a reusable future in rocketry. However, while they may be leading the revolution, they're not the only ones participating.
Rocket Lab is one of the newer companies to join the reusability bandwagon; however, it joined pretty early and has made incredible progress toward its own reusable rocket. Rocket Lab is already working on two reusable Rockets. One is Electron, their current Workhorse small satellite launch vehicle, which is small enough to be reused with parachutes.
However, that's not the only rocket they've been working on, and it's far from their most ambitious. This brings us to Neutron, Rocket Labs' medium-lift mega constellation launch vehicle with a reusable first stage. Neutron's capabilities are roughly comparable to those of a Falcon 9.
However, it does take a few novel approaches, including a completely enclosed second stage and a clamshell design for its fairing, which allows it to re-enter and be reused with the first stage. The development speed for this rocket has been impressive since its announcement back in 2021, with a launch date set for 2024. It did face a few delays, but progress is now ramping up.
Starting with the ground hardware, Rocket Lab has shown off its new launch mount for Neutron at Wallops, Virginia. The mount is coming along nicely, with the deck's legs installed and the deck beginning installation as well. The design sticks closely to their original render, with a simple suspended launch deck over a flame diverter.
This launchpad will likely be ready fairly soon, as Rocket Lab is one of the fastest companies in construction in the space industry, and they stated they intended the pad to be as simple as possible. But there's no point in having a pad if you don't have a rocket to launch it from, which is why Rocket Lab has also been working on neutron itself. Shortly after showing off their launch mount, Rocket Lab also shared a video of their latest test of neutrons' upper stage.
This was a wet dress rehearsal to ensure the tank could keep its integrity under cryogenic temperatures. During the test, Rocket Lab also tested some of its avionic systems under flight conditions. Getting there, ha?
Neutron is truly an incredible rocket, and looking at the video they showed from the test shows one of the reasons why. This test stand may look a little odd compared to others we've seen, but that's for a very good reason. The upper stage of Neutron is designed to hang from the interstage of the rocket.
What? While this may sound odd, because the upper stage is made of carbon fiber, placing it under tension actually increases its strength compared to if it were under compression, such as when it's placed atop the interstage. This means the second stage can be lighter and less complex.
However, this also means things like this need to be accounted for when designing the test stand. That's why it looks so strange. Neutron is impressive, but so is Rocket Labs' other launch vehicle, the Electron.
Despite its size difference from the Falcon 9, it has managed to dominate a portion of the launch market. In fact, Electron has become so successful that Rocket Lab has even begun pursuing reusability, as mentioned earlier. However, success was never guaranteed for Rocket Lab as Electron faced massive competition from around the industry.
At one point, it seemed like a new company was popping up every month, developing a new small satellite launch vehicle. However, it seems clear now that Electron has emerged as the industry leader, as more and more of the once-strong competition has given up. In fact, yet another promising small sat launch company recently announced it would be leaving the industry.
Unfortunately, ABL Space Systems announced it would be pivoting from commercial space toward missile defense systems. ABL launched its RS-1 rocket for the first time in 2023, and after its failure, a second time was expected. However, it appears the first flight will be the only flight of this rocket.
Even before this announcement, it was clear that something was going on behind the scenes at ABL. A string of layoffs began that included a large portion of its workforce. And then, just a few months ago, ABL revealed that they had lost the first stage of their next rocket to fly during a static fire.
This can be devastating for a young startup. This is just one more in a long line of companies. For example, Virgin Orbit and Relativity Space have decided to leave the small satellite launch market or were forced to file for bankruptcy.
Not good. Surprisingly, though, one company that has managed to hold on is Astra. After a string of failures, they declared bankruptcy and canceled Rocket 3, which was their only operational rocket.
All seemed over for Astra. But they managed to get a much-needed influx of cash from the military, likely as redundancy for the capabilities that Firefly's Alpha rocket currently covers. Competition and redundancy are the game's new rules, as they help drive down prices and promote innovation.
Looking up from the small set launch market, we can see another area of space that's also beginning to benefit from this. The space station market! It’s so cool that this is slowly becoming a thing!
Just like the small sat Market, many companies have popped up looking to build a space station, and then they’ve gone bankrupt. While this may seem harsh, it is important in driving down costs, as those who are most efficient survive, making the price more than worth it. That's why we've been watching Vast Space with great anticipation.
They have been moving rapidly to bring their Haven 1 space station to Market as soon as possible. Vast has now shown off its capabilities by sharing the main pressure vessel for its first space station. Dude.
What's being shown off currently are qualification articles. These are very close to the final design, and if they are shown to be successful, proper flight hardware will likely not be far behind. One key advantage Vast has over some of its competition, such as Axiom, is that all of this is being built in-house by them.
Something similar what SpaceX does. Although this may increase the initial upfront cost and can be a risk, it can also help reduce long-term cost, complexity, and production time. This is in contrast to companies like Axiom, which outsourced the construction of its pressure vessel to the Italian-based company Thales Alenia.
While they do benefit from the experience of the 40-year-old space company, this does come with the cost of reduced flexibility and increase in the overall price. They need to make a profit from this as well. But in the end, either one of these methods could turn out to be the right choice for the next low-earth orbit Space Station, and with so many set to come online over the next few years, the future looks promising.
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