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| 0:00 | · | [Music] |
| 0:01 | · | It's nearly time for the final launch |
| 0:03 | · | for this version of SpaceX's Starship |
| 0:06 | · | rocket. Flight 11 is set to take off |
| 0:08 | · | roughly 7 weeks after Starship flight |
| 0:10 | · | 10. |
| 0:12 | · | That was an important mission for SpaceX |
| 0:14 | · | for a number of reasons. Perhaps chief |
| 0:17 | · | among them, it was the first time that a |
| 0:19 | · | block 2 iteration of the ship upper |
| 0:21 | · | stage made it through its planned flight |
| 0:23 | · | profile. And what we're doing here is |
| 0:25 | · | we're simulating the maneuver that we |
| 0:27 | · | will to fly back into the arms again. |
| 0:31 | · | And then you can see the the splash down |
| 0:34 | · | in the Indian Ocean. And this was |
| 0:37 | · | intended just to demonstrate that we |
| 0:39 | · | could go ahead and return. The ship then |
| 0:42 | · | falls over and explodes like it was |
| 0:44 | · | designed to. |
| 0:45 | · | The man speaking is Bill Gerston Meyer. |
| 0:48 | · | The NASA veteran joined SpaceX in the |
| 0:50 | · | months leading up to the historic Demo 2 |
| 0:52 | · | launch in May 2020. SpaceX's first |
| 0:55 | · | astronaut mission. He currently serves |
| 0:57 | · | as SpaceX's vice president of building |
| 0:59 | · | and flight reliability. Germire spoke to |
| 1:02 | · | a room full of engineers, scientists, |
| 1:04 | · | and researchers at the American |
| 1:06 | · | Astronomical Society's Glenn Space |
| 1:08 | · | Technology Symposium in Cleveland, Ohio |
| 1:10 | · | back in early September. His remarks |
| 1:12 | · | came exactly 2 weeks after the Starship |
| 1:15 | · | Flight 10 launch and roughly 5 weeks |
| 1:17 | · | before Flight 11 is set to take off. One |
| 1:19 | · | of the most important parts of flight 10 |
| 1:21 | · | for SpaceX was being able to get nominal |
| 1:24 | · | flight data concerning the heat shield |
| 1:25 | · | tiles on ship 37. Those watching the |
| 1:29 | · | mission though may have been struck by |
| 1:30 | · | the distinct white and orange colors |
| 1:32 | · | seemingly splashed across many of the |
| 1:34 | · | tiles as seen during the video ahead of |
| 1:37 | · | splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Gersy |
| 1:39 | · | explained both at the Glenn Symposium. |
| 1:42 | · | He says the orange came from the |
| 1:44 | · | experimental metallic tiles. We put |
| 1:47 | · | three metal tiles on the side of the |
| 1:49 | · | ship to see if they would provide |
| 1:52 | · | adequate heat control because they would |
| 1:54 | · | be simpler to manufacture and more |
| 1:56 | · | durable than the ceramic tiles. Turns |
| 1:58 | · | out they're not. They didn't do so good |
| 2:02 | · | and they oxidized extremely nice in the |
| 2:05 | · | high oxygen environment. So that nice |
| 2:07 | · | orange color kind of like a shuttle |
| 2:10 | · | external tank color and maybe paying |
| 2:12 | · | homage to the shuttle program was |
| 2:14 | · | created by those three little metal |
| 2:16 | · | tiles up on top. |
| 2:17 | · | Gerston Meyer says the white coloration |
| 2:19 | · | is from an ablade of material underneath |
| 2:21 | · | the heat shield tiles |
| 2:23 | · | and when it ablates it creates this |
| 2:25 | · | white residue. So what that's showing us |
| 2:28 | · | is that we're having heat essentially |
| 2:31 | · | get into that region between the tiles, |
| 2:33 | · | go underneath the tiles, and this |
| 2:35 | · | ablative structure is then ablating |
| 2:37 | · | underneath. So again, we learned that we |
| 2:39 | · | need to seal the tiles. The way that |
| 2:41 | · | NASA sealed the tiles on both the |
| 2:43 | · | shuttle orbiter and Orion back shell was |
| 2:46 | · | by using a ceramic cloth infused with a |
| 2:48 | · | silicone polymer. SpaceX uses a |
| 2:51 | · | different material that could be spotted |
| 2:52 | · | in the darker area of the nose cone. |
| 2:55 | · | What we found out there was we we put a |
| 2:58 | · | new material in underneath the SDI pop. |
| 3:01 | · | It's we call it crunch wrap. It's like a |
| 3:04 | · | like wrapping paper that that goes |
| 3:06 | · | around each tile. And then when these |
| 3:08 | · | tiles are mechanically held in place, |
| 3:10 | · | they're snapped in by a robot. And when |
| 3:13 | · | we push the tile in, this little |
| 3:15 | · | wrapping paper essentially sits around |
| 3:17 | · | the sides of each one of the tiles. And |
| 3:20 | · | then we cut it off on the surface. So |
| 3:22 | · | what we found was that this this crunch |
| 3:25 | · | wrap technique is allowing us to |
| 3:27 | · | essentially seal between the tiles |
| 3:29 | · | without putting a gap filler in between |
| 3:30 | · | the tiles. So this is kind of what we're |
| 3:33 | · | going to fly on this next flight. On |
| 3:35 | · | flight 11, when we we fly here, we're |
| 3:37 | · | going to put essentially crunch wrap |
| 3:38 | · | everywhere and see if we can get better |
| 3:41 | · | uh ceiling and better tile performance |
| 3:43 | · | moving forward. Gerson says the Starship |
| 3:46 | · | upper stage that will launch on flight |
| 3:48 | · | 11, also referred to as ship 38, won't |
| 3:51 | · | be flying quite as many experiments on |
| 3:53 | · | board this time. |
| 3:54 | · | This next flight, we won't push quite so |
| 3:56 | · | many different techniques in. We'll |
| 3:58 | · | probably cut back a little bit. We're |
| 4:00 | · | going to try to go more towards the the |
| 4:02 | · | configuration we want to go fly next |
| 4:04 | · | year. That said, according to SpaceX's |
| 4:06 | · | description of the flight 11 mission, |
| 4:08 | · | there will be quote several experiments |
| 4:10 | · | and operational changes focused on |
| 4:12 | · | enabling Starship's upper stage to |
| 4:14 | · | return to the launch site on future |
| 4:16 | · | flights. It will do so by using a quote |
| 4:19 | · | dynamic banking maneuver and will test |
| 4:22 | · | subsonic guidance algorithms prior to a |
| 4:24 | · | landing burn and splashdown in the |
| 4:26 | · | Indian Ocean. The company notes that |
| 4:28 | · | there are once again intentionally |
| 4:30 | · | removed tiles. It says several of the |
| 4:33 | · | missing tiles are in areas where tiles |
| 4:35 | · | are bonded to the vehicle and do not |
| 4:37 | · | have a backup ablative layer. Cracking |
| 4:40 | · | the code on a fully reusable heat shield |
| 4:41 | · | is one of the biggest aspirations of the |
| 4:43 | · | Starship program. SpaceX founder Elon |
| 4:46 | · | Musk spoke about the tall task during |
| 4:48 | · | the first launch attempt of Starship |
| 4:49 | · | Flight 10 in late August. real confident |
| 4:52 | · | uh in in making a fully reusable opal |
| 4:55 | · | heat shield. But it will require many |
| 4:57 | · | flights, many iterations to figure out |
| 4:59 | · | where the weak points are in the heat |
| 5:01 | · | shield. Uh where we need to change the |
| 5:02 | · | design. Uh either strengthening the tile |
| 5:05 | · | or ch or changing the the the thick the |
| 5:09 | · | how big the gap is between tiles. Um |
| 5:12 | · | changing what's underneath the tile. |
| 5:15 | · | There's there's a there there's a you |
| 5:18 | · | know 100 different variables that we |
| 5:20 | · | could tweak. um with the with the ship |
| 5:23 | · | the ship tiles uh the heat shield heat |
| 5:25 | · | shield tiles. Um but the only way to |
| 5:28 | · | know exactly what we should be adjusting |
| 5:30 | · | is uh to fly repeatedly and be able to |
| 5:33 | · | examine the ship um upon landing. |
| 5:35 | · | Relight demo startup |
| 5:37 | · | like with flight 10 |
| 5:39 | · | and shut down. |
| 5:40 | · | SpaceX is also planning to perform a |
| 5:42 | · | relight of one of the Raptor engines |
| 5:44 | · | during ship 38's coast phase and |
| 5:48 | · | open the pod bay doors. |
| 5:50 | · | teams hope to demonstrate another |
| 5:52 | · | deployment of eight Starlink simulators. |
| 5:54 | · | They're not really satellites. They're |
| 5:56 | · | just essentially steel structures. We |
| 5:58 | · | they were deployed um in a in a manner |
| 6:01 | · | we call it like the PEZ dispenser. They |
| 6:03 | · | drop down, one gets ejected, one gets |
| 6:05 | · | down and gets ejected. These these |
| 6:08 | · | satellites will have about 10 times the |
| 6:09 | · | capability in terms of throughput of |
| 6:12 | · | what our current satellites do on orbit. |
| 6:14 | · | So this is critical to us really |
| 6:16 | · | reaching a much larger market for |
| 6:19 | · | internet service and much more reliable |
| 6:20 | · | markets. |
| 6:21 | · | The mission will also be the final |
| 6:23 | · | flight for this current iteration of the |
| 6:25 | · | superheavy booster. It marks the second |
| 6:27 | · | time that SpaceX will fly a previously |
| 6:30 | · | flown booster for the Starship program. |
| 6:33 | · | B15 was first used on the Starship |
| 6:35 | · | flight 8 mission back on March 6th, |
| 6:38 | · | 2025. |
| 6:40 | · | SpaceX performed a static fire test with |
| 6:42 | · | B-15 back on September 7th to ensure it |
| 6:45 | · | was good to go. 24 out of the 33 engines |
| 6:48 | · | on this booster are being refflown from |
| 6:50 | · | Flight 8. SpaceX said this upcoming |
| 6:52 | · | mission will perform a quote unique |
| 6:55 | · | landing burn engine configuration |
| 6:56 | · | planned to be used on the next |
| 6:58 | · | generation Superheavy. Previously, |
| 7:00 | · | SpaceX went from 13 engines down to |
| 7:03 | · | three for the landing burn. This time |
| 7:05 | · | around they will go from 13 down to five |
| 7:07 | · | for what it calls the divert phase of |
| 7:09 | · | the landing. The planned baseline for V3 |
| 7:12 | · | Superheavy will use five engines during |
| 7:14 | · | this section of the burn, responsible |
| 7:15 | · | for fine-tuning the booster's path, |
| 7:18 | · | adding additional redundancy for |
| 7:19 | · | spontaneous engine shutdowns, SpaceX |
| 7:22 | · | said in its pre-launch overview. The |
| 7:24 | · | booster will then shift down to three |
| 7:26 | · | engines for a final hover above the Gulf |
| 7:28 | · | before the engines are commanded off |
| 7:30 | · | leading to splashdown. SpaceX said, |
| 7:33 | · | quote, "The primary goal on the flight |
| 7:35 | · | test is to measure the realworld vehicle |
| 7:37 | · | dynamics as engines shut down while |
| 7:39 | · | transitioning between the different |
| 7:40 | · | phases. The transition to Starship |
| 7:43 | · | version 3 is a big deal for SpaceX. For |
| 7:46 | · | starters, pad B at Starbase will finally |
| 7:49 | · | come online with the first Starship |
| 7:51 | · | version 3 flight. Over the past year, |
| 7:53 | · | SpaceX has been highlighting various |
| 7:55 | · | pieces of the version 3 rocket. Those |
| 7:57 | · | include the superheavy booster elements |
| 8:00 | · | like the redesigned fuel transfer tube, |
| 8:02 | · | which SpaceX says is roughly the same |
| 8:04 | · | size as a Falcon 9 booster. It also |
| 8:07 | · | includes the redesigned grid fins, which |
| 8:09 | · | SpaceX says are 50% larger and stronger |
| 8:12 | · | and will be flown in a three-f |
| 8:14 | · | configuration instead of using four. The |
| 8:17 | · | mission will also be the debut of the |
| 8:18 | · | Raptor 3 engines, a more powerful and |
| 8:21 | · | agile iteration of what's flying today. |
| 8:24 | · | It's this version of the rocket that |
| 8:26 | · | will be capable of performing orbital |
| 8:27 | · | missions, though the timing of that |
| 8:29 | · | first orbital flight is still being |
| 8:31 | · | nailed down. |
| 8:32 | · | We'll fly V3 first and then if that's |
| 8:36 | · | successful, then we'll probably go |
| 8:38 | · | orbital after that with the with that |
| 8:40 | · | next V3. |
| 8:42 | · | Spaceflight now will have live coverage |
| 8:44 | · | of flight 11 whenever SpaceX is ready to |
| 8:46 | · | launch. Reporting for Spaceflight Now, |
| 8:49 | · | I'm Robinson Smith. |
