Starship Flight 5 Countdown! SpaceX Racing To The Next Launch!

We are so close! The Starship Flight 5 countdown begins as  teams race to finish the remaining work.   SpaceX just finished stacking  its first block 2 Starship;  only the final segment is missing something! We figured out for you what SpaceX  will use its new can crusher 2.0 for. And we know if Starliner will fly  back with or without its crew! Does it have something to do  with the Discovery Channel? My name is Felix. Welcome to What About It!? Let’s dive right in! Starship Updates Work is in full swing at Starbase as teams prepare   for the next launch of the world's most  powerful rocket in just a couple of days.  Thanks to a post by SpaceX, we know that the  hardware for Flight 5 is ready. Booster 12 and   Ship 30 are prepped and ready to launch. But what about the ground hardware? In the last episode, we discussed how SpaceX's  teams had performed repairs on tower A’s ship   quick disconnect, which provides Fuel and  Power to the upper stage before launch.  The rest of the ground infrastructure has also  seen massive amounts of work since this X post.  We also saw even more work being done around  the Chopstick catch arms and the launch Mount. They received substantial  structural integrity improvement   to be able to withstand a catch attempt better. It's possible that most of the launch mount work   consisted of checking to ensure there wasn't any  unexpected damage during the recent slap tests.  And speaking of those slap tests  that bring us up to the chopsticks.  These are crucial pieces of hardware for  the upcoming flight test as they are used   not only to stack the ship and booster onto  the launch mount as we’ve seen so far. Now,   they’re also used as the booster's landing pad. Are you sure? This will be done by performing a maneuver similar  to SpaceX's Falcon 9 landings. However, once the   booster gets close to the launch pad, instead of  deploying Landing legs, it’ll be caught out of   mid-air by the gigantic metal chopstick arms. This is done because having Landing legs big   enough to support the weight of the world's  largest rocket stage and absorb any shock   upon Landing would add a lot of extra weight  to the booster and reduce the payload capacity.  Why add legs if it never lands on rough terrain?  But a maneuver like this has never been attempted;   therefore, SpaceX wants to ensure  they are as prepared as possible.  Because of this, SpaceX has performed many tests,  including the previously mentioned slap on test   tank 14.1, designed to verify the booster  and ground hardware for this crazy maneuver.  SpaceX just finished its most recent round of  testing on the test tank, and now teams can be   seen checking the chopsticks for damage and making  improvements based on the data from the tests.  Some of these improvements include adding  reinforcements to some of the weld lines on the   chopsticks and replacing the cushions that reduce  the force applied to the booster upon catch.  These are just some of the  upgrades we were able to spot.  An even better wording would be that  we spotted the absence of something.  It appears SpaceX has removed one of  the supports used on the chopsticks.  This support may have been  damaged during testing and   needed a replacement, or SpaceX will upgrade it. Either way, we'll likely see SpaceX remove the one   on the other Chopstick before flight 5 as well. It’s fascinating to see SpaceX upgrade the catch   arms so much. All they used them for until now  was stacking work. Now, they find out how they   need to be built to accomplish a catch.  Fingers crossed for the upcoming launch!  Let's move over to our second tower at Starbase  because it's finally a full tower—the last   module was stacked just a few days ago! We talked about it in the last episode,   but with the tower now fully stacked and  us having done another helicopter flyover,   it’s the perfect time to talk about  SpaceX’s work on the tower's internals.  After all, this Tower still needs quite a bit of  work to be completed before it is operational.  This includes finishing the internal piping  and electrical wiring inside the tower,   which will carry fuel and electricity to the ship.  Fortunately, SpaceX decided to pre-install  most of the hardware for this on the ground,   so all that's left is to connect all the  internals between the modules and flesh it out.  The other things still missing from the tower are  the Chopsticks, their hydraulics, and the SQD.  Both Chopsticks and the Carriage  that attaches them to the tower,   allowing them to move up and down, are in  storage at the Sanchez site just down the road.  Ready to be rolled! These will likely be   rolling over to the pad in the next couple  of weeks to be attached to the Tower.  However, the ship quick  disconnect is a different story.  We are still waiting to see any hardware for it,  which is a bit surprising considering its size.  After all, it’s a big and important piece! It's possible that the SQD is stored   somewhere under a cover, preventing  us from seeing it even from above.  However, it's more likely that SpaceX has upgraded  the design to make it more resilient to launches   than the first one. The original version of Tower  A requires significant repairs after each launch.  You can't just launch a rocket with a  tower, though. You need a pad as well,   and we're finally starting to see work  being completed on the new launch mount.  But before I tell you about that,  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! While you're at it, give us a like and become   a WAI supporter. Why? Because you’ll gain  access to a massive amount of extra content!  With it, you get access to daily new  Starbase photo galleries including all   those we’ve posted so far. Satellite, aerial,  and ground photos. More than 400 posts in the   past 2 years alone with up to 7 picture galleries  per week. Insights, chats with me, you name it. Thanks to our Redline Heli Tours flyover, we  can see that teams are finally beginning more   foundation work, starting with these steel plates. But why would SpaceX want to   put steel plates on the ground? The first thing that comes to mind is support.  After all, much of Starbase is just  sand and mud, so adding support beams   is something that SpaceX does. Except they  have already added most of the support beams.  There must be a different reason. Hear me  out. These steel plates serve as protection,   but I don't mean protection from a rocket launch. I mean protection from water.  These barriers allow SpaceX to dig down  without worrying about the water table,   which is only about a foot below the ground. Yep, if you shovel a hole down there that’s a foot   deep, it will fill with water. Try building the  largest rocket launch pads in the world on that.  We saw SpaceX do something similar at Masseys when  they were building their flame Trench, meaning   SpaceX will likely dig out this area before adding  a flame diverter and building the launch mount.  Hopefully, SpaceX will be able to do this quickly  because I am super interested in seeing what   the final design for this will look like. SpaceX uses certain processes in the same   way every time. We do the same here at WAI. Today I want to show you how I work. Being a   content creator is not just about looking cool  in a video, it's more like being a writer and   researcher. All of what I just said about the  space industry needs to be researched. Guess   what the number one software is that I use for  this! It's actually my web browser Opera. Here   are three quick examples why I love Opera: I like  Aria. Its Opera's built-in AI. It enables me to   quickly summarize anything by just marking  it directly on a website. Extremely nice if   you want to research something quickly. I like  popup videos. Such a normal thing on the phone,   so rare on a PC. I can read, write and watch at  the same time. Huge time save. Last but not least,   I love Tab Islands. See this, that's a lot of  tabs, but all are grouped sorted and easily   accessible. Problem solved! Opera does more than  most other browsers. How about a free ad blocker?   It has an integrated music player, support for  Messengers, you name it. All built in. If you   want to love your browser as well, click the link  in the pinned comment or in the description and   download today's sponsor: Opera! Give it a  shot and report back to me how you liked it!  You also gotta love SpaceX’s speed.  Thanks to their progress we can   narrow the pad design down a bit. Because they added these walls,   the flame diverter will likely be partly  underground and run parallel to the launch Tower.  The only question now is whether they will  point off to one side, similar to the static   fire stand at Massey's, meaning SpaceX would  already have experience with a similar design,   or towards both sides, similar to the  diverted used with the Saturn 5 moon rocket.  Which do you think SpaceX will  choose? Leave your comments below,   and let's see who can get it right! We’re able to see and learn all these things   because we’re able to get a bird's eye view. Did you know you can take a helicopter ride over   Starbase and get the same views as in our videos? Visit redlineheli.com/felix to book your   helicopter ride over Starbase with $25  Off! Give it a try! It’s unforgettable!  Moving over to the build site now,  SpaceX teams have been hard at   work on everything but Flight 5's Hardware. As for once, we don't see any work being done   on either the Booster or the Ship for the upcoming  flight. That’s a great sign. They’re simply done.   But, of course, there is more flight Hardware  than just that of flight 5 at the build site.  Ship 31, which is expected to be the ship  for flight 6, has been seeing a lot of work,   especially around its heat shield. Teams  have continued working to replace the old   heat tiles with the newer, stronger ones and  add the secondary ablative layer beneath.  Upgrades! However, instead of losing tiles,   ship 31 began gaining them again. I wish that would happen with me.  This is surprising, as when ship 30 had its heat  shield upgraded, SpaceX removed nearly all the   tiles before they began adding them back. This time, SpaceX decided to do things   a bit differently. Remember how I pointed  out the slow progress in the last episode?  Over the past couple of weeks, we saw teams  removing tiles near the tip of the nose cone   and the weld seams between the Barrel sections. SpaceX’s Starship upper and lower stages are   made from separate sections,  also called barrel sections.  We believe SpaceX started with these  because, unlike the rest of the tiles,   which are attached with pins welded directly  to the body, these sections are glued on.  Makes them hard to remove. It's interesting to see that SpaceX   has begun adding these tiles back already, and  there could be a few possible reasons for that.  One could be that they had problems installing  all the tiles back at once on the previous ship,   so they decided to change the method a bit. The other possibility is tile shortages. Again, no similarities. These new version 2 tiles, which are differently  made and double the strength, only got designed   recently, and SpaceX likely needed to work many  things out before starting mass production.  So, SpaceX may have a shortage  of tiles with pin mounts.  This may explain another odd occurrence  that was just spotted at Starbase.  To see what that is, we'll have  to move on from ship 31 to its   youngest sibling and the first of the  Next Generation Starships, Ship 33.  We've watched this ship fly up since its first  section was rolled into Mega Bay 2 on July 24th.  High-speed hull assembly! One  month almost to the day later,   SpaceX has already finished it! In record time! The engine section, the final section of the   process, was rolled from the Star Factory to  Mega Bay 2, where it was attached to the rest   of the ship and lifted onto the weld stand. So we have it! The first fully stacked Block   2 Starship. The only things missing  now are a bit of internal work,   the aft flaps on the bottom of the ship, and  a few tiles… actually, quite a few tiles.  This finally brings me to why I think  SpaceX might have a tile shortage.  For ship 33, all previously stacked  segments almost had a complete heat   shield, with the only missing tiles being  along the weld lines between segments.  Until this engine section because  it's missing nearly all of them.  Interestingly, it still has all  of the pins to attach the tiles.  SpaceX may simply not have enough  tiles to attach to this aft section,   but they still wanted to stack it. SpaceX's choice to stack this   segment without tiles could still have another  reason, but the shortage seems plausible to me.  I’d love to know your thoughts. Why do you  think SpaceX has avoided pinned tiles on ships   31 and 33? Let me know in the comments. Ship 33 is an almost complete overhaul,   with likely thousands of upgrades, big  and small, compared to previous versions.  A massive step forward! But all of those changes  needed to be designed. Where’s all that happening?   Let's look at how the place where future designs  will be made is coming along: The office building.  Thanks to our flyover, we can see that this  building has undergone a massive amount of work.  In just a few weeks, SpaceX has built almost the  entire support structure for the connector between   the office building and the star factory. We can also see that the office building   has received nearly all its external  glass, with only the top row remaining.  Looking over a bit, we can see the plot of land  that SpaceX recently acquired from a local who   trolled them for 3 years is already in use, acting  as storage for pieces of the office connector.  Hopefully, soon, Engineers will be able to  use this space to design things like the   Lunar Starship and possibly the first ships  to go to Mars. Starbase has a bright future.  SpaceX is making the world's most advanced  rocket, but they can't do everything on paper.  When a new design is created, or an old one is  changed, it needs to be tested. Verification!  That’s why SpaceX has invested so much time  in the infrastructure at Massey's test site,   which SpaceX uses to test ideas and designs and  determine whether they are actually improvements   or the wrong path to a multi-planetary future. Developing something new like a Starship is like   navigating a labyrinth for the engineers. There  are many wrong paths, and only one or two leading   to success. That’s why these test articles are  also called pathfinders. They find the path.  Recently, SpaceX used Massey’s  to perform a cryogenic proof   test on a new Pathfinder called test tank 16. It’s likely being used to verify the designs for   the Block 2 Starship upper stages and Boosters. After being filled with cryogenic liquids to   ensure it could hold the pressure, it  was rolled back to the production yard,   where teams inspected it. And now it's been rolled   back to Massey’s because it's time for some  structural tests or can-crushing, as we call it!  Once it arrived at Massey's, it was lifted into  SpaceX's new can crusher 2.0, and unlike last   time when it was cryotested in there, this time,  it had the lid lifted on top and pistons attached.  This can crusher has yet to crush any cans. Test  tank 16 has the honor of being its first victim.  Over the past few months, this can  crusher has been a mystery as we watched   SpaceX build some sort of cage around it. Currently, this cage is three rings tall,   with a fourth ring on the ground  and likely a fifth to come later.  SpaceX only needs the first two rings  to test this smaller pathfinder.  Now, we can finally understand why  SpaceX built this. Check this out!  Unlike when the can crusher lid was used on  the previous can crusher, it now has hydraulic   Pistons directly attached to it. These fit perfectly into mounts   that are on the upright beams. Having these Pistons up here   allows SpaceX to simulate horizontal forces  that a ship or booster might experience,   for example, on reentry or during High winds. These forces may be less than those experienced   vertically upon launch, but because  of the direction of the forces, they   are still very significant and could pose a risk. It’s pretty simple. If you want to break a stick,   you shouldn’t try to squish it  from top to bottom, right? You’d,   of course, break it along the long side. On previous flights, especially the first one,   both Ship and Booster proved remarkably  resilient to various forces, including   those involved in cartwheels. Top scores! These spins were not intentional but they   showed how much headroom SpaceX  has on structural integrity.  However, SpaceX wants to reduce the weight of  the flight hardware to increase the payload,   right? This can be achieved by removing  unnecessary reinforcements, for example.  On a perfect flight, it doesn’t need to  withstand cartwheels, even if it’s fun to   watch. Aerobatics is not the goal here. However, reducing these structural   components risks lowering the structure  too much, so testing is highly important.  In other words, the goal is to  shave as much material off the   rocket as possible without it exploding. Rocket Engineering! Not science… sorry,   science people. Finally, there’s no real news  on a possible launch date for flight 5 yet.   SpaceX is ready, and they’re waiting for the FAA.  We’ll update you as soon as there is any news! Let's now look at one of Spacex's  other endeavors, Polaris Dawn!  We discussed this mission quite a  bit in previous episodes. Still,   for those who are unfamiliar, Polaris Dawn Is  the second fully commercial crew Dragon flight   funded and led by billionaire Jared Isaacman. The first of these missions was Inspiration 4,   which flew back in September 2021. After Inspiration 4, Isaacman wanted   more and decided to help SpaceX with three  more flights. The Polaris program was born. Cool, so we've got another  commercial flight in space!  But this isn't just any commercial flight. Polaris Dawn also plans on being the first   commercial spacewalk using SpaceX’s own  extravehicular suit for the first time.  A major step beyond just rocket design. SpaceX  is quietly acquiring all the knowledge needed   for its own astronaut corps. It’s developing its  own crewed flight department separate from NASA.  The EVA should happen any day now. I can  guarantee we'll cover it right here if and   when it does happen. Subscribe to get notified. Additionally, Polaris Dawn will travel the   furthest any human has flown since Apollo 17 in  1972 and will conduct many medical and health   studies in orbit and during the EVA. There's a lot to look forward to   with this mission. Best of luck to  Isaacman and crew; you got this Rook!  SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has revolutionized  the space industry and human space flight.  Having flown 14 times, including Polaris Dawn,  safely carrying 54 people to orbit, Crew Dragon   has shown its capabilities. But soon, Crew Dragon  will add another accomplishment to its belt,   bringing back more people than it brought up. But how can that be possible? I mean… are they   multiplying up there…? Wait, what is this about  exactly? We’ve arrived at the hook, everyone!  This has nothing to do with the Discovery  Channel, if you get what I mean. It's   possible because SpaceX will be bringing  down Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams   from the International Space Station after  they were flown up on Boeing's Starliner.  That means the troublemaker will be returning  to Earth without a crew because, on the 24th,   NASA announced that they believe the crew capsule  is outside their safety margins for trusting it to   bring the crew back to Earth. Good call!  Over the past few months, Starliner's  situation has become quite a big story   after its first crewed launch, which  encountered massive complications.  Five of its thrusters went out during docking,  and multiple helium leaks were detected.  This caused NASA to extend the initially  planned mission from a few days to a few   weeks and then a few months before finally  deciding that Starliner was unfit to bring   back the crew it had brought up. It is important to point out,   however, that NASA's safety margins are very  slim. They require only a 1 in 270 chance of   critical failure during a flight. This means that if Starliner had a   1 in 269 chance of failure, NASA would  not allow its astronauts to fly on it.  The biggest problem was that Boeing’s  Engineers couldn’t figure it out either. The   exact cause of these failures is still unknown. This means it would also have been difficult for   NASA to properly determine the risks associated  with the craft, which explains its decision to   bring its astronauts back on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Butch and Suni will stay on the station for over   six more months before flying back with Crew 9. This is not a good look for Boeing, which has   not exactly had the best few years. Looking just at its space division,   Boeing is looking for a buyer for  ULA, of which they currently own half.  The SLS Moon rocket is extremely over budget and  behind schedule, according to a new report from   the Office of Inspector General. While tracking  the development of the block 1B version of SLS,   the report found that Boeing's lack  of experience caused the situation.  And now, Starliner, which has likely lost Boeing  billions of dollars at this point and caused   extreme amounts of reputational damage, will have  its crew "rescued" by its competitor's capsule.  This is not exactly what we’d like to  see; NASA sees it the same way. On top,   Crew 9 will have to fly with two  astronauts less than initially planned.  Boeing used to be at the cutting  edge of Aerospace on Earth, in orbit,   and even beyond. Its rockets brought us  to the Moon and won the US the space race.  We can only hope that this trend Boeing has  been going on over the past decade or so can   be reversed and that this once Beacon  of innovation can regain the trust of   not only NASA but the public as well. Otherwise,  Starliner might actually end up on the Discovery   Channel. Just not as a success story. That’s it for today! Remember to smash   that like button. Subscribe for more awesome  content! This is what fuels the Algorithm and   helps us immensely! Check out our epic shirts in  your favorite space nerd store! Link is in the   description. And if you want to train your space  IQ even further, watch this video next to continue   your journey! Thank you very much for watching,  and I’ll see you again in the next episode!