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Hey everybody, welcome back to 
the Elon Musk Podcast. 

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This is a show where we discuss 
the critical Crossroads, the 

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Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The 
Boring Company, and Neuralink. 

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And I'm. 
Your host. 

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Will Walden if you want 
uninterrupted episodes of the 

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Elon Musk podcast. 
Please go to club. 

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Elon.supercast.com to find out 
how there's a link in the show 

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notes. 
This morning SpaceX launched 

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their massive Starship rocket 
and they completed 1/2 world 

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journey after launching from 
South Texas Starbase Boca Chica.

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Now this is a low Earth orbit 
launch. 

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It's a crucial capability for 
future launches for Starship, 

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and the launch occurred from 
Starbase at about 8:25 AM 

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Central time. 
This is the third iteration of 

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the full stack Starship rocket 
flight. 

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It's 397 feet tall and its width
is bigger than a 747 jumbo jet 

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is huge. 
It's about 30 feet around and it

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had its take off time adjusted 
to ensure the surrounding waters

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were clear of any vessels. 
So people in boats were hanging 

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out in the no fly zone and 
SpaceX had to take extra little,

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a little bit extra time to move 
those boats. 

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Get those boats out of there. 
They were supposed to launch in 

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about 7:30 AM Central time, so 
8:30 AM my time and Eastern 

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Time. 
And they had to push it back 

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about an hour to get those boats
out of there, which is very 

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crucial, very beneficial to 
those boats because it's very 

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dangerous to be under the giant 
shrapnel tube that is Starship. 

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That is if it didn't work out 
right. 

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But this launch went pretty well
actually. 

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So this flight built on previous
test, there's marked 

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improvements, and now they're 
moving closer to operational 

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satellite launches for the 
Starlink. 

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They're going to accelerate 
Starlink satellite deployments, 

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and this will contribute to the 
company's expansive network of 

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satellites orbiting the Earth 
right now and also accelerate 

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their bottom line. 
They make money from Starlink 

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and if they can deploy hundreds 
of Starlinks more per month, 

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they will have more coverage and
people will be able to get the 

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the coverage more and they'll 
have better coverage for the 

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people on the Earth and 
therefore make more money. 

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So Elon Musk celebrated this 
launch. 

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He's prideful about what 
happened with the team. 

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He said Starship reached orbital
velocity, which is a huge deal 

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for a Starship because the next,
probably the next phase is to 

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get it to orbit. 
IFT 4 to get it to orbit, make 

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sure that everything works 
right. 

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They open up the Hatch door 
today, they did a propellant 

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transfer demonstration. 
They closed the Hatch door. 

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It was a pretty big milestone, a
bunch of little milestones that 

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were pretty big. 
And there's several firsts that 

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happened during this flight, and
one of those was the payload 

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door. 
That happened. 

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The payload door opens and 
closes sort of like a Pez 

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dispenser. 
That's what they call it. 

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And that was that happened for 
about 20 minutes straight, and 

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there was also an internal 
transfer liquid oxygen 

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propellant. 
They're stepping stones towards 

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in orbit fuel refueling, which 
is a necessity for more extended

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space missions, including the 
Artemis missions for NASA lunar 

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landings and also Mars missions.
Now, not all objectives were 

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met, though. 
The Super Heavy booster failed 

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to execute a controlled 
splashdown leading to an 

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uncontrolled descent into the 
Gulf of Mexico, which is you 

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know, they plan for these things
and they'll learn from it. 

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Additionally, a planned Raptor 
engine restart in space did not 

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occur with SpaceX yet to provide
any explanation about why that 

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happened or why they didn't 
happen. 

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So Starship also allows for 
substantial payload 

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capabilities, promising to 
deliver up to 150 metric tons to

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lower Earth orbit and an 
expendable configuration. 

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This capacity nearly double S to
about 300 metric tons, which is 

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an absolutely massive amount of 
things to send to the Earth 

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orbit. 
It's it's incredible how much 

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300 tons, 300 metric tons of 
things are. 

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Now Musk is talking about 
Starship. 

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Recently he envisaged it as a 
cornerstone in his plan for 

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interplanetary human settlement,
particularly Mars, and in the 

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shorter term, Starship will play
a crucial role in satellite 

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deployment in an integral role 
in NASA's Artemis program for 

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lunar exploration. 
Starting with Artemis 3 in about

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2028 probably, the flight 
demonstrated the reliability of 

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the Super heavy booster's 33 
Raptor engines, all of which 

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performed great. 
The thrust powered the rocket on

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its initial climb and subsequent
trajectory over the Gulf of 

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Mexico, now approximately 2 
minutes and 42 seconds post 

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launch, the booster began 
shutting down its engines, 

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initiating a hot staging 
process. 

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Now this technique, which was 
inspired by Russian rocketry, 

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allows for a seamless transition
between stages, avoiding any 

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interrupted thrust. 
So basically the booster is 

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still going up and out and as 
that's happening the stages 

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start separating, but when they 
separate the ship actually 

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ignites its engines and it 
pushes the booster back a little

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bit while also pushing the 
second stage, the Starship 

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vehicle itself up towards orbit 
faster. 

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Now the upper stage is 6 Raptor 
engines then propelled the 

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vehicle to a near orbital 
velocity reaching a peak 

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altitude of 144 miles and like 
Elon said, they did get to 

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orbital velocity. 
Eventually the design trajectory

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ensured that the spacecraft 
would re enter the atmosphere 

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before completing a full orbit, 
preventing it from becoming 

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space debris. 
We don't want that. 

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We don't want it to burn up. 
We want to test all the systems 

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on the way back in. 
Now comparing the 1st 3 orbital 

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test flights of Starship though,
a clear trajectory of 

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improvement is evident. 
The initial flight faced engine 

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failures and caused huge damage 
to the launchpad. 

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The second flight saw no engine 
failures, though a propellant 

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tank led to the Rockets 
destruction. 

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Now also the reliability of the 
Raptor engines has been 

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confirmed over the last two 
flights, addressing earlier 

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concerns regarding their 
performance. 

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This is a huge achievement for 
Space XS rocket technology. 

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It shows that they can continue 
to build these and they're on 

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the right track to build 
hundreds of these. 

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According to Elon Musk now on 
boards, cameras during this 

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flight were unprecedented, 
including the hot staging 

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process and the rocket. 
Its whole journey across the 

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gloom, their valuable insights 
into the rocket's performance 

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and the behavior in various 
phases of the flight for SpaceX,

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but also we got to see them as 
well. 

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So that was a really, really 
great treat for all of us rocket

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fans out there. 
And this flight was a success, 

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but it concluded over the Indian
Ocean where Starship Re entered 

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the Earth's atmosphere and was 
ultimately destroyed. 

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But we also got great video of 
that. 

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So if you haven't seen that yet,
please check it out on Spacex's 

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X account. 
But despite all the failures, it

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was deemed the most successful 
today, fulfilling several 

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crucial objectives. 
And NASA's anticipation for this

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mission stems from $4 billion 
investment in Starship for lunar

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missions. 
The test represents a 

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significant step forwards for 
humans to return to the moon, 

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especially with that propellant 
transfer. 

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That's something they'll have to
do for the Artemis missions to 

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get people back to the moon. 
Now SpaceX has several more 

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starships in production. 
They're continuing to aim for 

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test flights throughout the 
year. 

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Elon said he wants to have nine 
test flights. 

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Realistically, if they can get 
to 9 test flights, that would be

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ridiculous. 
Everybody that I've talked to so

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far in the Space Flight category
has said six at best. 

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More than likely they'll have 
four more this year, but six at 

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the best. 
But if they can get nine, they 

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still have to get approval for 
the 9 as well, which they 

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probably will get approval now 
with each subsequent flight, 

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though, they're going to be 
refining Starships design and 

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capabilities every single time. 
The iterative process is crucial

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for developing the future 
success of Starship, and every 

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single ship will be better, 
faster, more powerful, more 

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reliable, and be able to get 
things to low Earth orbit in a 

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more timely manner. 
And each test is a learning 

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opportunity. 
Hardware is evolving, Software 

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is evolving, The ground systems 
are all evolving every single 

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launch. 
And SpaceX advances its mission 

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of space exploration, and 
they're inching closer to its 

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goals of interplanetary travel 
and also habitation. 

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Every single launch of Starship.
Hey, thank you so much for 

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listening today. 
I really do appreciate your 

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support. 
If you could take a second and 

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hit the subscribe or the follow 
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appreciate it. 
It helps out the show 

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tremendously and you'll never 
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please take care of yourselves 

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and each other and I'll see you 
tomorrow.