Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk podcast this.
Is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads, the shape
SpaceX. Tesla X, The Boring Company, and
Neuralink and I'm. Your host.
Will Walden if you want uninterrupted episodes of the
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notes. As part of NASA's Artemis
campaign to return humans to the moon for the benefit of all,
NASA is working with SpaceX to develop the company's large,
gigantic Starship human landing system, the HLS, which will land
astronauts near the moon's South Pole during the Artemis 3 and
Artemis 4 missions. And on March 14th, SpaceX
launched the third integrated flight test of its Super Heavy
booster and Starship upper stage.
This is an important milestone toward providing NASA with a
Starship HLS for its Artemis missions.
A complement of 33 Raptor engines fueled by super cooled
liquid methane and liquid oxygen powered this Super Heavy booster
with Starship stacked atop from the company's Starbase Orbital
launchpad at 8:25 AM CDT. Now Starship using 6 Raptor
engines separated from the Super Heavy booster, employing a hot
staging technique to fire the engines before separation and
approximately 3 minutes into the flight in accordance with the
flight plan. Now this was the 3rd flight test
of the integrated Super Heavy Starship system.
Now, with each flight test, SpaceX attempts increasingly
ambitious objectives for Starship to learn as much as
possible for future mission systems development.
The ability to test key systems and processes and flight
scenarios like these integrated tests allows both NASA and
SpaceX to gather crucial data needed for the continued
development of Starship HLS. The test accomplished several
important firsts that will contribute to the development of
Starship. For Artemis lunar landing
missions, the spacecraft reaches expected orbit and Starship
completed the full duration ascent burn.
An objective closely tied to future Artemis missions is a
transfer of thousands of pounds of cryogenic propellant between
internal tanks during the spacecraft's coast phase as part
of NASA's Space Technology Missions Directorate 2020
Tipping Point Awards. Now the propellant transfer
Demonstration operations were completed and the NASA SpaceX
team is currently reviewing the flight data that was received
during those tests. This Tipping point technology
demonstration is one of more than 20 development activities
that NASA is undertaking to solve the challenges of using
cryogenic fluids during the future missions.
NASA A key step forward understanding how super cool
propellant slosh is within these tanks when the engines are shut
down, and how that movement effects Starship stability while
in orbit. Engineers will study flight test
data to assess the performance of thrusters that control
starship's orientation in space. We're also interested to learn
more about how the fluids movement within the tanks can be
settled to maximize propellant transfer efficiency and ensure
Raptor engines receive needed propellant conditions to support
restart in orbit. Now, storing and transferring
cryogenic propellant in orbit has never been attempted on this
scale before, but this is a game changing technology that must be
developed and matured for science and exploration missions
at the Moon, Mars, and those that will venture even deeper
into the solar system. Now NASA's Artemis program, the
agency will land the first woman, the first person of color
and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar
surface and prepare for human expeditions to Mars.
And commercial human launch systems and landing system are
critical to deep space exploration along with the SLS
rocket, Orion spacecraft, advanced space suits, Rovers,
exploration ground systems and also the Gateway space station.
Now for the second time during this flight, all 33 Raptor
engines on the Super Heavy booster started up successfully
and completed a full duration burn during ascent and Starship
executed its second successful hot stage separation, powering
down all but three of Super Heavy's Raptor engines and
successfully igniting the six second stage Raptor engines
before separating the vehicles. Now following separation, the
Super Heavy booster successfully completed its flip move and
completed a full boost back burn to send it towards its
splashdown point in the Gulf of Mexico.
Super Heavy successfully lit several engines for its first
ever landing burn before the vehicle experienced a Rudd,
which is a rapid unscheduled disassembly.
Now. The boosters flight concluded at
approximately 462 meters in altitude and just under 7
minutes into the mission. Starship's six second stage
Raptor engines all started successfully and powered the
vehicle to its expected orbit, becoming the first Starship to
complete its full duration ascent burn and while coasting,
Starship accomplished several of the flight tests additional
objectives clearly the opening and closing of its payload door
or the Pez dispenser if you will, and initiated A propellant
transfer demonstration. Starship did not attempt its
planned on orbit relight of a single Raptor engine due to
vehicle roll rates during coast. Our results from this
demonstration will come after post flight data review is
complete. Starship went on to experience
its first ever entry from space, providing valuable data on
heating and vehicle control during hypersonic RE entry.
Now live views of this were made possible due to Starlink
terminals operating on the Starterm.
They're absolutely brilliant views, you have to check them
out on Space XS X page now. The flight test conclusion came
during entry with the last telemetry signals received via
Starlink from Starship. At approximately 49 minutes into
the mission, and while the team receives and reviews the data
collected from the flight, Starship and Super Heavy
Vehicles are preparing for upcoming flights.
As they seek to increase launch cadence throughout the year,
they want to do up to 9 launches this year.
Now, this is a rapid, iterative development approach.
You build it, you fly it, something happens, you figure
something out, you learn from that, then you fly the next one.
It's the basis for all of Spacex's major innovative
advancements, including Falcon, Dragon, and Starlink.
It's called recursive improvement, and it's essential
in the way that SpaceX builds spacecraft.
They want to get Starship into Earth orbit, they want to
transport humans, they want it completely reusable, and they
want to help humanity return to the moon and ultimately travel
to the Red Planet on Mars. Hey, thank you so much for
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