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
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clubelon.supercast.com to find out how there's a link in the
show notes. And this episode we're going to
be talking about the SpaceX I FT3 launch, but more
importantly, we're going to be talking about what could
possibly happen during the IFT 4, the integrated flight test
four of the Starship Super heavy rocket that they launched from
Starbase, Texas. Now the IFT 3 launch went really
well. They made it to space.
SpaceX made it to space again and the boost back burn of the
booster was really great. The save stage separation was
absolutely perfect. The booster didn't quite make it
for a soft landing in the Gulf of Mexico, but you know, you win
some, you lose some, right? They tested the payload door.
The mechanism for the payload door seems like it went OK.
It didn't go perfectly. There's a little bit of hitch
there. So I think they have to clean
that up a little bit. The propellant transfer
apparently went really well. They did not do the booster or
sorry, the engine relight while they were in space.
So that's one thing they didn't get done, but that's one thing
that they can do for the IFT 4 launch.
Now, we all know how important, really important it is for
SpaceX to get these missions absolutely perfect, but SpaceX
also knows that they can build upon every single launch.
So I FT1 absolutely obliterated the launchpad.
I have T2 launchpad's fine. I have T3 launchpad's fine.
I have T2 booster blew up right after stage separation.
They lost the ship, they had to destroy it and this time booster
did the boost back burn, did the flip move, didn't blew up right
away and though it didn't do the soft landing in the Gulf of
Mexico, I would say this is a pretty good success story for
the booster this time. Now the ship continued on with
its mission for a long time and almost almost made it back to
the Indian Ocean where they were supposed to splash down, made it
back through the atmosphere. Beautiful video from SpaceX of
this RE entry. You can see the plasma building
up on the heat tiles. Heat tiles seem like they're in
really great shape, so that's another test that they had to
get done. So they are in a really good
spot right now with the Starship, if they've made
adjustments to the Starship for IFT 4, which they more than
likely have. I mean, every single rocket,
there's an iterative process and through software updates,
through hardware upgrades. SpaceX is building the next
generation of starships right now and they're already being
built. Elon says version one is not as
good as version 2. Version 2 will not be as good as
version 3 going forward. Version 4, version 5, but it's
going to be astronomical, if you will, for the future of Space
Flight. Now they needed to get the
propellant transfer done for the NASA emissions.
It's a milestone they needed to do in order to do a transfer
propellant of propellant in orbit.
And they got a small version of that done, which is a a key
milestone for SpaceX and NASA for the upcoming Artemis 3
mission where they will be landing people back on the moon
for the first time in about 50 years.
So it's a huge, huge deal that they did a propellant transfer
demonstration and maybe next round, IFT 4, possibly they're
going to be doing more propellant transfer in the ship
itself. We're not exactly sure what
they're gonna be doing with that, but I'm assuming they're
going to up the ante, up the game a little bit, do more
propellant transfers as they go on, test the systems internally,
test the plumbing. Everything seemed to go well,
though everything seemed to go well.
There was no word that anything went bad with the propellant
transfer. So as of right now is this
recording, everything looks good for the propellant transfer.
Now, like I was saying before, the Bay door, it's a Pez door
and it opens up like a Pez dispenser and the Pez dispenser
dispenses Starlink satellites and it looks like the door
worked OK, not 100%. It looked like a little bit like
a little bit slow closing, little bit of a it's kind of
like like a garage door, you know, like if you pull up on a
garage door, it's like it's sorted to that.
But. It didn't seem like it was bad.
They may just have to work on some mechanical issues, you
know, get it to a place where it's a little bit smoother and
then that'll be completely fixed.
So we may see another another version of that in the next
flight, but also they may add on to that.
So internally in the Starship there needs to be a payload for
these Starlinks. There needs to be a mechanism in
there. To push them down, push them
down, push them down, push them out.
Of the payload door. So possibly we're going to see a
demo of the payload door opening and also the Starlink satellite
Pez dispenser mechanism itself in IFT 4.
Now, is there going to be a Starlink?
There might be one, one or two for this mechanism, but is it
worth it to possibly disrupt the whole mission for a
demonstration of a Starlink exit from the Starship?
I don't know at this point for IFT 4, I think IFT 4 is going to
be the mechanism and the door and that's it.
I don't think we're going to get a Starlink ejection from this
one because it's not worth it. I mean, because if a Starling
gets stuck and starts tumbling out of control, they're going to
have to destroy the whole mission.
And that's not worth it for, you know, for the propellant
transfer, for more NASA missions to get more data from RE
entries. I don't think it's really worth
it until they get the mechanism and the door fixed.
So it's iterative process. I think they're going to do the
door and I think they're going to be doing the mechanism during
this next launch. Like I said before the
propellant transfer, I think they're going to be doing like a
little bit bigger of a demonstration.
I don't think they're going to be.
I think they're going to up the ante a little bit.
Not exactly sure how much they're going to up the ante.
But they do have to move some propellant around when they go
Starship to tanker in orbit. And if they can show that they
are capable of doing that at a smaller scale, we may see a
tanker by the end of 2024 flying into orbit.
And if that's the case, we may also see a propellant transfer
from a tanker to a Starship in 2024, which would be absolutely
mind blowing. I don't know, I don't know if
that's going to be in the first half.
I I'm pretty sure it's going to be in the second-half of 2024,
probably fourth quarter 2024, around September, October,
November, December, you know in that area.
I think they're going to be doing something like that,
something big to top off the year, because like Eli said
before, they want to do 9 launches this year.
And at the rate that they did them, that they've done them so
far IFT 1, IFT 2, and IFT 3. Each one got subsequently
smaller in range, so it took less time for IFT 2 than it did
for FT1 to get ready. And then IFT 3 was less time
than IFT 2. So we're hoping IFT 4, because
there wasn't any real bad damage to anything.
SpaceX is going to do a protocol where they talk to the FAA and
tell them about a they're going to report on what happened and
how they're going to fix it. And then if the FAA signs off on
it, and if SpaceX has already fixed it, then the FAA will sign
off on it immediately. And if SpaceX still has to do
all of the testing for the booster and the ship still, so
it's going to be a little bit, it's going to be a little while,
but it might be two months. I'm.
I'm guessing 2 two to three months before we see another
launch which ift 4. I want to go.
Let's let's try to get me there. Hey, thank.
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