Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
the critical crossroads that shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The
Boring Company, and Neuralink. I'm your host, Will.
Walden SpaceX is moving towards the 4th integrated test flight
of Starship, the largest rocket ever constructed.
Though a May launch did not materialize, Elon Musk has
indicated a June 5th launch date on X Preparations are currently
under way at Spacex's Starbase, where a launch rehearsal was
completed on May 20th. A recent blog post by SpaceX
elaborated on the issues encountered during the third
test flight in mid March. The flight managed a successful
separation from the Super Heavy booster and executed a full
Ascend burn, marking the first significant hot staging
milestone where Starship ignites its engines while still attached
to the booster. However, the Super Heavy booster
failed to soft land in the Gulf of Mexico as intended. 13 Raptor
engines were ignited for the boost back burn, but six engines
shut down prematurely, causing insufficient thrust during the
final landing burn contact was lost with the booster at 462
meters altitude just under 7 minutes into the mission.
Flight data analysis pointed to filter blockage in the liquid
oxygen supply lines, which led to a loss of inlet pressure in
the engine oxygen turbo pumps. Despite previous attempts to
address similar issues with hardware modifications, the
problem persisted, necessitating further enhancements to
propellant filtration and engine startup reliability.
Starship itself faced separate issues after reaching orbit.
The spacecraft's attitude control thrusters experience
valve blockages, preventing proper roll control during the
coast phase. Consequently, Starship could not
relight its engines for controlled re entry, resulting
in uncontrolled disintegration as it re entered the atmosphere
with telemetry lost at approximately 65 kilometers
altitude. For the 4th flight, SpaceX plans
to add more control thrusters to improve redundancy and upgrade
hardware to better withstand blockage.
Additionally, the Super Heavy booster will jettison it's hot
stage adapter post boost back burn to reduce mass during the
final flight phase. Spacex's focus is shifting from
achieving orbit to demonstrating reusable capabilities for both
Starship and the Super Heavy booster.
This involves executing a landing burn for a soft
splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico and ensuring a controlled re
entry of Starship, critical steps for proving the rocket's
reusability. The Federal Aviation
Administration FAA is expected to modify Spacex's launch
license for this next flight. Given there was no public safety
impact from the debris of the third flight, a launch license
modification can proceed without formal closure of the mishap
investigation, allowing for a quicker subsequent launch.
The upcoming launch aims to test Spacex's ability to return both
stages of Starship intact. The 4th flight will forgo in
flight tests such as payload Bay door operations or propellant
transfers, focusing instead on trajectory and safe splashdowns.
The hardware and software changes for the 4th flight are
designed to address the failures from the third.
Improvements include additional filtration inside oxygen tanks
and enhancements to the Raptor engine start up mechanisms to
ensure a successful landing burn.
Elon Musk has stated the goal for the upcoming flight is to
demonstrate a virtual tower landing for the Super Heavy
booster in the Gulf of Mexico. If successful, a future flight
may attempt a return to the tower at Starbase.
The ultimate vision for Starship involves not only NASA's Artemis
missions to the Moon, but also Musk's long term plans for Mars
colonization. With £16.7 million of thrust,
Starship's capabilities far exceed any current rockets,
including NASA's Space Launch System.
Spacex's trial and error approach has yielded results,
with the Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule both now integral to
NASA and commercial operations. However, the pressure is on to
ready Starship for NASA's 2026 Moon mission deadline.
The 4th flight will carry no payloads, aiming instead to
gather data on the Starship vehicles performance.
This data is crucial for addressing technical issues
observed in previous flights, such as propellant filtration
and attitude control during re entry.
The strategy to jettison the interstage section between the
booster and ship after separation aims to improve
flight dynamics and reduce mass, thus enhancing the final phase
of the flight. Spacex's engineers are keen to
observe the effects of these changes in real world
conditions. Additional roll control
thrusters and upgraded hardware are expected to enhance
resilience against blockages. This upgrade is a direct
response to the attitude control issues faced during the coast
phase of the third flight. Successful tests of these
enhancements will pave the way for more advanced missions,
including booster landings at launch sites and deployment of
payloads such as Starlink satellites.
As SpaceX continues to iterate on Starship's design, the next
flight represents an important step in demonstrating the
feasibility of a fully reusable launch system.
With further hardware improvements, SpaceX is poised
to address the challenges highlighted in previous tests
and advance toward its goal of making life multiplanetary.
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