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 Elon Musk podcast, please go to
clubelon.supercast.com to find out how there's a link in the
show notes SpaceX is advancing towards the third flight
readiness of its Starship, having positioned both the
Booster 10 and Ship 28 at the launchpad, signaling
preparations for an upcoming wet dress rehearsal, or AWDR.
This step is crucial for the company as it aims for a
Starship to reach orbital capabilities.
Now the process began with Booster 10 being transported to
the launch site of February 8th and mounted later that evening.
Subsequently, Ship 28 was moved toward the launchpad during the
night of February 10th and placed a top Booster 10 in the
early hours of February 11th. Now, despite the delay, SpaceX
succeeded in assembling the full stack within a time frame of
less than 56 hours, demonstrating that they're very
efficient and it's required for the planned increase in Starship
launches in the future. Now, modifications were noted on
Booster 10 while it was housed in the Mega Bay, particularly at
the base of the liquid oxygen tank of the locks tank where new
Weld lines were observed, likely for the addition of slosh
baffles designed to stabilize the liquid propellant.
Now, these changes might be in response to the issues
encountered with Booster 9, although SpaceX has not
officially commented on the cause of that incident.
Now, the upcoming schedule includes 3 Rd. closures from
February 12th to February 14th, each from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM
CST, during which SpaceX plans to conduct both a partial and a
full wet dress rehearsal with Booster 10 and also Ship 28.
Now the WDRA standard procedure in spaceflight involves loading
the rocket with propellants and executing a complete launch
countdown without actually igniting the engines, followed
by a complete DE tanking of the full vehicle.
Now for previous flights, SpaceX has successfully completed wet
dress rehearsals, incorporating various upgrades to the tank
farm that could potentially reduce propellant loading time
significantly and post wet dress rehearsal.
The feature actions for this particular stack remaining
uncertain, with some necessary installations and adjustments
pending, including the possible reinstallation of stiffener
rings for static fire tests of the Raptor vacuum engines and
unexpected destacking of Ship 28 occurred on February 12th though
due to concerns with the ship clamps necessitating repairs
before restacking the ship for the wet dress rehearsal, tests
and enhancements have been made to the orbital launchpad or the
OLP in anticipation for Flight 3, including the removal of
scaffolding and alignment rigs and the addition of protective
shielding to prevent concrete erosion.
Now the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration has yet
to close the MISHAP investigation from OFT to the
last flight of Starship, which is a prerequisite for the
license modification for Starship's next flight.
And looking forward to Flight 3, though, SpaceX is preparing the
next booster, Booster 11 and Ship 29 for Flight 4, with
indications that Booster 11 May already have its engines
installed, poised for a static fire test, hopefully soon.
Now, Ship 28 is also in the process of receiving its
engines, the recent activities observed at Megaby 2 suggesting
that the vehicle is nearing readiness for flight.
Now for Flight 5, preparations are underway with Booster 12 and
Ship 30, with the former being equipped with engines and the
latter being prepped for eventual assembly and testing.
Now, Flight 6 updates include the completion of Booster 13
stacking and the ongoing heat shield work on Ship 31,
highlighting the continuous progress in Spacex's Starship
program. The progress towards Flight 3's
launch readiness, marked by the full stack at the pad, and the
planned wetdress rehearsal, show that SpaceX is ready for flight
soon, hopefully within three weeks.
As Elon Musk has just said, and with the FAA pending approval
and the completion of necessary testing and modifications,
SpaceX is steadily progressing towards the imminent launch of
Flight 3. Hey, thank you so much for
listening today. I really do appreciate your
support. If you could take a second and
hit the subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast
platform that you're listening on right now, I'd greatly
appreciate it. It helps out the show
tremendously and you'll never miss an episode, and each
episode is about 10 minutes or less to get you caught up
quickly. And please, if you want to
support the show even more, go to patreon.com/stage Zero and
please take care of yourselves and each other.
I'll see you tomorrow.