Hey everybody, welcome back to the show.
In today's episode, we're going to be talking about SpaceX and
Starship program. And after the initial Starship
launch ended in a dramatic explosion above the Gulf of
Mexico, the company's forward momentum has stalled on the
launch front. Three months have passed since
the incident, and the company's yet to submit a final accident
report to the Federal Aviation Administration or the FAA.
Now this indicates that the rocket program remains grounded
for now, and a second launch may not happen this summer, unlike
what Elon Musk has said now overseeing the investigation
into April 20th launch. The FAA stated on Wednesday that
it still awaits the critical report that will identify the
necessary corrective measures SpaceX must undertake before
gaining clearance for another launch from Boca Chica Starbase,
Texas, And an FA spokesperson avoided conjecture regarding the
potential completion date for the agency's investigation,
explaining that public safety and actions yet to be taken by
SpaceX will dictate the timeline.
Now, according to the FA, any return to flight operations will
only be sanctioned when it is determined that any system,
process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect
public safety or any other aspect of the operator's
license. Now, they emphasize that the
mishap investigation is still ongoing, though now adding to
the situation's complexity. SpaceX is also trying to modify
its current license, which was suspended after the first
launch. Now, despite these regulatory
roadblocks, though, Elon Musk and SpaceX are projecting a
swift return to launching operations.
The company, which is held privately, has been showcasing
repairs to its orbital launch mount now.
This facility sustained significant damage from
starships first launch, raising public safety and environmental
concerns. The rocket, after a chaotic
liftoff and loss of control, was annihilated over the Gulf of
Mexico and while dealing with the aftermath, SpaceX has made
enhancements to its launch site. Among the new additions is a
steel plate designed to shield the pad in future test launches.
Last week, the company shared on Twitter that had transported a
new Super heavy booster prototype to the pad for testing
ahead of Flight A continuing its updates.
On Monday, SpaceX revealed that it's completed propellant load
tests on two different boosters. Booster 9 and Booster 10 images
displayed the boosters glazed with frost after being filled
with liquid methane and liquid oxygen.
The absence of a completed investigation report and the FAE
approval for another launch suggests that Musk's timeline
for resuming test flights may be overly optimistic.
Musk, who's also responsible for Tesla, The Boring Company,
Neurolink Operations, as well as Twitter, has stated on June 13th
that the Starship would be ready for another launch within 6 to 8
weeks, aligning with the end of July or early August time frame.
A SpaceX Starship, the world's most powerful rocket, was
launched from its Starbase facility at Boca Chica on April
20th of this year. It managed to clear the launch
tower, which Elon Musk said was a hope at most and at recent
altitude, of 24 miles above Earth before culminating in an
uncontrolled explosion over the Gulf of Mexico.
At liftoff though, the Rockets 33 Raptor engines fired up, but
there were only 31 that were actually firing.
And they also fired chunks of concrete and metal from the
launch site across 385 acres, igniting wildfires and kicking
up a dust storm of pulverized concrete.
Scattering debris possibly up to 6.5 miles away from the launch
site must conceded the launch had caused an unforeseen rock
tornado under the Starship super heaviest booster stage during
liftoff, and despite the havoc, he insisted there were no
significant environmental damage.
And since the launch, SpaceX has progressed.
At the launch compound has been closely monitored, and since the
three months this Starship debuted, SpaceX has made a huge
amount of progress on the hardware of the boosters and the
ships, and also on the launch site, ground systems down a
Starbase Boca Chicas, Texas. Now, despite the optimism,
SpaceX still has legal hurdles to overcome before resuming
flight testing from Starbase. Along with the FAA, SpaceX is a
codefendant in a federal lawsuit contesting the FA A's initial
approval of the Starship launch program, and the suit was filed
by environmental and indigenous groups that challenge the FA A's
review and approval of Spacex's plans.
The plaintiffs are pushing for the agency to carry out an
environmental impact statement, a process that could potentially
ground the rocket program for many years to come.
Now, the suit alleges that the F approval violated federal laws,
including the National Environmental Policy Act, due to
an adequate consideration of potential harm to wildlife.
The FA and SpaceX have largely denied these allegations and
court filings and have requested the lawsuit's dismissal.
SpaceX is the most valuable aerospace and defense company in
the United States, and the company has asked to intervene
in the lawsuit, citing a direct subsequential economic interest.
Now Musk has stated the SpaceX has invested 3 billion dollars
since 2014 and developing the Starbase facility, and the
facility is pivotal to the company's growth though, with
plans to use Starship for launching more Star Link
satellites into orbit and returning NASA astronauts to the
moon with the Artemis 3 program. Musk also has ambitions to use
the reusable rocket to transport human beings to Mars for the
first time. Now, after the initial Starship
launch, Musk stood edit this out.
After the initial Starship launch, Musk said he expected to
spend an additional $2 billion on the rocket program, hoping to
attempt at least five launches by the end of 2023.
However, the test is in limbo right now and NASA has actually
voiced concerned over Spacex's ability to have its lunar Lander
version of Starship ready and time to carry astronauts to the
moon According to the space agency schedule and early June,
NASA indicated that it's Artemis 3 moon mission originally
planned for late 2025 is likely to be postponed until 2026 due
to Spacex's complications with the Starship program.
NASA's Associate Administrator Jim Free commented on the
situation. They said with the difficulties
the SpaceX has had, that's really concerning now.
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