Elon Musk just confirmed his bold plan
with Starship super heavy once again but
unlike before this goal is now closer
than ever the super heavy booster can be
used more frequently than the ship as it
returns in about 6 minutes and can
theoretically be ready for flight in an
hour musk said in a tweet recently an
hour at first blush this sounds totally
insane right how does one catch a
falling rocket with a launch Tower we
can arrive at an answer by exploring how
spacex's mechazilla operates today
clearly SpaceX has adeptly utilized star
bases mechazilla Tower and arms to
swiftly stack a Starship upper stage at
top a super heavy booster with
remarkable skill and speed SpaceX has
stacked ship 25 and booster 9 a total of
six times matching the combined
stackings of ship 20 and B4 and ship 24
and B7 beyond the frequency the stacking
process itself has notably improved gone
are the days of waiting nearly 2 hours
to witness the Assembly of a 120 M High
Starship SpaceX now accomplishes this in
just a third of the time showcasing
remarkable efficiency witness the
impressive alignment process in this
time-lapse video capturing every crucial
step in stacking Starship 25 and booster
9 the Precision with which the crane and
connectors maneuver it in small
increments is incredible these
advancements solidify the feasibility of
the Starbase launch Tower concept the
tail continues focusing on The Saga of
this colossal Chopstick capturing its
fly standing at a towering 145 M the
core structure of the launch and Landing
Tower is crafted from robust steel among
its features are three mechanical arms
one of which functions as a rapid
disconnect arm serving as a propellant
umbil iCal connection and a mid rocket
stabilizer the other two arms work in
tandem joining forces to ins snare
incoming spaceships these colossal
Chopsticks measuring 36 m in length are
tubular steel beams mechanically the
arms move up and down on a rail track
using a robust winch system akin to an
oil rigs mechanism for lowering and
retracting drills from the ocean floor
the draw cables powered by four massive
electric motors at the tower's base
generate a combined 6,000 horsepower the
hydraulic cylinders control the
Chopsticks pinching motion concerning
the coordination between the booster and
Chopsticks the final Landing burn
initiates at an altitude of
approximately 1,800 M mirroring the
starting point for Falcon 9 speaking of
similar to Falcon 9 super heavy descends
at an angle maximizing surface area for
atmospheric interaction creating drag or
lift git fins Aid in stabilizing the
flight diverging from Falcon super heavy
Dey de loys nine engines during the
landing burn attached to a motorized
gimbal system for steering at 800 M six
engines shut down leaving three Raptors
to straighten and control the Rockets
hover as the tower arms shift away from
the launch Mount at about 65 m above
ground two engines cease with one L
shutting down right as the Chopsticks
reach for two pins under the grid fins
super heavy will be decelerating rather
slowly and appears to hover for almost
10 seconds near the end that slow
cautious descent and even slower
touchdown may be necessary because of
how incredibly accurate super heavy has
to be in order to land on a pair of hard
points with inches of lateral margin for
error and maybe a few square fet of
usable surface area the challenge is a
bit like if SpaceX for some reason may
Falcon boosters land on two elevated
Ledges about as wide as car tires aside
from demanding accurate rotational
control even the slightest lateral
deviation would cause the booster to
topple off the pillars and in the case
of super heavy fall about 100 ft onto
Concrete where it would obviously
explode after all that if it can be
immediately lowered onto the launch
Mount after a landing the booster can be
secured DET tanked inspected refueled
and launched again in an hour as musk
declare notably the det tanking process
is especially important for Starship
since it will still contain excess
methane after it lands methane isn't
allowed to be vented into the atmosphere
so SpaceX plans to pump the leftovers
back into the tank farm for it to be
recondensed and used for the next flight
it is unclear whether this is even
possible but in theory a super heavy
booster could descend under the power of
a subset of its 33 engines come very
nearly to a hover and arms from the
launch Tower could extend to grab the
booster this does sound like a rather
crazy maneuver but a few years ago so
did dispatching an autonomous drone ship
into the Atlantic Ocean to catch falling
Rockets this is one of the keys to
success for musk and his leadership
style he asks his employees to do nearly
impossible things such as building a
fully reusable orbital launch system and
then he gives them the freedom to
experiment and sometimes to fail the
idea sounds like it just might be crazy
enough to work we hope that the first
attempt can take place this year of 2024
if it manages to get free of regular FAA
investigations 2024 will be a big year
for Starship there are several parts of
the Starship slum Landing system that
still need testing first up is building
even more reliability into the system to
ensure its safety for the crew to fly on
it second and most importantly SpaceX
needs to develop and demonstrate the
technology for inspace refueling this
includes the transfer of cryogenic
propellants between spacecraft as many
as 15 times something that has never
been done before SpaceX plans to
demonstrate a basic version of this
technology by transferring some
propellant into starship's header tanks
as soon as flight three while small it
is still a big step in getting Starship
ready to support Artemis anticipation is
high for a multitude of groundbreaking
Starship test flights in the year of
2024 laying the foundation for
unprecedented achievements in space
exploration setting Starship aside
momentarily following a groundbreaking
2023 SpaceX is gearing up to commence
the new year with the launch of a brand
new falcon9 booster from vandenbberg
space Force Base California slated for
early evening hours today dubbed b1082
this core marks the addition of the 15th
Falcon 9 core in active operational
service SpaceX is reportedly aiming for
as many as 144 launches an average of 12
per month before the end of 2024 an
ambitious Prospect even at its current
Cadence the Hawthorne California
headquartered organization has managed n
n launches per consecutive month since
August of 2023 if that flight rate
continues at its present Pace with no
uplift 2024 should at least hit 118
missions by next New Year's Eve should
today's 4-Hour window be missed another
group of T minus 0 opportunities will
open at 5:51 p.m. Pacific Wednesday
abort b1082 for the mission are 21
starlings tipping the scales at 16,800
kg which will be released into space
about 62 minutes after liftoff although
SpaceX reveals precious little detail of
a forthcoming manifest no earlier than
dates for two more January missions are
definitely known twice flown Dragon
Freedom will launch from historic path
39a at Florida's Kennedy Space Center no
earlier than 506 p.m. Eastern on the
17th for axium Space Incorporated all
private ax3 crew carrying mission to the
International Space Station followed by
north of Grumman corporation's ng20
sickness cargo ship named in honor of
NASA astronut and physicist Dr Patty
Hillyard Robertson from space launch
complex 40 at Cape canaval space force
base on the 29th also Bas line for early
January is Sweden's 1500 kg Azon 3 High
throughput Broadband Communications
satellite destined for insertion into
geostationary orbit at a mean altitude
of 35,9 KM and judging from starling's
impressive Cadence over the last half
year averaging 6 to eight launches per
month of these flat packed internet
communications settle ites between July
and December it can be expected that a
busy January indeed lies ahead well
folks that's about it for today's
episode thank you so much for tuning in
and if you want to support our Channel
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content sounds exciting right in any
case we still appreciate your generosity
and your passion for space exploration
as always this is Kevin from great
SpaceX wishing you a wonderful New Year
and reminding you to always keep looking
up
