To reach orbit, SpaceX makes thousands of upgrades to Starship-Super Heavy...

well everybody the day has come according to the latest announcement from senior SpaceX officials the Endeavor to launch Starship for the third time is set to take place in February of 2024 with a series of upgrades for Starship as well as super heavy SpaceX is guaranteed to create results like musk said we've got a really good shot of reaching orbit with flight 3 so in today's episode of alphatech we will find out how the upgrades of Starship and super heavy in this third flight are drastically different from the first and second now without further Ado let's Jump Right In in the 22 years since it was founded SpaceX a rocketry firm set up by Elon Musk has become the world's Premier space superpower its inexpensive and reusable Falcon 9 rocket dominates the launch industry The Firm sends more mass into orbit each year than every other company and country on Earth combined however it it still has bigger Ambitions for the world's largest rocket Starship in 2023 Starship underwent two comprehensive tests but both launches ended with a spectacular explosion the dynamic approach is part of the SpaceX ethos diverging from the more conservative methods of its older counterparts SpaceX Embraces iterative design a philosophy centered on frequent attempts and deriving valuable lessons from failures this willingness to iterate and learn from each experience sets SpaceX apart contributing to its reputation for Innovation and adaptability in the ever evolving field of space exploration that's why the third flight scheduled for next month will showcase all the new lessons SpaceX has learned from the two previous launches so what are the latest changes that SpaceX has implemented for the third flight of Starship before delving into specific details we should understand the true cause of the stage H2 Starship explosion which many people have been curious about until now the cause has been disclosed by Elon Musk the director of SpaceX in a recent 2024 update musk said the failure was linked to venting liquid oxygen propellant near the end of the burn that venting he said was needed only because the vehicle was not carrying any payload Flight 2 actually almost made it to orbit he said if it had a payload it would have made it to orbit because the reason that it actually didn't quite make it to or orbit was we vented the liquid oxygen and the liquid oxygen ultimately led to a fire and an explosion that venting would have been unnecessary if the ship had a payload presumably because it would have been consumed by the Raptor engines on the vehicle in order to reach orbit so the explosion is quite normal having starship's second stage with the weight to represent a payload was very necessary for test flights into orbit the company will have to to simulate the payload to test the coordination between thrust parameters for liftoff and precise first stage separation a lighter rocket requires less power whenever engines are involved for test launches depending on the objectives it has to match flight specifications to ensure performance at the correct requirements the explosion is simply a matter of uncontrolled fuel venting combined with friction with the atmosphere at extremely high Ascent speeds and this is not a significant concern for SpaceX therefore the director of SpaceX appears quite confident about the next Starship test flight I think we've got a really good shot of reaching orbit with flight 3 he said the issue causing the Starship explosion has now been clarified and what SpaceX needs for the upcoming launches is Hardware upgrades even if they are small but still hold significant importance for the long-term journey of Starship first and foremost is the upgrade to starship's communication and antennas the incident during the second launch is likely fresh in our memories at an altitude exceeding 148 km the starship's stage 2 momentarily lost signal with the ground system though the disruption was brief any laps in communication during a rocket flight is deemed a safety concern this underscores the meticulous attention given to even the slightest anomalies in the pursuit of secure and reliable space travel to address this issue SpaceX has installed four starlink terminals on the Le W side of the nose cone of ship 28 replacing the single terminal previously integrated with the payload Bay access hatch this modification is expected to enhance the new ship's connectivity during flight complimenting the existing radio antennas next is the modification to the vents located on the top of the nose cone nose cone vent diverters or similar components are often designed to manage the flow of gases or fluids around the nose cone or payload fairing of a spacecraft they may be used to to redirect or control the release of pressure vent gases away from the critical components and ensure stable aerodynamic conditions during ascent and descent instead of two open vents where gas and Vapor could Escape in all directions as seen in ship 25 now starting with ship 28 you will notice a set of cowbell diverters attached to the two large header tank vents these diverters are designed to redirect Vapors downward stabilizing the air flow and preventing issues that could could lead to explosions as for the latest upgrades to super heavy in addition to the improvements introduced since the first Starship launch such as transitioning from a hydraulic thrust vector control system to an electric one implementing hot staging to Aid the stage separation process the upcoming launch of super heavy booster 10 brings noteworthy changes in terms of structure super heavy has unveiled a new design for the common bulkhead featuring flatter domes made from stretch formed panels while we have seen renderings and even Hardware with such features since 2022 it is only with booster 10 and subsequent iterations that SpaceX has truly implemented these changes overall these alterations are largely anticipated given the progression we have witnessed but their full realization begins with booster 10 with increasing confidence in the current design of Starship and super heavy SpaceX now appears to be looking for ways to streamline and simplify manufacturing while simultaneous ly optimizing starship's changes regardless of whether one is dealing with a highly Advanced rocket Factory or a smartphone assembly line part count reduction is a very common and desirable way to reduce both cost and complexity furthermore the change in shape significantly reduces the number of individual weld joints and to a slightly lesser extent the overall length of the welds thus decreasing the potential points of failure another important note is that this change did not involve relocating the Dome on the tank however there are still Minor Adjustments in the total propellant volume in each tank although the impact may be negligible additionally reinforcement measures have been applied to the Dome at the top of the booster which directly interacts with exhaust gases at temperatures in the thousands of degrees C during the second Starship hot staging test the stage separation process went smoothly but super heavy still experienced an explosion the causes were attributed to the fuel shift combined with fuel leakage from the tanks leading to the explosion to address the fuel leakage issue involves researching material resilience and the only way to tackle this is by reinforcing the tanks inside the booster and thickening the upper Dome to prevent potential melting of welds due to excessive heat of course we cannot Overlook the issue of fuel flow in super heavy when it performs The Return To Earth maneuver at that time the booster had to ignite a subset of engines to control the atmospheric re-entry and what probably happened is that almost all the fuel was exhausted this rocket is as you know 60 to 70 Mi up in the sky swinging back and forth and there's not much propellant left in the tanks and so it turns out to be a really challenging ordeal to get the oxidizer and the methane propellant all the way to the bottom into the engine to reactivate therefore the natural propensity of fuel is actually to rise to the top of the vehicle SpaceX will certainly Implement some kind of technical solution to precisely regulate the fuel flow finally the enhancements made in anticipation of the third launch extend to The crucial support infrastructure for this massive rocket the Launchpad was likely not heavily impacted by the second Starship launch leading to repairs that did not consume much of their time recently SpaceX has shifted more attention to the tank farm area where they've initiated the removal of Tanks affected by the first launch new horizontal tanks have been transported and installed pump valves are regularly inspected and replaced as needed these activities are anticipated to be completed before the third Starship launch to ensure optimal results for the flight well that's about it for today's episode we hope you enjoyed it and learned something new please let us know what do you think about all that's happening at SpaceX right now in the comment section down below because your feedback is very important to us and helps us make better videos for you and for that we thank you so much and we hope to see you again next time