Unexpected! NASA just SAID this after Starship flight 7 blow up in the air...

if SpaceX Engineers are the first to immediately begin analyzing Starship after its flight then NASA's the second entity most interested in the matter thus following the conclusion of Starship flight 7 and hearing the explanation from SpaceX and Elon Musk regarding the reasons behind the explosion of the Starship upper stage NASA's response is what we are most eager to know without keeping you waiting anymore let's find out on today's episode of alphat tech and make sure you hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on any of our episodes our next Go 150k Subs of course we're trying to get better in every way but we really need your support still thank you so much so SpaceX launched its massive super heavy Starship rocket on the seventh test flight Thursday successfully catching the first stage booster back at the pad however it lost the nextg Starship upper stage which broke apart while ascending into space debris from the destroyed Starship temporarily disrupted traffic departing from Miami Florida according to Federal officials this highlights that what happened to the second stage of Starship poses concerns for public operations beyond the designated danger zones around the launch site this of course has led to an FAA investigation into the launch and we're going to have to wait for updates from the agency to see what happens next despite this or criticism from some uninformed about space exploration SpaceX and Elon have received congrats for the success of this flight notably the most prominent of messages came from NASA Bill Nelson the outgoing n NASA admin post a congratulatory message to SpaceX shortly after the flight wrapped up congratulations to SpaceX on Starship 7 test flight and the second successful booster catch space flight is not easy it's anything but routine that's why these tests are so important each one bringing us closer on our path to the moon and onward to Mars through emis Elon later shared Nelson's message and expressed his gratitude demonstrating to everyone the strong relationship and mutual trust between the two largest space organ ganizations in the world to be honest while this marks the seventh fully integrated launch of this rocket spacex's Starship program is still developing past successes don't always guarantee more in the future and we've seen this with flight six where the tower cancelled the attempt to catch the booster despite flight five showing an almost perfect catch when testing new technology of which there's plenty on every Starship flight anything can go wrong from the first flight and likely for a few more the entire goal of Starship launches has been to gather data on how the rocket performs in Flight thus this outcome may have been anticipated by SpaceX and for each of us losing the spacecraft doesn't mean regret instead it should Inspire anticipation for what's to come as it serves as a valuable lesson for SpaceX to get better this year it stands as a milestone ensuring that the New Year doesn't stay uncertain as some alphatech viewers might have commented in 2025 SpaceX officials hope to conduct up to 25 test flights throughout the year evaluating new new designs and attempting to recover Starship from orbit and demonstrate orbital refueling capabilities an essential step for NASA and spacex's plans to get astronauts to the Moon later this decade SpaceX designed Starship to be fully reusable with a capability to transport more than 100 tons of cargo to lower Earth orbit future iterations of the spacecraft are envisioned for travel to the Moon and Mars if SpaceX can launch Starship again as early as next month the company could stay on track with its ambitious program goals set for the year Hardware availability is not a concern multiple starships and super heavy boosters are either ready or nearing Readiness for future test flights at the company's Starbase launch facility near Brownsville Texas and if all goes well SpaceX could attempt to launch a Starship into Leo during its eth test flight all previous test flights for Starship intentionally followed a suborbital trajectory returning the vehicle to Waters Northwest of Australia after completing half an orbit around the Earth later this year a larger Starship version known as block 3 could start flying this version is designed for testing orbital refueling a groundbreaking capability for these refilling tests two Starships will dock in orbit allowing one to transfer super cooled methane and liquid oxygen to the other this has never been attempted at such a scale before future Starship missions to the moon and Mars may require 10 or more tanker missions to refuel the spacecraft in low earth orbit each of these missions will involve Vari ations of the same basic Starship design a crude lunar lander a propellant Depot and a refueling tanker the near-term lunar Mission will showcase Starship standout capabilities as NASA is eagerly anticipating its success in an interview with Lisa Watson Morgan the NASA engineer overseeing the agency's contract with SpaceX to develop a modified version of Starship for getting astronauts to the Moon she expressed great anticipation for everything SpaceX could do in the future when asked about the progress of the Starship moonlander she shared her excitement about the positive collaboration and progress between NASA and SpaceX we've been working with them on ground tests for this past year we've seen the ground testing and reviewed the data our team works with them on what we deem necessary for the various Milestones where the Milestone contains proprietary info we work closely with them to ensure that it's going to meet the intent safety-wise as well as technically of what we're going to need to see so they've done that she also revealed that SpaceX recently transported some of its docking systems to the Johnson Space Center for testing with the Orion Lockheed Martin docking system which is part of the Artemis 3 mission this illustrates NASA's plans for Starship to get crew from Orion additionally Lisa Watson Morgan mentioned the variety of tests conducted by NASA and SpaceX last year noting that their efforts were not solely focused on rockets and spacecraft there are many creu systems being developed right now she added highlighting the extensive scope of their collaboration we're in work with them on how we're going to to effectuate the crew manual control requirements we have so it's great balance to see what the crew needs given the size of the ship that's been a great set of work we have crew office hours where the crew travels to Hawthorne and works one-on-one with different responsible engineers in the different technical disciplines to make sure that they understand not just little words on a paper from a requirement but actually what it all means and how the systems can then be operated ultimately the process of reaching the moon will proceed as planned however landing on the moon with Starship is far more complex than it was in the Apollo days back then a single Saturn 5 launched both the lunar lander and the orbiting Command Module at the same time with two spacecraft connected as they went to the moon arus program on the other hand is going to be a multi-step event involving two rockets SLS and Starship working a tandem Starship launches First Once its upper stage gets partway to Earth orbit the super heavy booster separates and then lands back on Earth the upper stage will then use its own array of six engines to power its way to orbit doing this will exhaust most of its fuel but its gas tank won't be empty for long ready and waiting for it will be a fuel Depot launched into orbit by SpaceX where Starship will rev Vu to refill itself sufficiently to power its way out of Earth orbit to the moon and then down to the Moon surface and then back up the only thing missing of course are the astronauts once Starships entered lunar orbit it will as Lisa Watson Morgan puts it loiter there a crew of four astronauts will then ride the Orion spacecraft launched to top the SLS out to the moon and dock with a waiting Starship two of the crew members will then transfer to Starship and descend to the surface Watson Morgan is excited about the starship's ability to stick the lunar Landing despite any ruggedness of the terrain because of a feature SpaceX is designing into the spacecraft's four Landing legs each leg has active and independent Control Authority she says so if one lands higher up on a rock or a ledge or something it can level itself with the others assuming that the system works and all goes well toun lunar explorers will spend just under a week on the surface before lifting off and redocking with Orion all four astronauts then fly home on Orion while Starship stays in the lunar vicinity as a very pricey piece of space junk all these moving parts are being developed in the service of a larger vision for lunar exploration NASA intends to eventually launch a mini lunar space station known as gateway to act as sort of a way station for future Orion and Starship a central travel Hub like that will serve the multiple Landings NASA envisions for emis 456 and Beyond the first gateway module will be launched aboard yet another SpaceX rocket the 27 engine Falcon heavy once Gateway is in operation NASA intends to move away from exclusive Reliance on Starship for its human Landing system the space agency is now opening the door for other biders to build a second Lander to provide services along with Starship with blue origin and Dione as the two contenders in the statement at the time of the announcement in March of 2022 Lisa Watson Morgan said that this will help the Artemis program Advance as flights to the Moon get more frequent and complex giving flexibility and redundancy adds Pace straightforwardly if one goes down I got another multiple Landers will also help with NASA's ultimate goal establishing a permanent base on the moon it's that kind of multiplicity of options that gives other space experts unlike mustar confidence that NASA has not allowed Elon and SpaceX to become too Central to its operations we've never had so many missions as we have today say astrophysicist Pascal Aaron Freud a professor at George Washington University space policy Institute that's because there's cooperation between NASA and SpaceX and other companies it makes the entire exploration era versatile and dynamic Delon agrees that the faster other companies come online and get their Hardware flying the better off NASA will be it's smart for NASA to keep its options open he says you don't want to put eggs in one basket of course the basket that is Starship has itself yet to fly and until it does NASA's emis plans and elon's dreams of Mars are just that plans and dreams Delon while not predicting if the first flight will be successful does believe Starship has the engineering credibility to work as plant Elon has shown that he's a careful designer and his team is certainly capable he says I don't think they'd be doing this design if they didn't go through the necessary process to prove it's feasible now every Mars mission plan you've ever looked at says that you need to build the biggest rocket you possibly can says Pace musk has done just that before long the giant machine will prove it's up to the jobs that have been assigned to it and that's all for today's episode thanks for watching and we'll see you next time bye