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 club Elon dot. Supercast.com to find out how, there's a link in the show
notes. As part of NASA's Artemis campaign to return humans to the moon for the benefit of all, NASA is working with SpaceX to develop the company's large, gigantic Starship human landing system, the HLS, which will land astronauts near the moon's South Pole during the Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 missions. And on March 14th, SpaceX launched the third integrated flight test of its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage.
This is an important milestone toward providing NASA with a Starship HLS for its Artemis missions. A complement of 33 Raptor engines fueled by super cooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen powered this Super Heavy booster with Starship stacked atop from the company's Starbase Orbital
launchpad at 8:25 AM CDT. Now Starship using 6 Raptor engines separated from the Super Heavy booster, employing a hot staging technique to fire the engines before separation and approximately 3 minutes into the flight in accordance with the flight plan. Now this was the 3rd flight test of the integrated Super Heavy Starship system. Now, with each flight test, SpaceX attempts increasingly ambitious objectives for Starship to learn as much as possible for future mission systems development.
The ability to test key systems and processes and flight scenarios like these integrated tests allows both NASA and SpaceX to gather crucial data needed for the continued development of Starship HLS. The test accomplished several important firsts that will contribute to the development of Starship. For Artemis lunar landing missions, the spacecraft reaches expected orbit and Starship completed the full duration ascent burn.
An objective closely tied to future Artemis missions is a transfer of thousands of pounds of cryogenic propellant between internal tanks during the spacecraft's coast phase as part of NASA's Space Technology Missions Directorate 2020 Tipping Point Awards. Now the propellant transfer Demonstration operations were completed and the NASA SpaceX team is currently reviewing the flight data that was received
during those tests. This Tipping point technology demonstration is one of more than 20 development activities that NASA is undertaking to solve the challenges of using cryogenic fluids during the future missions. NASA A key step forward understanding how super cool propellant slosh is within these tanks when the engines are shut down, and how that movement effects Starship stability while in orbit. Engineers will study flight test data to assess the performance of thrusters that control
starship's orientation in space. We're also interested to learn more about how the fluids movement within the tanks can be settled to maximize propellant transfer efficiency and ensure Raptor engines receive needed propellant conditions to support
restart in orbit. Now, storing and transferring cryogenic propellant in orbit has never been attempted on this scale before, but this is a game changing technology that must be developed and matured for science and exploration missions at the Moon, Mars, and those that will venture even deeper
into the solar system. Now NASA's Artemis program, the agency will land the first woman, the first person of color and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface and prepare for human expeditions to Mars. And commercial human launch systems and landing system are critical to deep space exploration along with the SLS rocket, Orion spacecraft, advanced space suits, Rovers, exploration ground systems and also the Gateway space station.
Now for the second time during this flight, all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster started up successfully and completed a full duration burn during ascent and Starship executed its second successful hot stage separation, powering down all but three of Super Heavy's Raptor engines and successfully igniting the six second stage Raptor engines
before separating the vehicles. Now following separation, the Super Heavy booster successfully completed its flip move and completed a full boost back burn to send it towards its splashdown point in the Gulf of Mexico. Super Heavy successfully lit several engines for its first ever landing burn before the vehicle experienced a Rudd, which is a rapid unscheduled disassembly. Now. The boosters flight concluded at approximately 462 meters in altitude and just under 7
minutes into the mission. Starship's six second stage Raptor engines all started successfully and powered the vehicle to its expected orbit, becoming the first Starship to complete its full duration ascent burn and while coasting, Starship accomplished several of the flight tests additional objectives clearly the opening and closing of its payload door or the Pez dispenser if you will, and initiated A propellant
transfer demonstration. Starship did not attempt its planned on orbit relight of a single Raptor engine due to vehicle roll rates during coast. Our results from this demonstration will come after post flight data review is complete. Starship went on to experience its first ever entry from space, providing valuable data on heating and vehicle control during hypersonic RE entry. Now live views of this were made possible due to Starlink terminals operating on the Starterm.
They're absolutely brilliant views, you have to check them out on Space XS X page now. The flight test conclusion came during entry with the last telemetry signals received via Starlink from Starship. At approximately 49 minutes into the mission, and while the team receives and reviews the data collected from the flight, Starship and Super Heavy Vehicles are preparing for upcoming flights.
As they seek to increase launch cadence throughout the year, they want to do up to 9 launches this year. Now, this is a rapid, iterative development approach. You build it, you fly it, something happens, you figure something out, you learn from that, then you fly the next one. It's the basis for all of Spacex's major innovative advancements, including Falcon, Dragon, and Starlink. It's called recursive improvement, and it's essential in the way that SpaceX builds spacecraft.
They want to get Starship into Earth orbit, they want to transport humans, they want it completely reusable, and they want to help humanity return to the moon and ultimately travel to the Red Planet on Mars. Hey, thank you so much for listening today. I really do appreciate your
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