Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast. This is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads that shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink. I'm your host, Will. Walden SpaceX is moving towards the 4th integrated test flight of Starship, the largest rocket ever constructed. Though a May launch did not materialize, Elon Musk has indicated a June 5th launch date on X Preparations are currently under way at Spacex's Starbase, where a launch rehearsal was
completed on May 20th. A recent blog post by SpaceX elaborated on the issues encountered during the third test flight in mid March. The flight managed a successful separation from the Super Heavy booster and executed a full Ascend burn, marking the first significant hot staging milestone where Starship ignites its engines while still attached to the booster. However, the Super Heavy booster
failed to soft land in the Gulf of Mexico as intended. 13 Raptor engines were ignited for the boost back burn, but six engines shut down prematurely, causing insufficient thrust during the final landing burn contact was lost with the booster at 462 meters altitude just under 7 minutes into the mission. Flight data analysis pointed to filter blockage in the liquid oxygen supply lines, which led to a loss of inlet pressure in
the engine oxygen turbo pumps. Despite previous attempts to address similar issues with hardware modifications, the problem persisted, necessitating further enhancements to propellant filtration and engine startup reliability. Starship itself faced separate issues after reaching orbit. The spacecraft's attitude control thrusters experience valve blockages, preventing proper roll control during the
coast phase. Consequently, Starship could not relight its engines for controlled re entry, resulting in uncontrolled disintegration as it re entered the atmosphere with telemetry lost at approximately 65 kilometers altitude. For the 4th flight, SpaceX plans to add more control thrusters to improve redundancy and upgrade hardware to better withstand blockage. Additionally, the Super Heavy booster will jettison it's hot stage adapter post boost back burn to reduce mass during the
final flight phase. Spacex's focus is shifting from achieving orbit to demonstrating reusable capabilities for both Starship and the Super Heavy booster. This involves executing a landing burn for a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico and ensuring a controlled re entry of Starship, critical steps for proving the rocket's reusability. The Federal Aviation Administration FAA is expected to modify Spacex's launch
license for this next flight. Given there was no public safety impact from the debris of the third flight, a launch license modification can proceed without formal closure of the mishap investigation, allowing for a quicker subsequent launch. The upcoming launch aims to test Spacex's ability to return both stages of Starship intact. The 4th flight will forgo in flight tests such as payload Bay door operations or propellant transfers, focusing instead on trajectory and safe splashdowns.
The hardware and software changes for the 4th flight are designed to address the failures from the third. Improvements include additional filtration inside oxygen tanks and enhancements to the Raptor engine start up mechanisms to ensure a successful landing burn. Elon Musk has stated the goal for the upcoming flight is to demonstrate a virtual tower landing for the Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico. If successful, a future flight may attempt a return to the tower at Starbase.
The ultimate vision for Starship involves not only NASA's Artemis missions to the Moon, but also Musk's long term plans for Mars colonization. With £16.7 million of thrust, Starship's capabilities far exceed any current rockets, including NASA's Space Launch System. Spacex's trial and error approach has yielded results, with the Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule both now integral to
NASA and commercial operations. However, the pressure is on to ready Starship for NASA's 2026 Moon mission deadline. The 4th flight will carry no payloads, aiming instead to gather data on the Starship vehicles performance. This data is crucial for addressing technical issues observed in previous flights, such as propellant filtration and attitude control during re entry.
The strategy to jettison the interstage section between the booster and ship after separation aims to improve flight dynamics and reduce mass, thus enhancing the final phase of the flight. Spacex's engineers are keen to observe the effects of these changes in real world conditions. Additional roll control thrusters and upgraded hardware are expected to enhance resilience against blockages. This upgrade is a direct response to the attitude control issues faced during the coast
phase of the third flight. Successful tests of these enhancements will pave the way for more advanced missions, including booster landings at launch sites and deployment of payloads such as Starlink satellites. As SpaceX continues to iterate on Starship's design, the next flight represents an important step in demonstrating the feasibility of a fully reusable launch system.
With further hardware improvements, SpaceX is poised to address the challenges highlighted in previous tests and advance toward its goal of making life multiplanetary. Hey, thank you so much for listening today. I really do appreciate your support. If you could take a second and hit the subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening on right now, I greatly appreciate it. It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
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