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, and I'm your host, Will Walden. SpaceX has announced its intentions to carry out as many as 9 Starship missions in the next year, with spacecrafts expected to land all the way in the Indian Ocean. These operations, which are set to be launched from the Boca Chica Starbase, Texas site, are detailed in an extensive environmental assessment by the
Federal Aviation Administration or the FAA. Now the FAA's report, which is 119 pages long, indicates the possibility of up to five total losses of the starships which would occur as they crash into the ocean at the highest speed possible after re entering from orbit while still intact.
Of course, now these incidents termed over pressure events in the document would be caused by the impact with water leading the structural compromise and subsequent combustion of the liquid methane and oxygen on board. In addition to these potential explosive landings, SpaceX is also looking into the viability of controlled water landings, wherein the spacecraft would softly approach the water surface before tipping over as described by the FAA document.
Now, the FAA report points out that the starship's propellants, liquid methane and oxygen, are not toxic, unlike some other rocket fuels, which is an important consideration for environmental safety. Now, the document also acknowledges the chance the starships might break apart during the RE entry process, adding another potential outcome to these planned missions. Now SpaceX moves forward with these plans and continues to receive the necessary
authorizations from the FAA. A large number of starships, either whole or in pieces, will likely end up on the ocean floor in a region between Australia and Madagascar. Now, the FAA's environmental assessment details what could be expected if Starship landings in the Indian Ocean do not go as planned, predicting a field of debris primarily made-up of heavy metals and some composite materials now.
The majority of this debris, especially the stainless steel components, is expected to sink quickly due to its heavy nature and material composition. However, some lighter pieces might float or remain suspended before eventually sinking.
Now, in case of explosion upon impact, the resulting debris is expected to be contained within a radius of about .5 nautical miles from the point of impact, and the FAA has stated there will be no attempts to retrieve or clean up the Starship remains, whatever their condition after landing in pieces or not. And the report also considers the potential impact of these operations on marine life such as sea turtles, fish, sharks, whales and others in the
intended landing zones. Now the FA as assessment suggests that the direct impact on marine life from either impact or breaking apart starships is highly unlikely, thanks to the Ocean's vastness and the relatively small size of the spacecraft components compared to, well, millions of tons of water, and also they have to hit tiny fish, so it's
very unlikely. Now it's reasoned that although debris hitting an animal underwater could cause harm or death, the low frequency of Starship operations and the natural underwater behavior of marine life makes such occurrences highly unlikely. And on March 14th, 2024, a large crowd gathered to watch a Starship launch from Spacex's Boca CHIC facility. Marking an important moment for this company, this launch was particularly notable.
As well known to be the most powerful rocket in existence, it successfully reached orbit, a significant achievement for SpaceX and everybody in the spaceflight community. Now these developments and the planned future missions show that SpaceX is working towards fully operational and fully reusable large scale massive rockets that can take massive, massive payloads the low Earth orbit to the moon, Mars and beyond. 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'd greatly appreciate it. It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never miss an episode and each episode is about 10 minutes or less to get you caught up quickly. And please, if you want to support the show even more, go to Atreoncom, Stage Zero, and please take care of yourselves and each other and I'll see you tomorrow.