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. I'm your host, Will Walden. During the countdown of Friday's Falcon 9 launch attempt, the SpaceX webcast announcer declared ignition as the clock hit zero. Now however, the Rockets flight computers which managed the final minute of countdown quickly aborted the engines.
The launch was halted just three seconds after the plan lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Forest Station, marking a very unusual scrub for SpaceX. Now following the five O 7:00 PM Eastern post ignition abort, SpaceX stated that a new target launch date would be provided later, with no additional
details released at the time. This incident added another delay to the Thrace postpone Starlink 10-2 mission, which was previously deferred due to adverse weather conditions caused by Invest 90 L. Now, the Falcon 9 stands at 230 feet tall. It's powered by 9 Merlin engines that burn kerosene and liquid oxygen. These engines provide the thrust needed to carry the rocket and its payload, which for this mission includes 22 Starlink satellites intended for low Earth orbit to expand Spacex's
Internet service network. Friday's scrub could also affect Spacex's upcoming schedule, particularly the planned Monday launch of the Astra 1P satellite. This mission, which will broadcast satellite TV channels across Europe for SES, is also set to launch from the same complex, and as of Friday night, no updates had been provided regarding potential scheduling conflicts or changes.
Elsewhere, the FAA is organizing a virtual meeting to gather public comments on the environmental impact of future Starship Super Heavy launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The FAA is the primary agency involved in developing the Starship Environmental Impact Statement. Now, in a social media post, Cape Canaveral City Hall officials encourage residents to share their views on the project.
The emphasizes potential impacts on the city and the community's feedback is deemed critical in the FA as decision making process regarding the approval and regulation of Spacex's ambitious launch activities from Florida. Now, the abort of Friday's launch attempt was prominently covered on Spacex's live broadcast, where the announcer immediately confirmed the shutdown of the engines.
The precise cause of the abort remains unclear, and the company has yet to announce a new launch date for the Starlink 10/2 mission. Now, the Falcon 9's first stage booster involved in this mission has a notable flight history, having been used 15 times before.
It had previously supported missions such as SES 22, ICE Spaces, Hakutro R Mission 1, Amazonis 6, CRS 27, and Bandwagon at 1:00, and also 10. Starlink launches now after liftoff, the first stage booster would have been expected to land on a SpaceX drones tip stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. This is a maneuver that SpaceX has refined to enable the reuse of its rockets. If you've never seen this before, it's absolutely stunning.
Now, this reusability is key component to Spacex's strategy to reduce the cost of space travel. And they're winning this new space race. And the Falcon 9 rocket with its 9 Merlin engines is a crucial assets in Spacex's arsenal, enabling the company to maintain an impressive launch cadence. This year alone, SpaceX has completed nearly 60 missions, with 45 dedicated to expanding
its Starlink constellation. Starlink aims to provide high speed Internet globally by deploying thousands of small satellites in low Earth orbit, and currently there are nearly 6100 operational Starlink satellites, making it one of the largest satellite networks in the world.
SpaceX has been launching rockets at an average rate of every 2.7 days in 2024. This relentless pace underscores the company's operational efficiency and the demand for its launch services, particularly for its own Starlink missions in the recent scrub is very rare for SpaceX, with the last abort happening way back in October 2020 during
EGPS satellite launch. The robustness of Spacex's launch systems include comprehensive checks and balances to ensure mission safety for every single launch. Now, the weather has been a consistent challenge for SpaceX, of course, with the 45th Weather Squadron predicting only a 30% chance of favorable conditions at the start of the Friday launch window. The forecast was expected to improve to 70% by the end of the window. And that's because Florida has such variable weather patterns.
I used to live in Orlando. Personal note here, it would rain in the morning some days at 10:00 in the morning, would dry up by 10:30 and it would be almost 100° for the rest of the day. And during those 30 minutes that it rained, it was about 65 or 70°. It is very variable. I was very close to NASA at that point, so I understand where SpaceX is coming from. And the 45th Weather Squadron is talking about these variable
weather patterns. But during this launch, meteorologists had expressed concerns about anvil and cumulus clouds, which can create hazardous conditions for rocket launches due to the potential launch lightning. Now, these concerns are particularly relevant to Florida, where thunderstorms are very common during the summer months. And the Falcon 9 booster supporting the Starlink 10/2 mission, identified as B1O73, is set to launch for the 16th time sometime in the future.
It won't aim to land on the drone ship. Just read the instructions marking the 84th such launch for this particular vessel and 319th booster recovery overall. This mission is part of a very busy period for SpaceX, which, alongside NASA and the FAA, has been conducting public meetings regarding the proposed Starship launch from Kennedy Space Center. These discussions will help the public express their concerns and also show some regulatory
requirements going forward. Now, SpaceX has been progressing with its infrastructure development, recently shipping the final segments of a second Starship tower to its Starbase facility in Texas, where they currently launched Starship vehicles. We're on the next one, hopefully in July. Now, this indicates that the company's ongoing expansion for a second tower in preparation for future Starship missions, including catching the booster on the chopstick arms on the launch tower.
It's going to be incredible. Now, the last second abort of Falcon 9 on Friday shows that there's still challenges for SpaceX. They're not perfect, and there's complexities to every single space mission. There's thousands of parts in these rockets that anything could go wrong. But with the cause of the abort still unknown, Space XS ability to quickly resolve the issue will determine the timing of the next launch event.
And while the company continues to work on the Falcon 9, they're going to at the same time continue to work on the Starship facility in Boca Chica, Starbase, Texas. 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
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 patreon.com/stage Zero. And please take care of yourselves and each other. And I'll see you tomorrow.