SpaceX
Last 12 months was unquestionably the most effective 12 months in SpaceX’s historical past, CEO Elon Musk instructed his workers throughout an all-hands meeting in South Texas final week.
There had been 96 flights of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, plus the primary two check flights of the large new Starship rocket. In 2024, SpaceX stated it goals for greater than 140 launches of the Falcon rocket household. There could also be as much as 10 Starship check flights this 12 months, in response to the NASA official who manages the company’s contract with SpaceX to develop Starship right into a human-rated Moon lander.
SpaceX posted a video late Friday on the social media platform X of Musk’s all-hands meeting at the Starbase launch facility close to Brownsville, Texas. The hour-long video contains Musk’s feedback on SpaceX’s recent accomplishments and plans, however the video ends earlier than workers ask questions of their boss.
While it will be good to see area reporters get extra alternatives to query Musk about SpaceX, it is good to see the corporate sharing these varieties of movies. Musk has introduced a number of formal updates on Starship previously—in particular person and digital—and brought questions from reporters and area fans.
Nevertheless, the recent all-hands meeting included vital updates on Starship and different SpaceX applications. We now know a bit of extra about what occurred at the top of an in any other case profitable Starship check flight from South Texas in November, stopping the rocket from attaining its deliberate trajectory. And Musk talked about what we are able to count on in upcoming Starship check flights.
He additionally touched on the information set by SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon rocket household this 12 months. Until Starship is absolutely operational, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy will maintain flying. SpaceX has launch contracts for each rockets into the late 2020s.
Musk stated SpaceX is engaged on extending the life of Falcon 9’s reusable first-stage boosters. Originally, SpaceX stated every Falcon 9 booster might fly as much as 10 instances and not using a main overhaul. Some Falcon 9s have now flown nearly twice that quantity of missions.
“We’ve finished a nineteenth re-flight,” Musk stated. “We’re now qualifying Falcon 9 to have the ability to do 40 flights, and we’re aiming for perhaps as a lot as 150 flights this 12 months.”
Ramping up the launch cadence would require SpaceX to extend manufacturing facility all through to provide extra Falcon 9 second phases, that are solely used as soon as. And SpaceX might want to get even higher at turning round its Falcon 9 launch pads between missions
“We’re aiming to hopefully, I feel, get underneath 24 hours pad turnaround by the top of this 12 months,” Musk stated.
What occurred on the final Starship flight?
Perhaps probably the most interesting half of Musk’s presentation centered on Starship.
Starship’s second full-scale check flight on November 18 surpassed SpaceX’s objectives going into the launch. Musk stated the first goal was to get the rocket previous staging, a milestone simply shy of three minutes into the flight when Starship’s higher stage separated from its Super Heavy booster.
Getting to that time, the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor engines all labored, apparently flawlessly, then Starship’s higher stage lit its six Raptor engines to proceed the climb into area.
The Super Heavy booster exploded moments later because it started a boost-back burn to information itself towards a managed splashdown within the Gulf of Mexico. This was a secondary goal, however SpaceX engineers must appropriate this situation earlier than it could possibly get better and reuse a Super Heavy booster.
Starship—the rocket’s higher stage—continued flying till round eight minutes into the flight, when it broke aside in area over the Gulf of Mexico. This occurred lower than 30 seconds earlier than Starship’s engines had been supposed to chop off, when the car would have collected sufficient velocity to achieve its deliberate trajectory, taking it most of the best way all over the world. If every part went completely, the ship would have reentered the environment and splashed down close to Hawaii.
Musk did not focus on what occurred with the Super Heavy booster on the November flight, however he stated Starship disintegrated throughout a liquid oxygen vent late in its burn. The Raptor engines eat liquid oxygen and methane as propellants.
“Flight 2 actually almost made it to orbit,” Musk said. “The reason that it actually didn’t quite make it to orbit was we vented the liquid oxygen, and the liquid oxygen ultimately led to a fire and an explosion. We wanted to vent the liquid oxygen because we normally wouldn’t have that liquid oxygen if we had a payload. Ironically, if it had a payload, it would have reached orbit.”
SpaceX
Musk did not provide any extra particulars in regards to the liquid oxygen vent however stated he thinks SpaceX has a “actually good shot of reaching orbit” on the subsequent Starship check flight. This third full-size Starship check flight is probably going weeks away. Jessica Jensen, SpaceX’s vp of buyer operations and integration, stated in a NASA teleconference final week that SpaceX goals to have {hardware} for the subsequent Starship launch prepared this month.
She stated SpaceX anticipates getting a industrial launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration in February. SpaceX launched its first two Starship check flights inside a couple of days of receiving its FAA license.
SpaceX launched quite a few modifications to the Starship design between its first and second flights final 12 months, together with a water deluge system at the launch pad, a redesigned stage separation method, and changing hydraulic thrust vector controls with an electrically pushed engine steering system.
“With Flight 1, the purpose was to not blow the pad up and ideally get a long way, which we did,” Musk stated. “With Flight 2, it was to get previous staging, so we achieved the purpose of getting previous staging and nearly to orbit.”