On today's episode, we are getting into the latest space news, including the
evolution of Starship is happening right now at Boca Chica. Construction of the gigantic
Starship factory steps into its next phase, and a new satellite startup wants to
leverage the power of super Heavy to launch bigger, heavier equipment. This is
the space race. Star based Boca Chica has seen NonStop activity since the explosive
first test launch of their Starship Heavylift rocket on April twentieth. Construction work to
clear the damage and add reinforcements to the launch apparatus are proceeding at a truly
incredible pace, but the spectacle of the destroyed launchpad has somewhat overshadowed the work
being done right now to progress the Starship design to the next level. Star
Shape observers have been keeping a careful eye on the work being done in the
background. So in addition to comments from CEO Elon Musk about Starship's future,
we also have some interesting new images of star Ship hardware to think about.
Let's start with Elon's comments because they give a bit of a peak into the
future of the Starship platform. Just two weeks ago. On May thirteenth,
Elon posted the first acknowledgement that a third variant of the SpaceX Raptor engine was
not just in the works. It had just been test fired for the first
time. Maxing out at three hundred and fifty bar of pressure and two hundred
and sixty nine tons of thrust. The Raptor V three was a big improvement
on the already impressive Raptor V two engine that had powered super Heavy and Starship
thus far. The real question was why did the most powerful rocket ever designed
need even stronger engines. The simple answer is that SpaceX has plans to lift
much heavier payloads into orbit than the current configuration would allow, and on May
twenty fourth, Elon all but confirmed that hypothesis. In response to a post
from the Everyday Astronaut about a comparison video that looks at the hardware of Starship
versus the Soviet and One, previously one of the most powerful rockets to ever
fly, Elon slid into the thread to point out that Starship's payload is two
hundred and fifty to three hundred tons to orbit in its expendable mode. The
configuration that sacrifices the super heavies landing fuel in order to push the payload into
an even higher velocity. This is much higher than the current one hundred and
fifty tons that the vehicle is rated for when fully reusable, and he continued
saying, the improved thrust from presumably the Raptor V three would enable about six
thousand tons of liftoff mass. That's a thousand tons more than the current configurations.
So these new raptors will let the starship about double its payload capacity.
For those doing the math, the extra seven hundred to eight hundred and fifty
tons of liftoff mass will be for the additional fuel needed to accomplish this,
and of course the extra mass of bigger fuel tanks and the general size increase
of the rocket overall, because the rocket will have to increase in size to
accommodate all that mass, so we would have to imagine an even taller starship
stack. Now, this seems to be pretty solidly pointing to the idea that
SpaceX is interested in hauling very heavy objects into space, huge things like larger
station parts, bigger scientific hardware, and even heavier and more specialized starship variants
like fuel filled versions. For use in orbit as floating gas stations and longer
duration habitation modules that could take humans further into our Solar System. One of
the most pressing things SpaceX could want this upgrade four would be to haul extra
fuel for their lunar Lander Artemist three. The first mission to bring humans back
to the surface of the Moon will be using the starship Lander after all,
and because NASA doesn't expect to have the Lunar Gateway Station up and running by
then, SpaceX will need to haul enough fuel to get to the Moon,
rendezvous with the Artemist three O'Ryan capsule, land the astronauts on the Moon,
and get back into orbit again to hand the crew back to O'Ryan for its
trip back home. The extra fuel storage SpaceX could bring on this mission if
they have a Raptor three array, would certainly give the team some breathing room.
And speaking of the starship Lander, Artemis three is scheduled to launch in
twenty twenty five. That's only two years to get starship operational, let alone
make a Lander variant with a crew cabin and an elevator. We haven't even
seen parts for this new starship yet, but that might have just changed.
Thanks to all the excitement at the star based launch site, more drones have
been flying around getting pictures lately, and some of them have been catching glimpses
of some interesting nonstandard hardware. Now. Obviously, SpaceX is constantly coming up
with new tweaks to their designs which allow for greater efficiency and strength, and
a couple of things I'm sure they don't want us to know about yet,
so speculating on what all of these pieces are is probably premature. But the
white dome and the reinforced ring do look like they could belong to the Starship
Lander, which will be painted NASA white and feature a ring of thrusters to
help land on the Moon without blowing a crater in the surface like Super Heavy
did to the launch pad back in April. But aside from looking non standard,
there's not much more to go off of. But the timing is suspicious.
If SpaceX intends to nail that NASA schedule and have a Lander ready for
twenty twenty five, we should be seeing at least parts for a prototype coming
together for testing soon. But that plus the new engine really signal that big
changes are happening to the Starship design. It's pretty wild that the SpaceX team
built the strongest rocket ever made and then decided it wasn't strong enough. We
can't wait to see what they intend on lifting with all that extra thrust power.
With all the repair work being done at the SpaceX Pokachika launch facility,
it's easy to forget that the site has been under near constant construction since twenty
nineteen, the expansion of buildings desperately trying to keep pace with the company's need
to design and construct new star prototypes. Over the course of the last four
years, star Base has seen the addition of test stands, rocket construction bays,
and even the gigantic tents that are currently used for the more delicate parts
of the starship construction. But in March twenty twenty two, SpaceX broke ground
on something new, something more permanent. It's called star Factory, and just
like with CEO Elon Musk's other company, Tesla, it would graduate star Base
from the disconnected tent and bay facilities dotted around the site now to one gigantic
factory capable of assembling the world's largest rocket. The star Factory is meant to
replace the current setup with a permanent structure large enough to house the assembly of
many super heavy boosters and Starship vehicles. A three hundred thousand square foot building
with a ceiling about sixty feet tall should do that job nicely, and they've
just hit a milestone. Recent aerial photography of the site shows that many of
the Phase one footings are already in place. Footings are concrete pads sunk into
the ground which hold a building up at Boca Chica. These are those smaller
concrete squares you can see in the images. Now, don't be fooled.
Each of those squares has been poured around a pile sort of like an underground
column that transfers the load of a building into the bedrock SpaceX is actually putting
similar piles into their pads surrounding the orbital launch mount to increase its stability.
From the pictures, we can also see that large sections of the foundation pad
have been poured at the star Factory site as well, meaning we're not too
far away from seeing the steel skeleton of the building being assembled. Structures like
this tend to go up very quickly, especially in humid locations like Boca Chica.
But from older discussion of the size of this new factory. It looks
like this isn't even half of what the final structure will look like, and
that means some of the older buildings in these photos are bound for demolition eventually.
SpaceX plans to disc assemble the tents as well, but not until the
Star Factory is up and running, of course, and they might even keep
them up for a bit afterwards to help with the production load that will likely
come with the first burst of Starship activity that is going to hit the company
once they get their new vehicle certified for regular flights. For now, though,
it looks like SpaceX is taking advantage of all the construction equipment and personnel
being on site for the landing pad repairs to start making the push to get
Star Factories foundation and steel structure built. Phase one shouldn't see much difficulty with
its construction, but the rest of the building will have to wait until SpaceX
can clear the older structures off the site. Starship hasn't even made it to
space yet, but companies are lining up to make use of the gigantic rockets
lift capabilities. Last week, we talked about Vast and their partnership with SpaceX
to sprint ahead of all the other space launch companies and create the first commercial
space station, Haven one, using the Falconine first, and then the Starship
to deliver larger modules once it becomes available. Well, not to be outdone,
a new startup called K two is planning to use Starship's enormouslyft capabilities to
help put some very large satellites in orbit very cheaply. So K two wants
to develop a system of satellite buses, smaller vehicles that get deployed with satellites
and ferry them to their destinations once in space. Think about Rocket Labs Photon
Kicker stage and you'll have the right idea. The K two brothers aren't attempting
to get satellites into lunar orbit just yet, so their first pass at this
will likely be a simple tug with efficient thrusters about one ton to fifteen tons,
with extra communications equipment to ensure the payloads get to where they are going.
That sort of system could certainly work with Starship, and it would be
flexible enough to handle various sizes of payload. Founded by two brothers, K
two believes there's a gap in the market for this sort of system. Specifically,
they want to facilitate the launch of some very large gear or a massive
amount of smaller vehicles. The idea is that Starship, once completed, we'll
be able to help bring down the costs in a similar way to the Falcon
nine, which is the thought behind Starship. For sure. SpaceX wants to
make a rapidly reusable system with Starship, with early goals from the company CEO
Elon Musk saying that he envisions a thirty minute turnaround between launches of the rocket,
and the brothers aren't wrong about there being a gap in the industry for
larger payload maneuvering as well. Vehicles like Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope
are difficult to service right now without the old shuttles, and maneuvering around larger
objects like the many station modules from several companies that will be launching this decade
is also difficult. Starship can't really waste fuel moving station bits around, especially
when it's not designed for that, and with most of the industry fighting over
mini SAT and small launch vehicles right now, this is a pretty safe move
for a new company.