SpaceX Orbit Largest Spacecraft In History also SpaceX Destroy Largest Spacecraft In History.

hello it's Scott Manley here as you

probably heard by now SpaceX performed

the third test flight of Starship and

super heavy on Pi Day March 14th why do

people love Pi I don't know it's

irrational it's also transcendental and

it's also spacex's 22nd birthday the

launch window was supposed to open at

7:00 a.m. but this was delayed uh as

many of us feared including myself due

to the weather the was uh there were

some serious concerns with the winds

with the speeds predicted to reach 37

knots at 3,000 ft spacex's goal was to

be more successful than they were on

flight number two where but they

successfully hot staged but the booster

exploded and the Starship failed to

reach orbit after an oxygen dump caused

a fire in the engine bay and ultimately

a vehicle failure so the first thing we

were watching out for was the hot

staging to make sure that the engines on

the booster relit successfully after

they didn't do it on if2 and then we'd

be watching the Boost back and The

Descent through the atmosphere hopefully

to a soft Landing meanwhile Starship was

going to cons continue downrange

following a slightly different

trajectory into a lower inclination

orbit which would carry it over Africa

and then into a landing in the Indian

Ocean during this partial orbit it would

perform a number of other tests it would

open the Pez dispenser cargo door it

would perform a cryogen genic propellant

transfer test between tanks inside and

it would attempt to relight the engine

and that would actually mean that the

place that it touched down in the Indian

Ocean wouldn't be certain because they

would have to perform this maneuver and

finally we all hoped it would get to the

re-entry phase where we'd actually

finally get to see the heat shield the

belly flop maneuver at Mark 25 and so I

can tell you now that SpaceX absolutely

achieved more successes than on its

previous flight

definitely a step forward albeit they

didn't get all the successes that they

wanted right away straight after liftoff

the first thing we did was we looked at

that engine diagram and we saw all

engines lit and saw this Drone footage

again showing this flying wonderfully

through these clouds and unfortunately

that meant a lot of the fans who are

over in Bach chica did not get a great

view of this there was fog right up till

launch and uh yeah that was a problem

but we did get a lot of onboard footage

the onboard footage from this flight was

absolutely your Chef kissed perfect we

got so many great views and a big part

of this was just having multiplay

redundant starlink antenna on the side

of both the Starship and the booster I

particularly love this moment where it

ascends through a cloud layer just it's

it's great seeing these stratified

clouds just whipping by you in a rocket

I wish my plane climbed that fast then

again I'm glad I'm not footing this fuel

Bill around that time by the way it

would have been passing through Max Q

maximum aerodynamic pressure from the

starship's point of view we do see a few

tiles missing but it seemed like an

improvement again on previous flights I

think this is my favorite camera by the

way because it sticks out on one of the

fins so it stands a reasonable distance

away from the edge of the rocket you can

actually see the surface so anyway at

this point it's getting up high we're

going to play this at four times regular

speed it's we're we're not worried about

any structural failures at this point it

is just ascending getting faster what

we're really concerned about is when

stage separation happens so yeah the

plan is here you have to shut down a

bunch of engines but not all of the

engines and then once you're stable you

have to light the engines on the second

stage and have them fly apart and once

they are sufficiently far apart you

relight the engines on the first stage

as it heads back to home this time they

got all those engines lit on the first

stage if you remember during the

previous flight the engines were failing

we saw all sorts of puffs of smoke as

engines started to die and eventually

the booster exploded now this was

officially blamed on stuff that was

clogging propellant filters uh I we

don't know what that stuff was it could

well be bits of the inside of the tank

from fuel slash but until SpaceX uh

tells us otherwise we don't know in this

case however it is boosting backwards

reducing the velocity while the altitude

increases and eventually it will be

going backwards towards home not quite

all the way home just far enough that

they can show that this boost back works

now then the thing to watch for is the

shutdown of the engines and it seems

rather asymmetrical to me I'm not sure

if that's bad Telemetry but if it isn't

that asymmetric shutdown would seem to

imply there was some problem it's not

clear what so anyway Starship continues

downrange but for the booster it

trajectory is very similar to what we

see for the Falcon 9 booster so we would

largely consider that to be a solved

problem one big difference is the

booster uh does not use an entry burn

it's going to hit the atmosphere at full

speed and take all that Force because

it's designed to do this from day one

the primary control mechanism during

this phase will be the four large grid

fins and you can see one of them on the

left screen that is the booster and you

can see the grid fin so we're going to

return to normal speed now below 50 km

descending at 1 km/ second and still

picking up speed here you can see the

grid fins begin to try to control but

very quickly it looks to me as if the

control sort of begins begins to get

unstable and you know truthfully I think

what they're probably doing is exploring

the performance of these fins or these

grid fins because this is a regime that

they've never actually tested in so

they'll be actuating it and recording

details and their control laws right the

logic may not be correct but anyway look

we're at 30,000 ft we're descending

still at multiple times the speed of

sound just watch those Cloud layers flip

by but very quickly the booster seems to

pick up some kind of roll oscillation

also check the condensation clouds down

around the bottom it's trying to relight

the engines they don't all come up and

we just lose contact with it at zero

altitude so look clearly the engines

didn't start there's a couple

possibilities one is that when they shut

them down there was a problem and that's

what we saw during the the Telemetry

showing the the sort of weird asymmetric

touchdown it's also possible that the

Motions of the vehicle just again caused

fuel SLO caused something to get you

know become a problem and they just

couldn't relight those engines because

the propellant was sitting in the wrong

place but you know what was in the right

place it was Starship which about 8

minutes later successfully made it to

orbit becoming I believe the largest

spacecraft ever launched it into orbit

now technically okay it's not exactly in

orbit it was slightly suborbital but it

had so close to orbital energy that

anybody that tries to split those hairs

is just you know some weird SpaceX hater

SpaceX deliberately chose for this

flight to not quite go to orbit for

safety reasons and uh you could easily

have got there and yeah yeah we then had

uh you know good 40 minutes of beautiful

footage from this it would come and go

over time but uh yeah some of the

footage from this was absolutely

breathtaking the footage would come and

go as you know the live links were

established and dropped there was

probably a lot of complicated stuff

going on but yeah the spacecraft uh

initially it seemed to you hold this

attitude and we saw a lot of outgassing

and that would be consistent with

dumping the excess propellant remember

they had done this on a previous flight

and it had caused a failure so dumping

it after they got to orbit would make

some sense but one of the most

interesting bits of footage uh from the

orbit came it was just a clip very early

on before they tested the door it was

our first camera view inside the nose

cone of Starship and what I see here is

clouds as if there's an atmosphere still

in there right it's not like if it was

in a vacuum and I think that while this

isn't designed to be airtight it was

sufficiently pressure tight that there

was still some pressure in here when

they were ready to open the door and so

remember this is like a little like a

letter box that opens up and you see

when they open that do you see what I'm

seeing here right when that thing slid

up just a little we had the atmosphere

just blow out through that what's also

interesting is because that is a very

thin sliver with light coming through

you get one of those sort of laser light

smoke machine kind of effects and it

looked a bit like water when I first saw

or a liquid and I thought this must have

been inside the propellant tanks but no

it's an optical illusion what I'm also

seeing though is that door doesn't look

like it fully opened I mean it's really

hard to tell because of the the camera

angle but we saw this happen later in

the flight as they were supposed to be

closing it I think the door failed and

it could be that there was just too much

atmosphere held inside the vehicle when

they tried to open it and that caused

some problems you know the space shuttle

early flights they actually had problems

with payload bay doors too so it's not

unprecedented

so anyway moving onwards the next test

that was supposed to happen was the

crowen propellant transfer and well we

heard announced we heard them mention it

we saw confirmation but honestly there

wasn't any clues as to how successful

this was whether it worked or not and

whether the rolling of the spacecraft

was part of this process this is

something that happened is it began to

roll around its axis and that could

absolutely be intentional we don't know

what they planned attitude was but um

obviously Apollo's program they used

that for thermal control space shuttle

didn't do that on the other hand the

final on orbit test was supposed to be

relighting the engine and that was going

to be performed autonomously if the

conditions were correct and when the

time rolled by we didn't have any video

we didn't have any uh Telemetry that

suggested it happened and SpaceX said

yep it didn't happen they're not telling

us why the engines didn't light but say

that attitude that the rotation the

spinning was uh somehow anomalous that

could have interfered with an engine

relight so now fast forward a couple of

minutes and they're getting ready for

entry and the thing is still rotating

it's not really got rid of the roll

around its primary axis and I think and

so whether that rooll was part of the

flight plan or not I'm pretty sure it

shouldn't be rolling at this portion of

the flight plan because it's supposed to

be getting into its you know uh belly

flop attitude for entering the

atmosphere and if it's rotating around

its axis like this it's not controlling

that as much as it's great that it's

giving us these amazing images uh I I

think they'd much rather have the

vehicle in the correct attitude we were

really eager to see whether the heat

shield would perform especially given

that we saw a couple of tiles missing

but the majority of tiles were still

there

however I don't think we got to see a

proper heat shield test because I think

the vehicle didn't maintain attitude

control correctly indeed we get to a

point where um we start to see debris

getting blown off the top of the vehicle

and I'm wondering is that coming out

from underneath the heat shield has it

been trapped there is this perhaps uh

stuff getting blown off by attitude

control jets like why didn't this come

off during the initial Ascent is my

question because we start to see fairly

substantial chunks of stuff coming off

if you remember this uh camera is

sticking out on the end of a fin it's

actually quite a long way from the

vehicle so you don't get that effect of

really tiny debris looking bigger than

it should actually be at this altitude

of 100 km or so we should start to see

the effects of atmosphere pulling away

light things like say broken tiles for

for example you'll also notice the fin

is working left fin just like left shark

Doesn't Know It dance moves uh this

spacecraft is upside down it's not

presenting the heat shield right it's

the non-heat shield side is currently

facing the the air flow and so I watched

this and it's coming around with a heat

shield side down I was like hope it can

stop that spin right because it's now in

roughly the correct attitude for entry

if it can just hold this it can make it

through but un fortunately it was not to

be you see yeah we get a moment where

those fins appear to be working but the

roll is continuing it's high enough up

that it's just not getting any Control

Authority from those uh winglets it

really needs the reaction control

thrusters to be doing something but

we're not seeing it we saw so much gas

getting dumped earlier in the flight but

it's not happening now has it run out is

it you know they talked about using IG

gas do they need to upgrade the reaction

control thrust yeah again this is now

heading upside down we actually see like

a puff of something there was that

reaction control Thruster firing again

now uh yeah looking backwards along its

Trail it's upside down and it's headed

into the atmosphere and I think I can

begin to see a small hint of of a glow

here right we're starting to hit the

plasma you know portion of this flight

at Mark 25 the atmosphere is slamming

into this vehicle and it is compressing

and the compression is heating up the

air to the point that it turns into a

plasma the electrons are disassociated

from the nuclei and that will start to

get in the way of communications and so

that's why we've never really seen

re-entry footage like this live think

about it this is something we've never

seen coming live from a

spacecraft we expect at some point that

the Communications would drop because

that plasma is getting in the way of

communications and Starship would

somehow have to send a signal back

through it now you'll notice by the way

that the roll seems to have reversed but

now it appears to be pitching with its

ass pointed down range and so instead of

that hot Plasma impinging on the heat

shield it's going to start going into

the engine bay into various you know

sensitive parts of the vehicle that's

why you have to maintain attitude

control we didn't know how long we would

get live footage from this we were

getting Telemetry via the tedris system

and we were getting footage via starlink

and you'll you'll notice by the way that

the speed is really still not decreasing

it's actually still increasing even

although you've got all this violent

heating going on the air density is

still really low it's not enough to

actually slow the vehicle down so it

just has to endure this kind of heating

that is obviously um doing a number on

the space C there was a real hope that

we might actually get live footage all

the way down because Starship is big

enough that it actually punches a hole

through the atmosphere wide enough that

you can send a radio signal back through

that hole and so it is possible that we

could get this perhaps in a future

flight but not on this one there are

essentially two ways where you have a

Communications blackout due to plasma

the first is that yeah plasma gets hot

electrons flowing around they're conduct

Ive they interfere with radio waves and

the signal can't get out the other is

where your Communications equipment gets

hit by the atmosphere and turns into a

plasma and can no longer communicate and

that is an all together more permanent

kind of plasma blackout and it's a kind

that Starship experienced on its first

full reentry the last signals we got

suggested that had lost uh 1,000 kmph of

its 27,000 km hour that it needed to

lose so again an objectively successful

flight setting new records for space

flight the US now has a launch vehicle

that could easily put hundreds of tons

into orbit if they don't mind expanding

it I mean SpaceX apparently has quite a

few boosters to spare on the other hand

some basic things apparently didn't work

that door didn't look right uh the

attitude control failed and didn't get

through re-entry so we never really got

to know how good that heat shield is I'm

looking forward to flight four but I

actually want to rewind to the stage

separation because I predicted that they

would make changes to the timing and I

want to look at this in detail again so

I've synchronized if 3 at the top if2

down below and you'll watch the ignition

and the shutdown of the engines sequence

now the timing of this is slightly

different the new Telemetry doesn't show

the big change in the velocity of the

spacecraft so is that just something

that was actually just an artifact or

have they changed the staging sequence

because the timing is the same the only

thing I think they could change is

perhaps the throttle on the booster

instead of going to 50% they might go

higher you'll also notice that on if3

the uh staging happened about 3 seconds

later so they get a bit more oomph out

of that booster this time and yeah

taking a look at the final descent into

the ocean I'm pretty sure it's supposed

to use the three Center engines here and

then then somehow decides to use some

engines from the outer ring and that

probably indicates that something failed

Especially since one of them shut down

so you know the booster at this point is

just oh yeah I'm going into the Gulf

really fast I hope there are some other

photographs or imagery there were a

bunch of planes out there including

Jared isman I think flying around in a

in a jet to get some cool footage I

don't know if we'll get to see that but

it would be pretty cool if we did and so

now let's look forward to fourth flight

we're told that there could be as many

as six flights this year uh and that

would mean that we'd want the next

flight within a couple of months the

previous flight was 3 months dropping it

down to two months would make sense and

hopefully getting a bit closer to an

actual successful an unequivocal

successful flight and then of course

they have to then figure out how to

catch the boosters how to refuel in

space how to land it there's still a

whole lot of things for SpaceX to learn

about Starship through these awesome and

spectacular test flights I'm Scott

Manley fly

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safe