Starship Heat Shield Massive Update! New Tower With A Catch!

Thanks to Manscaped for sponsoring today’s video! Get 20% OFF + Free International Shipping with promo code WHATABOUTIT at manscaped.com/whataboutit #manscapedpartner #SpaceX #starship #elonmusk #starbase Will they use Tower 2 as a catch-only tower while they wait for the OLM to be installed, or will they wait for the OLM to be built before bringing it online? :_WAISweet:

The best part about this video was Felix maintaining the same energetic but matter of fact tone while selling a ball shaver. This is what professionalism looks like lol.

SpaceX: We can have Dragon to the ISS by June 25. Nasa: Boeing, you have until June 25. Boeing: 😱

Correction, Felix: the upright tanks weren't a mistake, they were an experiment.

At 1:45 reminds me of working on a power plant as a laborer between college semesters in 1971. The plant was already topped out at about 100' and I was sent up on the first day of employment. As we were getting further from the ground, which was my first time working construction, the ironworker looked at me and said, "don't look down kid, anything higher than 30' will kill you."

Regarding a catch only tower and rocket flame protection under it: A landing booster will a) never intentionally get as close to the ground as a launching booster b) run a lot fewer rockets, and c) be running those rockets at lower throttle settings (near full power is good for launch but well below that is good for control and redundancy during landing). Some sort of active protection is likely desirable for rapid reuse, but near term the pad used before and during IFT-1 would likely be 100% acceptable while they are finalizing requirements and designs. (Heck, if they go with a permanent catch-only tower bare steel over concrete might be good enough and about as simpler as you can get.)

interesting to keep them separate..one for launch one for catch.. UNTIL they can proove that the catch function doesn't destroy the tower.. then they can both be used by both.

Can’t imagine how happy they were to get out of that boeing death trap.

I've never understood why the SQD arm doesn't swing out of the way to the side immediately after separating from the Starship. It seems there is enough of a time window for the action to take place before the Starship and Booster begin actually moving. I know this doesn't eliminate all of the force produced by the Booster engines, but it must be better than sitting right in line with the exhaust as the engines pass by.

The big advantage of partial upgrades is the opportunity to do a direct comparison between the two types.

I'm SO surprised that a BOEING craft, of all companies, BOEING would have a defective craft? Whaaaaaat? This is unheard of!

8:40 Your Starship will thank you, boys.

The vertical tank farm was a case of reinventing the wheel, which is every engineer's favorite self-inflicted quagmire. But an even more alluring trap for a company that actually succeeded at reinventing the wheel before (reusable rockets).

Maybe pad B doesnt need a water deluge system for FT5 landing since it doesn't take all those engines to land.

The catchtower doesn't need a massive deluge system for the landing of a near empty booster. The thrust on landing is way lower that on lift-off. For now quick and dirty try and error keeps the momentum till they build the final version at the cape and rebuild Starbase..

Space X didn't ignore the regulations, the regulations for storing liquid methane in Texas were changed during construction

11:00 Felix just casually producing two pieces of Space exploration history. Wow, I'd display those and annoy every guest by retelling the story of Starship's prototype launches.

You're only seeing the derrick mast of the crane so far. The only lifting it does is some crane components. It's main purpose is to raise the main boom and suspend the superlift counterweight. The crane will get its full main boom before it lifts any tower sections.

Re: tank regulations. It's rather stupid that the 133 year old Railroad Commission of Texas regulates such things, when they have long since been relieved of any regulatory authority over railroads. It's hard to kill a bureaucracy which has outlived its purpose. I'm sure the RCT is just as competent as the regulators of their homegrown electrical power grid...

11:15 It seems that most of the unchanged tiles are on the edges. This is likely the furthest edge of the area that SpaceX initially determined needed tiles, and possibly a bit beyond as a buffer. If so, it may not be deemed that these tiles are much of an issue and not worth replacing with stronger protection. The main surface is the important and most likely region to fail, except for the ill-fated flaps.