[00:03] Hello, and welcome to Starbase Texas. It's 5:13 p.m. Central Time, and we are 31 minutes and 38 seconds away from Starship flight 13, the second flight test of our next-generation Starship version 3.
[00:17] Kate Tice, senior manager, quality systems engineering. >> And I'm Nathan Commissariat, a civil engineer here at SpaceX. Today, we are coming to you live from just outside the floor of Starfactory, our 1 million
[00:31] build Starship. >> Yeah, I don't know what's cooler, the rocket or the place where we build it. Now, back in May, the first flight test data, and we'll be putting those learnings into practice today on flight
[00:46] 2. All of this brings us one step closer to a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle, the key to enabling frequent flights to the moon and Mars. Starship will also enhance Starlink's constellation and connectivity on Earth,
[01:00] the moon and beyond, while helping establish a network of AI data centers in space. Success on today's suborbital mission also opens the door for near-future orbital flights and our first attempt to
[01:13] catch ship on tower 2 here at Starbase. >> Pretty exciting, and this is also an exciting day for the Starlink team because we are planning to deploy 20 of the newest Starlink satellites. These sats are intended for operational use
[01:26] and will only be in space for about 20 minutes before de-mising. But, during that 20 minutes, we're going to speed run a bunch of tests, things like thrusters. We'll get into those details a little later in the show.
[01:38] >> Yeah. Now, what Starlink engineers learn today will be essential to deploying operational V3 satellites into the Starlink constellation on future Starship flights. These larger, more powerful next-generation satellites are
[01:52] designed to boost orbital capacity, strengthen the overall network, and deliver a noticeably better experience for our customers. developmental program. What we're doing
[02:04] today is a test. We test in flight because it's the best way to rapidly iterate the design by putting the vehicle through its paces in the actual operational mission. >> Exactly. So, while we have real Starlink
[02:17] satellites on board, the most important payload today is data. But, no matter the outcome of today's test flight, as usual, excitement is guaranteed. >> Now, let's head a couple of floors upstairs where Dan Huot is just outside
[02:31] going, Dan? >> Hey, Nathan. It is going great. Hi to Kate, as well. And hey, everybody else. I'm Dan Huot of SpaceX Communications. It's great to be back here with you flying from Starbase just a couple of
[02:43] weeks after the last one. That was flight 12. That was in May. We debuted a lot of new hardware, all of it flying for the first time. We're going to dig into some of the details in a minute on how that flight went, but it came with a
[02:55] lessons. But, let's look at right now. Things are looking very good. We are not tracking any issues on the vehicle or on the pad just behind me in the launch control center. We've got engineers on console
[03:08] looking at the rocket, all the systems as we count down. We have started propellant load putting liquid oxygen, liquid methane on both stages of Starship, and we're looking good right now to launch at the open of our window
[03:21] now to launch at the open of our window at 5:45 p.m. Central Time. Weather is barely worth mentioning. We came in today with about a 90% uh probability of go, and we've got blue skies, scattered clouds, no scary winds. We're looking
[03:34] really good. Uh range is also currently green for a launch. Reminder, we're watching the range both off the coast in the Gulf here at Starbase. >> It's powered by 33 of our newest iteration Raptor 3 engines. You see them
[03:48] there. And those run on liquid methane and oxygen. This version of Raptor provides a significant increase in thrust. With that additional thrust, fun fact, this version of Starship gets off the pad faster than our previous
[04:02] versions. Here you can see ver- version one Starship on the left, V2 in the middle, and V3 on the right. That was our first flight of V3 on flight 12, and that thing just leaps off the pad. >> Confirming the operation of the
[04:15] hold-downs on the launch mount and performing multiple integrated tests of diverter, and launch mount. With Starship coming to 39A, the launch complex will soon have two operational pads for two very different rockets with
[04:29] Starship and Falcon Heavy. It has been awesome to see the 39A Starship program come to life over >> Pad 37A is targeted to be ready for flight operations early next year, which is very fast considering we only started
[04:42] construction on the pad in November. This year, teams have worked through ground preparations at the pad and fuel farms while also fully excavating the flame trench for pad 37A. In June, stacking began of the launch and catch
[04:57] your screen. And we have plans to complete that stacking in the coming weeks. >> And a few miles west of pad 37 is our Cape Gigabay, where all Starship vehicles in Florida will be processed
[05:09] erecting all of the building steel and of the structure. In the coming weeks, SpaceX will complete activation of the first crane in the building, set up the first integration stands, and complete
[05:22] platform work to be ready for supporting the first Starship vehicles that will >> For our part, we're going to be launching a Starship with a docking port on the nose so we can practice rendezvous and docking with the crew
[05:35] inside of Orion. One of our key test objectives is going to come after docking. So, range continues to be green. Weather continues to be gorgeous. We are getting into the final stages of
[05:50] propellant loading on both stages of Starship. Again, we're putting liquid oxygen, liquid methane on both the booster and the ship. Ship has main tanks, it also has those small header tanks in the very top in the nose of the
[06:04] we're going to close out on the ship at about 2 minutes and 10 seconds before launch, and then the booster at about 2 minutes and 50. Once we're completely and 1/2 million pounds of liquid propellant on board both stages. Then we
[06:20] start to get the pad itself ready for launch. We do what's called pushbacks. That's your clearing out all of those propellant feed lines that have been flowing from the tank farm into the tower, into the vehicles. Push it back
[06:33] into the tank farm, and then we also start purging all those lines with an inert gas, just getting it ready for launch. We'll do final thrust vector steering controls on our Raptor engines at about T- minus 100 seconds and then
[06:46] T- minus 60 seconds. If a hold is needed, shocking change, it's now going to come at T- minus 60 seconds. That's a new time. We've balanced out a couple of our final checks that happened before
[06:59] liftoff, and we moved them a little bit earlier before we start flying. Um so that time is now at T- minus 60. That's the point where we can pause to wait. We'll only hold there if there's an issue, and we can recycle back.
[07:19] events will occur in rapid succession. Both the ship and booster will configure their comm systems for flight, and will rapidly run leak checks on gas and fluid tanks. The booster will also go to internal power, and its engines will get
[07:34] ship's engines begin their ascent bleed profile, and it arms the automatic flight safety system. There's a lot of mechanical activations on the tower side as well with one critical step, unlatching the quick disconnect feeding
[07:47] propellant into the ship. >> And once T- 60 seconds has passed, there is still the ability to rapidly recycle the count under certain conditions back the count under certain conditions back to that T- 60 second hold point. We can
[08:00] hold there and assess what happened and if teams can proceed again to T0. We've got about 5 to 8 minutes of hold time and that will largely be driven by the propellant temperatures that we see on the vehicle while holding. The flame
[08:13] diverter on pad two, which you can see the side profile of it there on your the side profile of it there on your screen, that activates at T- 17 seconds and if we trigger a hold after that, it will result in a scrub for the day. So,
[08:26] we're now three and a half just under three and a half minutes until liftoff. If you've recently joined, we're planning to deploy 20 of our Starlink V3 satellites. These are real V3s on board, so that's exciting. We also would like
[08:40] to perform an a raptor in space re-light as well. now you're seeing an awesome view of our pad and the clouds that you're seeing coming off of our fuel tank farm, all now being used for its second time
[08:55] all now being used for its second time here for flight 13. minute mark. So, we should be closing out prop load on the booster any second now and then the closeouts on the ship will come just
[09:11] a little bit after that. Again, we're looking a little over 11 and a half million pounds of propellant on both of these vehicles. We are not currently tracking any holds on the board, which is always good news.
[09:24] Reminder, we have that built-in hold at T- 1 minute. We're only going to stop there if we run into an issue where we need a couple of minutes to hang out. But right now we have no holds on the board, so a lot on deck for Starship
[09:39] second flight of Starship version 3, booster version 3, Raptor 3. Looking to booster version 3, Raptor 3. Looking to get off the pad here in 2 minutes.
[10:01] All right, so we are closing the the fill drain valves for both vehicles. So, we have finished out our propellant loading. 33 Raptor engines right there at the bottom of the booster getting ready to
[10:13] Final wiggle checks happening now. You can see those inner 13 engines moving. going to be using to steer, do all its maneuvers.
[10:31] are 1 minute 20 seconds away counting down. We're going to listen in. Again, not tracking a hold, so we should move right past T minus 1 minute. We recycle back to it, we'll figure out why, and then
[10:44] we'll continue counting down. So, let's go. T minus 1 minute. Let's listen in. Let the rocket do the talking. See if we can get a Starship off the pad See if we can get a Starship off the pad today.
[11:07] going to happen on the vehicle and the pad that we've got to clear. A lot of it's tied to essentially the different pressures that are in the systems that are feeding prop into the vehicles. Looks like we are getting ready to reset
[11:22] that hold, though. And the clock is rolling.
[12:44] up there you saw. We got a hold on the booster.
[13:00] that aborted our lift off as we were starting to light those Raptor engines. scrubbed for the day. The team's already starting to pull for offload of both
[13:16] vehicles. So starting to get the prop off.