No flight! Elon Musk's New Updates on Starship 20 & Booster 4!

Welcome back to Great SpaceX. The SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, has just revealed a wealth of new information about the company's first orbital Starship flight after months and months of delays. At the same time, he also clarified numerous rumors regarding the fate of SpaceX's first duo full-stack Starship Super Heavy. Moreover, there is some interesting information related to the new agreements between SpaceX and OneWeb. All this and more in today's episode of Great SpaceX. To start, let's go with the big news. SpaceX will be using Raptor 2 engines for the first orbital flight of Starship. These engines are more reliable and more powerful than the more visually complex original Raptor engines. Notably, Booster 4 and Ship 20 are equipped with earlier Raptor engine models, not the Raptor 2 that SpaceX was struggling with late last year. This means the iconic numbered pair won't be the first to go to orbit, as has seemed likely for the past several months. But we're not really surprised, and even so, from the outset, our assumption didn't mean that SpaceX will throw away the B4 immediately. B4 is still needed for commissioning tests of the orbital launch mount. This is considered an indispensable task for the development of Starship, as after three times full-stacked, SpaceX still can't lift B4 by Mechazilla's chopstick arms. By this, they're also learning how to handle and operate with fully finished boosters, so they can finish that type of thing for Booster 7. Moreover, SpaceX still needs to do some important ground tests with B4 to get more data. As it stands, Super Heavy B4 is likely just a few parts shy of true completion, and is about as ready as it will ever be for static fire testing. Unlike Starship, which has mostly tested three engines at once and only performed a few six-engine static fires, Super Heavy B4 may eventually test all 29 Raptor engines simultaneously. When almost 30 engines are involved, even nominal pre-burner testing will likely produce a massive fireball that could engulf Super Heavy's aft, if not the entire booster, with flames. For static fire testing, Raptors typically produce a smaller and briefer, yet still substantial fireball during the shutdown, creating another potential source of damage to any sensitive hardware located anywhere on or in Booster 4's thrust section. As such, flying or not, carrying out a static fire test on B4 is still an extremely important part, providing data to increase the surviving capacity of next-gen Super Heavy boosters when launching and landing. In short, B4 won't be so worthless after the series of hardships it goes through. Additionally, the tweets made it clear that the FAA is not to blame for this delay. As Elon said in a tweet, we'll have 39 flight-worthy engines built by next month, then another month to integrate, so hopefully May for Orbital Flight Test. This makes it clear that, however frustrating the delays from the FAA environmental assessment may be, they are not what's holding back SpaceX from an orbital launch attempt. Moreover, this May's launch date is also likely optimistic. Even Musk only said, hopefully May, so this could easily push much later into summer, and that is assuming everything with the FAA's environmental assessment does go through as planned, which may have been delayed yet again. While Musk, in a roundabout way, confirmed that B4 and Ship 20 will not be the ones making the orbital launch, he did reveal that Booster slash Ship combination would take the historic flight. It seems plausible the flight could take place on B7 and S24, which are currently in production at the Starbase build site, but this is just speculation. But while sharing this update on Starship, Musk also provided some information on SpaceX's launch as a whole. The company is expected to launch 800 tons into orbit this year, not including Starship launches, which could launch Starlink V2 later this year if all goes well. This makes up about 70% of the estimated mass to orbit worldwide this year. Some of this mass comes from the newly added OneWeb satellite, that's right, because SpaceX recently signed a deal to launch OneWeb satellites replacing Russia's Soyuz rocket. Just 18 days after suspending launches on Russian Soyuz rockets, OneWeb said on Monday that it has reached an agreement with SpaceX to resume launching the company's satellite internet constellation later this year. It's a pity that terms of the agreement with SpaceX are confidential. Despite that, a few amazing details about the agreement were released. OneWeb said the first launch with SpaceX is expected before the end of this year, suggesting the company anticipates multiple flights on SpaceX rockets. OneWeb also expressed its deep appreciation to SpaceX. The private US space company helped OneWeb out of the trenches when it decided to stop launching on Soyuz in response to the malicious Russian conditions. As OneWeb's CEO Neil Masterson said, We thank SpaceX for their support, which reflects our shared vision for the boundless potential of space. With these launch plans in place, we're on track to finish building out our full fleet of satellites and deliver robust, fast, secure connectivity around the globe. Of course, we've never denied that SpaceX could launch OneWeb satellites. We even thought that SpaceX should be the top choice for OneWeb because of its breakthrough achievements. Furthermore, SpaceX facilities are just a few miles away from the OneWeb factory. This makes transferring smoother than ever. But SpaceX's Starlink network obviously is a competitor to OneWeb. That possibly quelled any appetite for cooperation from either company. After all, SpaceX agreed to launch a competitor's satellites. Although neither party revealed the cost, I guess it would not be cheap. At all. Indeed, OneWeb's move to SpaceX from Russia's Soyuz is shaking up the commercial space industry. The Soyuz rocket's sudden exit from the global stage has left more than a dozen non-Russian satellite missions, including OneWeb, without clear paths to orbit. Now, not only OneWeb, but also former Russian partners are considering US, European, Indian, and Japanese rockets to fill the gap created by the Soyuz rocket embargo. And SpaceX, with its already high flight rate and inventory of reusable boosters, was likely to be the best bet for those dozen missions. Thus, OneWeb is the first order, but certainly not the last. Most likely, the biggest beneficiary after Roscosmos' decisions is the American broomsticks. Dmitry Rogozin subsequently also responded to OneWeb's decision. According to Rogozin, SpaceX is no threat to them. SpaceX can't do what Russia's frigate upper stage did. OneWeb is doomed, despite your warm hands from the applause. I'm sorry, OneWeb, but they are to blame. Excuse me, but does Rogozin actually know what he's talking about? Well, I guess, in some sort of way, he's right. Anyway, Falcon 9 upper stage certainly can't replicate the number of times frigate's upper stage has failed, and Crew Dragon doesn't have the Soyuz's vent atmosphere into space through an accidental hole capabilities. In any case, that's it for today's episode. If you enjoyed what my team and I are doing and would like to continue supporting us in a huge way, you can become a patron through our Patreon link in the description below. And don't forget to tell us what you thought about today's content. Everyone's support motivates us to continue delivering quality content and to always improve. As a quick note, if you have advertising needs, you can contact us directly via email. Otherwise, as always, this is Kevin with GreatSpaceX, and my team and I will see you next time.