00:04hello it's Scott Manley here as you
00:06probably heard by now SpaceX performed
00:08the third test flight of Starship and
00:11super heavy on Pi Day March 14th why do
00:14people love Pi I don't know it's
00:16irrational it's also transcendental and
00:19it's also spacex's 22nd birthday the
00:22launch window was supposed to open at
00:247:00 a.m. but this was delayed uh as
00:26many of us feared including myself due
00:28to the weather the was uh there were
00:30some serious concerns with the winds
00:32with the speeds predicted to reach 37
00:35knots at 3,000 ft spacex's goal was to
00:38be more successful than they were on
00:40flight number two where but they
00:43successfully hot staged but the booster
00:45exploded and the Starship failed to
00:48reach orbit after an oxygen dump caused
00:50a fire in the engine bay and ultimately
00:53a vehicle failure so the first thing we
00:55were watching out for was the hot
00:56staging to make sure that the engines on
00:59the booster relit successfully after
01:01they didn't do it on if2 and then we'd
01:04be watching the Boost back and The
01:05Descent through the atmosphere hopefully
01:07to a soft Landing meanwhile Starship was
01:10going to cons continue downrange
01:12following a slightly different
01:14trajectory into a lower inclination
01:16orbit which would carry it over Africa
01:19and then into a landing in the Indian
01:21Ocean during this partial orbit it would
01:24perform a number of other tests it would
01:26open the Pez dispenser cargo door it
01:28would perform a cryogen genic propellant
01:30transfer test between tanks inside and
01:33it would attempt to relight the engine
01:35and that would actually mean that the
01:37place that it touched down in the Indian
01:38Ocean wouldn't be certain because they
01:41would have to perform this maneuver and
01:43finally we all hoped it would get to the
01:45re-entry phase where we'd actually
01:48finally get to see the heat shield the
01:50belly flop maneuver at Mark 25 and so I
01:54can tell you now that SpaceX absolutely
01:56achieved more successes than on its
02:00definitely a step forward albeit they
02:02didn't get all the successes that they
02:04wanted right away straight after liftoff
02:07the first thing we did was we looked at
02:09that engine diagram and we saw all
02:11engines lit and saw this Drone footage
02:14again showing this flying wonderfully
02:16through these clouds and unfortunately
02:17that meant a lot of the fans who are
02:20over in Bach chica did not get a great
02:23view of this there was fog right up till
02:25launch and uh yeah that was a problem
02:29but we did get a lot of onboard footage
02:32the onboard footage from this flight was
02:34absolutely your Chef kissed perfect we
02:37got so many great views and a big part
02:41of this was just having multiplay
02:43redundant starlink antenna on the side
02:46of both the Starship and the booster I
02:48particularly love this moment where it
02:50ascends through a cloud layer just it's
02:52it's great seeing these stratified
02:55clouds just whipping by you in a rocket
02:58I wish my plane climbed that fast then
03:00again I'm glad I'm not footing this fuel
03:03Bill around that time by the way it
03:05would have been passing through Max Q
03:07maximum aerodynamic pressure from the
03:09starship's point of view we do see a few
03:12tiles missing but it seemed like an
03:14improvement again on previous flights I
03:17think this is my favorite camera by the
03:19way because it sticks out on one of the
03:21fins so it stands a reasonable distance
03:23away from the edge of the rocket you can
03:25actually see the surface so anyway at
03:27this point it's getting up high we're
03:29going to play this at four times regular
03:31speed it's we're we're not worried about
03:33any structural failures at this point it
03:35is just ascending getting faster what
03:38we're really concerned about is when
03:40stage separation happens so yeah the
03:42plan is here you have to shut down a
03:44bunch of engines but not all of the
03:46engines and then once you're stable you
03:48have to light the engines on the second
03:50stage and have them fly apart and once
03:52they are sufficiently far apart you
03:55relight the engines on the first stage
03:57as it heads back to home this time they
04:00got all those engines lit on the first
04:03stage if you remember during the
04:04previous flight the engines were failing
04:07we saw all sorts of puffs of smoke as
04:09engines started to die and eventually
04:11the booster exploded now this was
04:14officially blamed on stuff that was
04:16clogging propellant filters uh I we
04:19don't know what that stuff was it could
04:21well be bits of the inside of the tank
04:23from fuel slash but until SpaceX uh
04:26tells us otherwise we don't know in this
04:28case however it is boosting backwards
04:30reducing the velocity while the altitude
04:33increases and eventually it will be
04:35going backwards towards home not quite
04:38all the way home just far enough that
04:39they can show that this boost back works
04:41now then the thing to watch for is the
04:43shutdown of the engines and it seems
04:46rather asymmetrical to me I'm not sure
04:48if that's bad Telemetry but if it isn't
04:51that asymmetric shutdown would seem to
04:53imply there was some problem it's not
04:55clear what so anyway Starship continues
04:57downrange but for the booster it
04:59trajectory is very similar to what we
05:01see for the Falcon 9 booster so we would
05:03largely consider that to be a solved
05:05problem one big difference is the
05:08booster uh does not use an entry burn
05:11it's going to hit the atmosphere at full
05:14speed and take all that Force because
05:15it's designed to do this from day one
05:18the primary control mechanism during
05:20this phase will be the four large grid
05:22fins and you can see one of them on the
05:24left screen that is the booster and you
05:26can see the grid fin so we're going to
05:28return to normal speed now below 50 km
05:30descending at 1 km/ second and still
05:34picking up speed here you can see the
05:36grid fins begin to try to control but
05:39very quickly it looks to me as if the
05:42control sort of begins begins to get
05:45unstable and you know truthfully I think
05:47what they're probably doing is exploring
05:49the performance of these fins or these
05:51grid fins because this is a regime that
05:53they've never actually tested in so
05:55they'll be actuating it and recording
05:57details and their control laws right the
06:00logic may not be correct but anyway look
06:02we're at 30,000 ft we're descending
06:05still at multiple times the speed of
06:07sound just watch those Cloud layers flip
06:10by but very quickly the booster seems to
06:14pick up some kind of roll oscillation
06:15also check the condensation clouds down
06:18around the bottom it's trying to relight
06:20the engines they don't all come up and
06:24we just lose contact with it at zero
06:26altitude so look clearly the engines
06:28didn't start there's a couple
06:29possibilities one is that when they shut
06:31them down there was a problem and that's
06:32what we saw during the the Telemetry
06:34showing the the sort of weird asymmetric
06:36touchdown it's also possible that the
06:39Motions of the vehicle just again caused
06:41fuel SLO caused something to get you
06:43know become a problem and they just
06:46couldn't relight those engines because
06:47the propellant was sitting in the wrong
06:49place but you know what was in the right
06:50place it was Starship which about 8
06:53minutes later successfully made it to
06:55orbit becoming I believe the largest
06:58spacecraft ever launched it into orbit
07:00now technically okay it's not exactly in
07:03orbit it was slightly suborbital but it
07:05had so close to orbital energy that
07:08anybody that tries to split those hairs
07:10is just you know some weird SpaceX hater
07:14SpaceX deliberately chose for this
07:15flight to not quite go to orbit for
07:18safety reasons and uh you could easily
07:21have got there and yeah yeah we then had
07:23uh you know good 40 minutes of beautiful
07:27footage from this it would come and go
07:29over time but uh yeah some of the
07:32footage from this was absolutely
07:34breathtaking the footage would come and
07:36go as you know the live links were
07:38established and dropped there was
07:40probably a lot of complicated stuff
07:42going on but yeah the spacecraft uh
07:44initially it seemed to you hold this
07:47attitude and we saw a lot of outgassing
07:50and that would be consistent with
07:52dumping the excess propellant remember
07:53they had done this on a previous flight
07:55and it had caused a failure so dumping
07:57it after they got to orbit would make
08:00some sense but one of the most
08:02interesting bits of footage uh from the
08:04orbit came it was just a clip very early
08:07on before they tested the door it was
08:09our first camera view inside the nose
08:12cone of Starship and what I see here is
08:15clouds as if there's an atmosphere still
08:17in there right it's not like if it was
08:19in a vacuum and I think that while this
08:21isn't designed to be airtight it was
08:23sufficiently pressure tight that there
08:25was still some pressure in here when
08:28they were ready to open the door and so
08:30remember this is like a little like a
08:32letter box that opens up and you see
08:34when they open that do you see what I'm
08:35seeing here right when that thing slid
08:38up just a little we had the atmosphere
08:41just blow out through that what's also
08:44interesting is because that is a very
08:46thin sliver with light coming through
08:48you get one of those sort of laser light
08:51smoke machine kind of effects and it
08:53looked a bit like water when I first saw
08:55or a liquid and I thought this must have
08:57been inside the propellant tanks but no
08:59it's an optical illusion what I'm also
09:01seeing though is that door doesn't look
09:04like it fully opened I mean it's really
09:07hard to tell because of the the camera
09:09angle but we saw this happen later in
09:11the flight as they were supposed to be
09:12closing it I think the door failed and
09:16it could be that there was just too much
09:18atmosphere held inside the vehicle when
09:20they tried to open it and that caused
09:22some problems you know the space shuttle
09:24early flights they actually had problems
09:26with payload bay doors too so it's not
09:29so anyway moving onwards the next test
09:31that was supposed to happen was the
09:33crowen propellant transfer and well we
09:36heard announced we heard them mention it
09:39we saw confirmation but honestly there
09:41wasn't any clues as to how successful
09:44this was whether it worked or not and
09:47whether the rolling of the spacecraft
09:50was part of this process this is
09:52something that happened is it began to
09:54roll around its axis and that could
09:56absolutely be intentional we don't know
09:58what they planned attitude was but um
10:01obviously Apollo's program they used
10:03that for thermal control space shuttle
10:05didn't do that on the other hand the
10:07final on orbit test was supposed to be
10:09relighting the engine and that was going
10:11to be performed autonomously if the
10:14conditions were correct and when the
10:17time rolled by we didn't have any video
10:20we didn't have any uh Telemetry that
10:22suggested it happened and SpaceX said
10:24yep it didn't happen they're not telling
10:27us why the engines didn't light but say
10:30that attitude that the rotation the
10:32spinning was uh somehow anomalous that
10:35could have interfered with an engine
10:37relight so now fast forward a couple of
10:40minutes and they're getting ready for
10:42entry and the thing is still rotating
10:45it's not really got rid of the roll
10:48around its primary axis and I think and
10:51so whether that rooll was part of the
10:53flight plan or not I'm pretty sure it
10:56shouldn't be rolling at this portion of
10:58the flight plan because it's supposed to
11:00be getting into its you know uh belly
11:03flop attitude for entering the
11:05atmosphere and if it's rotating around
11:07its axis like this it's not controlling
11:10that as much as it's great that it's
11:13giving us these amazing images uh I I
11:16think they'd much rather have the
11:17vehicle in the correct attitude we were
11:20really eager to see whether the heat
11:23shield would perform especially given
11:25that we saw a couple of tiles missing
11:26but the majority of tiles were still
11:30however I don't think we got to see a
11:32proper heat shield test because I think
11:34the vehicle didn't maintain attitude
11:36control correctly indeed we get to a
11:39point where um we start to see debris
11:42getting blown off the top of the vehicle
11:44and I'm wondering is that coming out
11:47from underneath the heat shield has it
11:48been trapped there is this perhaps uh
11:51stuff getting blown off by attitude
11:53control jets like why didn't this come
11:55off during the initial Ascent is my
11:58question because we start to see fairly
12:01substantial chunks of stuff coming off
12:03if you remember this uh camera is
12:06sticking out on the end of a fin it's
12:08actually quite a long way from the
12:11vehicle so you don't get that effect of
12:13really tiny debris looking bigger than
12:16it should actually be at this altitude
12:18of 100 km or so we should start to see
12:21the effects of atmosphere pulling away
12:24light things like say broken tiles for
12:27for example you'll also notice the fin
12:30is working left fin just like left shark
12:32Doesn't Know It dance moves uh this
12:34spacecraft is upside down it's not
12:36presenting the heat shield right it's
12:38the non-heat shield side is currently
12:41facing the the air flow and so I watched
12:44this and it's coming around with a heat
12:46shield side down I was like hope it can
12:48stop that spin right because it's now in
12:51roughly the correct attitude for entry
12:54if it can just hold this it can make it
12:57through but un fortunately it was not to
13:00be you see yeah we get a moment where
13:03those fins appear to be working but the
13:05roll is continuing it's high enough up
13:08that it's just not getting any Control
13:10Authority from those uh winglets it
13:12really needs the reaction control
13:14thrusters to be doing something but
13:16we're not seeing it we saw so much gas
13:19getting dumped earlier in the flight but
13:20it's not happening now has it run out is
13:23it you know they talked about using IG
13:25gas do they need to upgrade the reaction
13:28control thrust yeah again this is now
13:31heading upside down we actually see like
13:33a puff of something there was that
13:36reaction control Thruster firing again
13:39now uh yeah looking backwards along its
13:41Trail it's upside down and it's headed
13:44into the atmosphere and I think I can
13:46begin to see a small hint of of a glow
13:50here right we're starting to hit the
13:54plasma you know portion of this flight
13:56at Mark 25 the atmosphere is slamming
13:59into this vehicle and it is compressing
14:02and the compression is heating up the
14:05air to the point that it turns into a
14:08plasma the electrons are disassociated
14:10from the nuclei and that will start to
14:14get in the way of communications and so
14:16that's why we've never really seen
14:18re-entry footage like this live think
14:21about it this is something we've never
14:23seen coming live from a
14:26spacecraft we expect at some point that
14:28the Communications would drop because
14:30that plasma is getting in the way of
14:32communications and Starship would
14:35somehow have to send a signal back
14:37through it now you'll notice by the way
14:38that the roll seems to have reversed but
14:40now it appears to be pitching with its
14:43ass pointed down range and so instead of
14:47that hot Plasma impinging on the heat
14:49shield it's going to start going into
14:51the engine bay into various you know
14:54sensitive parts of the vehicle that's
14:56why you have to maintain attitude
14:57control we didn't know how long we would
14:59get live footage from this we were
15:01getting Telemetry via the tedris system
15:03and we were getting footage via starlink
15:06and you'll you'll notice by the way that
15:07the speed is really still not decreasing
15:11it's actually still increasing even
15:13although you've got all this violent
15:16heating going on the air density is
15:18still really low it's not enough to
15:20actually slow the vehicle down so it
15:23just has to endure this kind of heating
15:25that is obviously um doing a number on
15:28the space C there was a real hope that
15:30we might actually get live footage all
15:33the way down because Starship is big
15:35enough that it actually punches a hole
15:38through the atmosphere wide enough that
15:40you can send a radio signal back through
15:42that hole and so it is possible that we
15:45could get this perhaps in a future
15:46flight but not on this one there are
15:49essentially two ways where you have a
15:51Communications blackout due to plasma
15:53the first is that yeah plasma gets hot
15:56electrons flowing around they're conduct
15:58Ive they interfere with radio waves and
16:02the signal can't get out the other is
16:05where your Communications equipment gets
16:08hit by the atmosphere and turns into a
16:11plasma and can no longer communicate and
16:13that is an all together more permanent
16:16kind of plasma blackout and it's a kind
16:19that Starship experienced on its first
16:22full reentry the last signals we got
16:25suggested that had lost uh 1,000 kmph of
16:28its 27,000 km hour that it needed to
16:32lose so again an objectively successful
16:35flight setting new records for space
16:37flight the US now has a launch vehicle
16:40that could easily put hundreds of tons
16:42into orbit if they don't mind expanding
16:44it I mean SpaceX apparently has quite a
16:47few boosters to spare on the other hand
16:49some basic things apparently didn't work
16:52that door didn't look right uh the
16:54attitude control failed and didn't get
16:56through re-entry so we never really got
16:58to know how good that heat shield is I'm
17:00looking forward to flight four but I
17:03actually want to rewind to the stage
17:05separation because I predicted that they
17:07would make changes to the timing and I
17:09want to look at this in detail again so
17:12I've synchronized if 3 at the top if2
17:16down below and you'll watch the ignition
17:19and the shutdown of the engines sequence
17:21now the timing of this is slightly
17:23different the new Telemetry doesn't show
17:25the big change in the velocity of the
17:27spacecraft so is that just something
17:29that was actually just an artifact or
17:31have they changed the staging sequence
17:33because the timing is the same the only
17:35thing I think they could change is
17:37perhaps the throttle on the booster
17:39instead of going to 50% they might go
17:41higher you'll also notice that on if3
17:44the uh staging happened about 3 seconds
17:47later so they get a bit more oomph out
17:49of that booster this time and yeah
17:51taking a look at the final descent into
17:53the ocean I'm pretty sure it's supposed
17:56to use the three Center engines here and
17:58then then somehow decides to use some
18:00engines from the outer ring and that
18:02probably indicates that something failed
18:04Especially since one of them shut down
18:07so you know the booster at this point is
18:09just oh yeah I'm going into the Gulf
18:11really fast I hope there are some other
18:14photographs or imagery there were a
18:16bunch of planes out there including
18:19Jared isman I think flying around in a
18:21in a jet to get some cool footage I
18:24don't know if we'll get to see that but
18:26it would be pretty cool if we did and so
18:28now let's look forward to fourth flight
18:31we're told that there could be as many
18:32as six flights this year uh and that
18:35would mean that we'd want the next
18:36flight within a couple of months the
18:38previous flight was 3 months dropping it
18:40down to two months would make sense and
18:42hopefully getting a bit closer to an
18:45actual successful an unequivocal
18:47successful flight and then of course
18:50they have to then figure out how to
18:51catch the boosters how to refuel in
18:53space how to land it there's still a
18:55whole lot of things for SpaceX to learn
18:58about Starship through these awesome and
19:00spectacular test flights I'm Scott
