Starbase Launchpad Tour with Everyday Astronaut — Part 3
Questions on ElonsFAQ asked in this interview (2)
Transcript
0:00Tim DoddHi, it's me, Tim Dodd, the everyday astronaut. Welcome to part three of my tour of SpaceX's Starbase factory and launch site with the ultimate tour guide, Elon Musk. Of course, if you haven't watched parts one and two, what are you doing?
0:13Tim DoddYou absolutely have to watch those first because there's just gobs of information. But this one's a little bit different. We actually go out to the launch pad while it's being constructed and watch Elon at work and still get to ask a couple of fun questions.
0:27Tim DoddJust like before the YouTube Play Bar is broken up into sections. We have links in the description to those sections too. And of course we have an article version of some of the notes and key takeaways of this conversation [email protected] alright, let's hop in the car and head down to the launch pad.
0:41Tim DoddIs is the whatchamac is the blast, is the radius actually gonna change the exclusion zone a little bit when super heavy gets starts launching? When you do the full stack.
0:56Elon MuskWell, we definitely won't have people. We'll clear the whole area for orbital
1:00Tim Doddlaunches like Stargate and stuff.
1:02Elon MuskYeah, well, we might have a small crew, you know, with some shield, you know, like robust, some shielding on the roof and strong glass. But like if something does go wrong with the orbital launch, it will.
1:27Elon MuskIt's really much more of a fireball than it is an explosion, but it is quite a big fireball.
1:32Tim DoddWill you eventually be moving the launch control and everything or is that staying at Stargate at the control center?
1:40Elon MuskIt'll be at Stargate for now.
1:44Tim DoddBy the way. I haven't. I just got back into town for the first time since the booster's been up, so I have not seen this.
1:51Elon MuskYeah, a lot of progress. Team's done great.
1:58Elon MuskInsane.
1:59Tim DoddGod, it's so tall. And that's not even the whole thing.
2:03Elon MuskThat is the full tower.
2:05Tim DoddBut I mean the booster.
2:07Elon MuskOh yeah, yeah, exactly.
2:08Tim DoddYeah. The tower is done now, right? As far as height.
2:11Elon MuskYeah.
2:13Tim DoddWow.
2:14Elon MuskThe full stack will be a little taller than the tower. God.
2:21Tim DoddAre you guys working on a second tower too already?
2:25Elon MuskWe are thinking about it.
2:29Tim DoddWhat's the future for Starbase here? Will you guys always be launching from here or what happens when the oil rigs go online?
2:37Elon MuskI mean, as long as we're able to launch from here without too much operational difficulties, then we'll keep doing it. But it is a bit of a challenge with beach closers.
2:52Elon MuskSome people don't want to have the beach closed that much on the Other hand, we got to be able to launch. So it's like, you know, to what degree can we upgrade from here effectively and still let people use the beach and stuff?
3:10Elon MuskBecause.
3:10Tim DoddRight.
3:10Elon MuskTo be determined.
3:14Tim DoddSo with the oil rigs, though, like, are those. I guess, how urgent is that to get the oil rigs going? Or is that kind of like, you know, we'll get those going and then, you know, it might be two or three years before you actually start using them for launching.
3:31Elon MuskWe're not thinking too much about the oil rigs right now. I mean, they're just. We're demoing one rig just, you know, because we can just send it to a demo.
3:43Elon MuskLike, people are really good at demolition and have them do it. So when they. But it's not occupying any mines here.
3:54Tim DoddHow far out will they. If when you do start launching from there, is it going to be like hundreds of miles or is it like 10 or 15 or something?
3:59Tim DoddSomething from shore?
4:02Elon MuskWe're not thinking about it.
4:04Tim DoddThat's. You know, this is all good for me though, because I'm so nervous that it'll be hard to watch them once they start launching from out there.
4:13Elon MuskYeah. Right now we're just trying to think about the things that we have to think about. Yep.
4:27Tim DoddSo right in front of us, is that a. Is that the QD arm? This yellow thing here on the. Sorry, on the right now, is that the QD arm or is that the.
4:38Tim DoddIs that one of the catchers?
4:40Elon MuskThat's the qd.
4:46Elon MuskWe're going up out here.
5:00Elon MuskHey, how's it going?
5:01Tim DoddLet me. Let me give it to you something.
5:03Elon MuskOkay.
5:04Tim DoddThis one there for you.
5:06Elon MuskOkay, thank you. All right, thanks.
5:08Tim DoddWe gonna make it?
5:09Elon MuskAll right, Cool. Hey, Sam.
5:11Tim DoddThanks. 0 Hell yeah.
5:14Elon MuskCool. How's it going, guys?
5:15Tim DoddAll right. Actually, Taylor has a plan as of right now.
5:18Elon MuskOkay.
5:19SpaceX Crew MemberWe rolled this thing over today, so it's all in place. Both frames are in their set location for tomorrow.
5:24Elon MuskOkay.
5:25SpaceX Crew MemberTonight we are going to pre rig everything.
5:27Elon MuskDo you guys mind being on camera or any? It's just a. I can always learn.
5:31Tim DoddYou're very shy, Sam.
5:32Elon MuskI know you are.
5:34SpaceX Crew MemberYeah, it's okay.
5:34Elon MuskIt's just an iPhone camera, but all good. Go ahead.
5:38SpaceX Crew MemberYeah. So tonight we pre rig.
5:39Tim DoddWe're obviously getting that vlogging.
5:41SpaceX Crew MemberI'm pre rig at all our crane operators get in at 7am tomorrow, get everything finally hooked up. We do our crew task.
5:49Elon MuskOkay.
5:50Tim DoddLaunch mount of a big thing.
5:51SpaceX Crew MemberWe don't want things sliding around. And we lifted in 11 hours.
5:54Elon Musk11 hours. Okay, cool. Great. Awesome.
5:56Tim DoddSuper exciting. You see the. You see that flange that's sticking out from the bottom of the launch mount? Right? It's a te.
6:02Elon MuskYeah.
6:02Tim DoddSo right there, it's a T. You want to head up to the top and we'll show you what our game plan is over there.
6:06Elon MuskSure.
6:07Tim DoddThis is you. You're rightfully worried about this, but I think the guys have a pretty good plan. We went over the plan and any contingency planning.
6:15Elon MuskOkay.
6:15Tim DoddAll of last night, six welders got all the shelves done for the, for the jack. So the jacks are up there now actually. Hey, bu. You want, you want to go off with us?
6:52Tim DoddSo those are the jacks on each leg.
6:57Elon MuskAll right.
6:57Tim DoddThe jacks that we got. So on top of that column right there, there's some shim plates we believe are by half an inch.
7:06Elon MuskHalf an inch, like so what these
7:10Tim Doddguys have done, they added plates where we think we're going to be high and we'll keep the crane on the whole time while we're jacking. And then Robert, you want to talk about the lap plate that you guys have?
7:20Tim DoddSure. Yeah. As we're leveling, we might get some gaps here that are bigger than you'd
7:26Elon Musklike for your weld gaps.
7:27Tim DoddSo if that happens, we got some just plates to bridge that gap. So we weld there, weld up top.
7:36Elon MuskIt's a lot of steel.
7:37Tim DoddYeah. And then over here, that little thing I pointed out in the launch mount goes into this alignment. So we got two places here. So we'll be able to go right here that.
7:48Tim DoddThat lock.
7:48Elon MuskOh, great. Okay. Got it?
7:50Tim DoddYeah. So this is key. This was tracked in.
7:52Elon MuskSure.
7:53Tim DoddSame thing on that side. So we'll get rotation and then our plane will be fixed by the six jacks. But we only need two jacks actually there. I think they're 200 ton jacks.
8:02Elon MuskSo.
8:02Tim DoddBut we have all six, so we can really dial it in.
8:04Elon MuskAll right. Okay, sounds good.
8:08Tim DoddY. And look, I mean we moved in and we had guys right back inside of it going again. It's all bonus time work in terms of fluids routing. And those are the hoods.
8:16Tim DoddSo when the QD's retract on the hold downs, the top interface, is that hold down hood or, sorry, the QD hood. And so it clamshells back in. It's all through like just a strut.
8:28Tim DoddNot, not a, not a dynamic system on its own. The hold down hydraulic actuator actuates a hold down the qd and, and the hood.
8:44Elon MuskWell as you can see, there's a lot going on here.
8:45Tim DoddYeah, this is what I wanted to bring you up here. We got a handful of guys on pad B right now, suborbital pad, so that we're ready to take a shift.
8:53Tim DoddSo we've, we've been on this opposite the whole time, but we've got a few days on that. So we want to, we do want to knock some of that out right now.
8:59Elon MuskOkay.
8:59Tim DoddSo that we're ready for shift 20 when it comes out here.
9:02Elon MuskAll right.
9:04Tim DoddAnd then we got a bunch of people on the prop farm. And then tomorrow at 5am when the guys get in, they start rigging and lift at 9, this whole area is cleared.
9:12Tim DoddSo all the guys that were going to be on the launch mount all go over to the prop farm. So actually some of the guys work tonight is not actual physical work, but prep for the army that goes over there tomorrow.
9:22Tim DoddSo we can be effective with like 70 people.
9:27Elon MuskGot it. Great. Well, it's definitely a beehive of activity.
9:32Tim DoddThat's good. This is super exciting. There's a few things to be worked out. After listening to what you said about contractor stuff I got with our supervisors here and we're trying to figure out what the, what the right number is.
9:43Tim DoddAnd also so since we have all these great individuals here right now, it's also a good time. Like, oh, are there anyone, is there anyone from here that wants to join SpaceX?
9:51Tim DoddSo we're looking into that. We've incorrectly surged for like six months continuously without looking back into it and looking at the proper headcount.
10:01Elon MuskOkay. Yeah, if somebody says long term, we should make them long term, not temporary.
10:07Tim DoddYeah, it's easier too because these guys come and go and then contract ends. It might be another company. It's just not set up the right way.
10:17Elon MuskNo, it's better for them than SpaceX.
10:19Tim DoddYeah.
10:20Elon MuskSo,
10:23Tim Doddbut this logistic plan right now is wild. So we're also running out a lot of parts. So McGregor is shipping us a bunch
10:29Elon Muskof fittings and seals.
10:30Tim DoddWe got cape and vanity ready too
10:32Elon Muskto ship us stuff.
10:33Tim DoddWe'll back order all those other sites on the stuff we take. But we're just trying to keep like we're trying to keep feeding these guys with parts right now.
10:40Elon MuskOkay.
10:46Elon MuskThat launch ring is complicated.
10:48Tim DoddYeah. I do, however, like the approach of having the hold downs on the inside like that where they fold into each other. Like I like that design. However, everything else we need to take a look at just like how thick the steel is to Begin with, we obviously learned trying to bolt in and align some of the lugs.
11:09Tim DoddNot the right path. We learned that line boring. As we got good at it, we got really fast at it too. So at least for the next launch mount we're thinking line boring is the better step.
11:19Tim DoddReduction in maximum mass is going to be huge for us.
11:21Elon MuskYeah. Yeah. It takes a long time to weld fix. Deal.
11:25Tim DoddYeah. I mean this is going to be a 1 inch well here all the way around. Inside and outside. One pass on the inside and outside. Just, just one weld pass will get us 40 miles per hour on, on booster and ship.
11:39Elon MuskOkay,
11:44Elon MuskGreat. Well, super impressive. If we can mount this thing in 11 hours or frankly even tomorrow, that'll be great.
11:51Tim DoddWe hotwire that crane and then one of our new roads that we did collapsed on us. So we had to find a different route. This morning this crane went in place.
11:59Tim DoddWe did lose a little bit of time having to backfill but. But that off went pretty well.
12:06Elon MuskYeah.
12:06Tim DoddAnd, and the 2 like second largest crane in the world. Third largest crane in the world. We have 2 operators for, for that pick. So one, one guy from our team, Dave Wright's going to run the yellow.
12:15Tim DoddGiovanni is going to be on the big train.
12:16Elon MuskOkay.
12:17Tim DoddSo that they can, they're going to load chair appropriately and get this thing up.
12:20Elon MuskGreat.
12:20Tim DoddThis was brilliant because we would have spent four days reconfig.
12:27Elon MuskYeah. Like the two things we really need to get good at here are tool stuff and small stuff, as Bill Riley would say.
12:36Tim DoddIt's also pretty amazing that on a project at this scale you're still measuring things in days. You're still like a day. You know, I mean that's, that's impressive when other people are like minutes and seconds.
12:45Tim DoddYeah.
12:46Elon MuskYeah. Wow.
12:48Tim DoddI mean it's non stop. It's not like you're doing that because there's a launch in two days. You're doing that the whole time this place has been developed it's been like down.
12:56Tim DoddYou're counting every minute and second. So the crane operators, what would you do if there's an asteroid heading to this planet in eight days?
13:02Elon MuskYeah, exactly.
13:04Tim DoddThat's what they were told today.
13:06Elon MuskYeah.
13:07Tim DoddAnd who knows, maybe there is.
13:09Elon MuskYeah, I mean you never know. I think if we operate with extreme urgency, then we have a chance of making life multi planetary. It's all just a chance. Not for sure.
13:21Elon MuskIf we don't act with extreme urgency, that chance is probably zero. The rate of innovation is not going to be constant. It's either going to increase the rate of innovation or it's going to slow down.
13:34Elon MuskIf you look at American access to space with crew, we were able to go to the moon in 69. Then with the space shuttle, we could only go to low earth orbit.
13:46Elon MuskAnd the space shuttle retired. And then for almost a decade, there was no America had no access to space with people. So this is a pretty bad trend. It's trending to zero.
14:00Elon MuskWe need a very strong trend in the other direction in order to have any chance whatsoever of making life multi planetary. Yep. So that's the reason for the extreme sense of urgency.
14:12Tim DoddIt's legitimate.
14:13Elon MuskYeah. I mean, I'll be long dead before you know, Mars is self sustaining, but hopefully the momentum is strong in that direction by the time I die, which probably isn't soon, but.
14:27Elon MuskNo, no.
14:28Tim DoddWow.
14:33Elon MuskAll right,
14:42Tim DoddSam, what if right when I got to the top, I'm like, oh, by the way, I have a horrid fear of heights.
14:47Elon MuskOh, do you?
14:47Tim DoddNo, I don't, but that'd be funny. That view is amazing, dude. It's huge.
14:57Elon MuskOh, it's very impressive. Oh, it's great to see the progress. Nice work, guys.
15:03Tim DoddBut look at how fast everything came together.
15:07Elon MuskYeah, I mean it'd be amazing if we can mount this thing tomorrow, which is looking like we got a good shot at that.
15:22Tim DoddWe got paving, continuous paving around the side as well. So he keep getting, getting more and more paving going. Got landing pad expansion specifically so we can give the power guys for the
15:33Elon Muskarms a little bit more room to.
15:34Tim DoddTo.
15:59Tim DoddSo what is the current plan for B3? Are you thinking about putting more Raptors up under it still and seeing how it does?
16:09Elon MuskSorry for what you offer B3.
16:10Tim DoddYou talked once about like maybe putting nine up under there or something.
16:13Elon MuskNo, it's. We're just going to focus on four. Like I said, it's a rapidly changing situation. So I mean, think of it like a guided missile. Like a guided missile is going in the wrong direction at any given point in time, but it course corrects.
16:32Elon MuskYep. You don't want to be a super precise cannonball when you don't even know where the target is.
16:38Tim DoddYep.
16:42Elon MuskThe overarching optimization is what is the fastest time to a city on Mars and then subset, you know, fastest time to a fully reusable rocket. Subset, fastest time to orbit, basically.
17:04Elon MuskSo.
17:09Elon MuskAll of the initial production is simply a learning exercise. It is not. None of the initial ones will be long term. So it's really just a question of like, what knowledge can you learn in the shortest period of time.
17:22Tim DoddI mean, I feel like you didn't quite have this Freedom with Falcon 9 when you were developing Falcon 9.
17:26Elon MuskActually. Sorry, a car that was there. Yep. No, we did not have the flexibility of Falcon 9.
17:34Tim DoddSo you had to be a lot more rigid and you had to nail it a lot more when you were developing Falcon 9 because you're flying cargo pretty much and getting ready for commercial resupply.
17:45Tim DoddLike you had to pretty much be a lot like, do you think if we could have.
17:49Elon MuskTechnically we did have the Grasshopper program.
17:53Tim DoddRight.
17:55Elon MuskYou know, Shannon sort of run the Grasshopper program. We learned a lot. Amazingly. The amazing part is Grasshopper did not blow up. So that's, you know, shocking. But we did blow up a the F9R.
18:12Elon MuskYeah. And ironically that was when I like, I was like telling SpaceX board, hey, let's have a board meeting in Texas and you could see the rocket go up and land.
18:26Elon MuskThat's the one time it blows up.
18:28Tim DoddI did not know that. I did not know that.
18:32Elon MuskSo. Man, it is sweaty out here.
18:37Tim DoddYeah, let's keep going. It'll take more people.
18:41Elon MuskSounds good.
18:42SpaceX Crew MemberYeah.
18:43Elon MuskAll right, I'm gonna excite Hope at this point.
18:46Tim DoddYeah. Any last things you want to say to all the people excited about this program?
18:53Elon MuskYeah, I mean, basically just I think it's cool too that people are getting excited about rockets and kind of finding, finding out how do rockets work and thinking maybe about life becoming multi planetary and being a space faring civilization.
19:12Elon MuskBecause the experience makes a future inspiring. It might be the most inspiring thing. It certainly is the most inspiring thing for a lot of people. And so I hope this gives people confidence about the future and, and that humanity will have an exciting future in space and we can make science fiction, not always fiction, but a reality one day.
19:37Elon MuskThanks. I like that.
19:38Tim DoddYep. Thanks, Elon. All right, thank you again Elon, for all of the time that you spent, for everything we got to do and for allowing us to share this with the world.
19:46Tim DoddAnd thanks again to Cosmic Perspective for helping shoot this video and just all the other stuff that they help with. So find them on patreon and on YouTube. And I owe the biggest thank you to my Patreon supporters for helping make videos like this and everything we do here at Everyday Astronaut Possible gain access to some exclusive live streams and our awesome Discord community and lots of other fun stuff by heading over to patreon.com everydayastronaut and while you're online, be sure and check out our awesome web store where you can find shirts like this, the Aerospike shirt, or our new Mars hats, or lots of other fun stuff like our schematics collection in our future Martian society shirts.
20:22Tim DoddAnd just lots of other fun stuff for you or any other space nerd. Head over to everydayastronaut.com shop. Thanks everybody. That's gonna do it for me. I'm Tim Dodd, the everyday astronaut, bringing space down to Earth for everyday.