Awaiting Regulatory Approval...SpaceX Continues To Build - SpaceX Weekly #135

This week at Starbase, Booster 12 and Ship 30 are destacked at the launch site, Booster 14 is sent to the Massey Outpost to begin its test campaign and delivery and assembly of components for Tower 2's orbital launch mount gets underway. Meanwhile, over in Florida, SpaceX launches its Crew-9 mission to the ISS, ULA relocates the next Vulcan Centaur to SLC-41, and the SLS Mobile Launcher 1 is relocated to the VAB.

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[MrKellymcilrath]

Thank you so much for all the hard work everyone does each week to bring us SpaceX Weekly Updates! Thank you Lab Padre!

[JohnRandolph]

Great update of SpaceX and Starbase activities!

[vix]

All caught up! It's like I've never been away now! Thanks team!

[bigguywithdreads]

That catch attempt will be risky but a must do. we all know spacex the 1st attempt on something they do is always exciting

[NonSensewithnosense]

I'm late this week .. but never miss this weekly episodes.

[patpozzuto]

We need videos of the "flatbed semi" inside star factory for "scale", betting it will almost look like a toy truck in there.

[LibertyEver]

I love these updates. They're so inspirational. I'm desperate for some good news these days. I wish YouTube was better about notifying me. Subscribed for all notifications doesn't mean what it would seem. More like, I might see the video in my feed, eventually.

[ReverendGreg]

Is anyone know when SpaceX submitted their latest modification to their launch license?

[mrdebris]

Is that an engine anomaly at the left side of the rocket? 07:05

[ricardoabh]

In theory NASA could be the supervisor rather than the FAA for development no?
Why is it not the situation is true…

[wkjeeping]

I bet they could get the next ift ships ready by the time they get approval. But it obvious why they destacked with a 2 months wait for approval. So not cool by the FAA

[hanshans]

what is when the Booster come to fast to the Tower. Is there a plan b ? Think so much more power to flight in Ocean ? While i think he can't risk thats the tower and infrastructure destroyed when all goes wrong to catch the Booster.

[jaminschmitt]

Whether we like to talk about it or not the elephant in the room, so-to-speak, is that our regulatory approach needs drastic change.

One could speculate that Elon’s political beliefs may be a factor in all this. Is it okay to speculate this? Of course it is, we have that right. We can’t always assume our government is completely apolitical or hasn’t been compromised by other influences. We are all flawed people, after all.

My only point is that politics will always be a part of space exploration and innovation whether we like it or not. We should never shy away from it.

The FAA is all about safety, none r denies that. However, past decisions indicate that they haven’t always been consistent in this regard with other rocket companies and that SpaceX appears to be getting far greater scrutiny. SpaceX is indeed pushing boundaries and one can argue that this higher level of scrutiny is warranted.

However, in order to remain competitive in such a fast growing industry the FAA will need to make some drastic changes that (still puts safety first but) is able to keep up with the faster pace of innovation.

For example, CD Projekt Red (a video game developer) was struggling with their speed production. They realized that their approach in game development was highly inefficient creating delays, toxic behavior and burnout. Lower level people would have to go to higher level people in order to have things approved or permitted. As a result it created a toxic environment as those employees fought for resources and approval. This created a bottle neck that often stifled production to a snails pace.

CD Projekt Red’s solution was to compartmentalize everyone into teams. Each team has the ability to see a specific assigned project through from beginning to end. There is no need to seek approval from a higher up person (or at least that necessity decreased dramatically) One team might have the job to piece together a certain number of side quests. From programming to environmental story telling, to audio, etc. the team would have that amount of control to work on in isolation (to a point).

The FAA will have to go under that kind of restructuring to keep up with demand (not necessarily how one video game company did it but having at least that level of thinking).

Anyway, I hope launch 5 happens sooner rather than later and that there is cohesion with SpaceX and our government. I would hate to see SpaceX have to move to a different area or even possibly out of our country if it means they can innovate at their own pace.

[ShadowDev]

The FAA should just ground space x until elon is removed and Gwynne Shotwell gets given all of his shares.

[yoda]

Listen, I hate to say this, but we're not waiting for FAA, we're waiting for the Presidential election to be over.

[ktd]

Skip the "Now let's dig in to this week's update." You don't need it. Keep the rest of the intro the same.

[normgtg]

Since the FAA is now into experimental rocket science, SpaceX should remove improvements and fly. See what happens when the FAA designs Starship.

[MichaelWinter-sslx]

Flight 5 could have already happened, with the older flight plan. I still believe it's too early for a booster catch. There were several anomalies on IFT4. Get that perfect before moving on. Isn't this the last V1 Starship?
🚀🏴‍☠️🎸

[optischTV]

Is this AI voice or real voice? I really cant tell lol

[Hurricane]

Musk needs to keep his political mouth shut