SpaceX Starship Launch Update, Raptor to go, Astra Success, Russian Antisat, Rocket Lab Recovery

Last week Elon Musk shared some great info regarding Starship development! We learned that the final version of Starship WON'T use Raptor engines, SpaceX are targeting January for the orbital flight, with FAA review ending in December, and they hope to have 12 starship launches in 2022! Elsewhere, Astra finally succeed, Rocket Lab recover an Electron stage, Vega succeeds, and NASA prepare to launch DART!

Full Space News Playlist:

Starship, Starbase, and all other rocket Photographers:

All the 3D Animations and Renders were by the amazing:

#Starship #SpaceX #SpaceXStarship

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:31 Starship Updates
04:48 Last Week's Events
08:43 This Week's Events

[FruityPassion]

Remember when we thought the orbital launch would be happening in August

[SpacePanda]

Congrats to Astra, they joined the list of companies that are ahead of Blue Origin

[davminks]

I’m thinking the “next gen engine” could actually be an advanced low thrust long duration burn engine that’s highly efficient. Requiring far fewer refueling missions depending on how much they can squeeze out of it.

[agsystems]

The requirements for the booster engines are actually quite distinct from those on the starship. It makes sense for them to be forked, given the number of engines that are going to be required. We might see raptor kept and optimised for one or the other, while a newer engine specific to one is designed and built. Even the lack of gimbling on some of the booster engines can open up options. We might see Russian style multi nozzle engines, with pre-burners shared between pairs of nozzles.
From what Elon has said, probably the biggest push will be on residuals. That might take a full redesign with this as a priority. This is probably more of a concern for the booster, as there is less time between firing all the engines and landing, and it lands on a lower proportion of it's engines.
As I've said before, I don't expect we will ever see a 'finished' version of starship. There will just be periodic frozen versions for human rating, but the cargo versions will keep advancing up till it is retired. The 'final' version will mark end of life. It's more of a software model than a traditional aerospace one.

[WM-dc]

9:07 DART is going to crash into Dimorphus (Didymoon), not Didymos
Loved the video and can't wait until flight 420!

[rendered]

Had to stay up till 2AM for this. And I bet it’s worth it. Nice job making your content 2AM worthy Matt. Edit: it was worth it. Nice job Matt. Love your content, keep it up!

[Greezy]

The NASASpaceflight stream chat at the Astra launch was flying faster than the rocket was but one thing I saw clearly was "Matt Lowne:

[spacecowboy]

Seeing Astra go orbital was absolutely stunning! Great video!

[douginorlando]

If the starship launch gets past the tower without blowing up or wrecking the pad, then I will consider it a huge success

[AnthemAnimation]

I can’t help but think of space this week ever time I hear this soundtrack

[ADonutMan]

Very impressive for astra to turn their flight trajectory for whloe 90 degrees in a span of only one launch!)

[andreimihai]

Can you recreate the DART mission in Ksp?

[theepicslayersss]

well, if the raptor 2 keep the ability to re-ignite and to throttle, that is some good progress! if kerbal thought us anything, you never get that burn quite right the first time and need to turn 180 and take a 0.1 m/s or so of velocity off to correct!

[Flying_]

If starship launches January, it'll be a nice birthday gift for me.

[TwoMan.]

Thank you Matt Lowne for making these every week!

[sk_yt]

My birthday is in January, starship launching will be my wish!

[conanotoole]

The electron recovery method reminds me of the way America used to recover the film capsules from their old camera satellites they used to photograph Russia

[scousesav]

Love starting my Mondays watching Space This Week

[icaleinns]

I still love the Bezos tweet to Astra: "One step at a time". New Glen design began in 2012. Initial specs/illustrations in 2016. Late 2021 BO (pun intended) finally has a road-worthy PATHFINDER??? Meanwhile, Astra (FOUNDED in Oct, 2016) has designed, constructed a booster and put INTO ORBIT a payload!

Maybe Astra needs to tweet back to Jeff: "One step at a time, Jeff! Make them baby steps...." 😂

Edit: No need to be petty, any progress made by any company that is trying to reduce cost to orbit by reusing vehicles is a huge plus! I just can't stand the Bezos "good ole boys network" mentality instead of the "Failure IS an option, Learn and make a Better Product!" model.

[bennyfactor]

The snowy space launch was pretty cool to see