- 2 hours ago
- #space
- #starship
- #spacex
- #astronomy
- #science
Starship Flight 14 nearly missed orbit, then pulled off a historic first: reaching orbit and deploying 26 Starlink satellites. Join Mars Chronicles for a second-by-second look at engine trouble, stunning space views, fiery reentry, and that splashdown ending. What a ride!
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0:00 - Mission Overview and Launch Preparations
4:41 - Launch and Booster Return
8:37 - Ship Ascent and Orbit Insertion
13:55 - Starlink Satellite Deployment
17:07 - Orbital Coast and Deorbit
18:59 - First Orbit and Payload Delivery
19:25 - Atmospheric Reentry and Splashdown
23:27 - Mission Assessment and Next Steps
Subscribe for more space adventures!
Tell us what you liked most about the video in the comments.
#Space #Starship #SpaceX #Astronomy #Science
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@marschroniken
0:00 - Mission Overview and Launch Preparations
4:41 - Launch and Booster Return
8:37 - Ship Ascent and Orbit Insertion
13:55 - Starlink Satellite Deployment
17:07 - Orbital Coast and Deorbit
18:59 - First Orbit and Payload Delivery
19:25 - Atmospheric Reentry and Splashdown
23:27 - Mission Assessment and Next Steps
Category
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TechTranscript
00:00At T plus 11 minutes and 7 seconds, the dream of reaching orbit was already shattered.
00:06We're not going to do the additional burn that will send us into orbit.
00:12A single upper stage engine had shut down too early during ascent.
00:16And Mission Control announced live that Starship would not be reaching orbit today.
00:23A minute and a half later, things took a turn live on air.
00:27Payload.
00:33We're actually going to attempt to reset the current hold.
00:38We're trying to reset the hold.
00:41Then, 10 minutes of discussion in the control room.
00:45A moderator who, in his own words, is bouncing in place and just before T plus 23 minutes says a
00:52sentence.
00:53A sentence that has never, never been said in this program before.
00:56And we are go for orbit.
00:59We are go.
01:01Three hours later, Starship orbited the Earth for the first time.
01:0526 real Starlink satellites were deployed.
01:09All of them made contact.
01:10And, for the first time, they orbited themselves using their own power.
01:14All of that happened along the way.
01:16Thank you very much.
01:17Three engines shut down.
01:19And in the end, the ship tipped over after soft water landing and exploded.
01:23This is the complete analysis of flight 14, second by second, with everything that went right, everything that went wrong,
01:32and what's coming next.
01:33My name is Siervan, and this is Mars Chronicles.
01:42A quick tip beforehand, pay attention to the cloud formations captured during this flight.
01:47Some of these images are simply breathtaking.
01:50Before this rocket launched, its launch date was pushed back three times.
01:54A radio frequency filing to the American Communications Authority, FCC, mentioned September 15th.
02:00At the beginning of September, a planning notice from the Aviation Authority FAA mentioned the 18th.
02:07SpaceX itself then mentioned the 22nd.
02:10In the end, it became Monday, September 28th.
02:13The FAA's license for the first orbit, including splashdown in the Pacific, only came on September 26th.
02:20Added to that were the lessons learned from Flight 13.
02:23Back then, the boost back was aborted prematurely because ice had gotten into the central engines.
02:30And during the landing burn, only 8 out of 13 ignited.
02:34For Flight 14.
02:36According to SpaceX, the booster received additional filters in front of the engines and new software.
02:43Ship 40.
02:44The intact recovered ship from Flight 13 also left its mark.
02:51Almost 30 people from all departments worked on the recovery.
02:56An engineer in the clip calls it a gold mine of data.
03:01In the studio, the hosts held two of its tiles up to the camera.
03:04On the outside, there were exhaust streaks and measurement marks for the gaps.
03:09This led to additional holding pins on the tiles, which fall off during ascent,
03:15and closed gaps where plasma had crept in behind them.
03:18Flight 14 was the first Starship launch in the morning since Flight 5 in October 2024.
03:25It launched at 7.48 Texas time, which was 2.48 PM Central European time.
03:33Intentionally a bit later in the window, so that there would be better light at the possible landing zones in
03:38the Pacific.
03:39The hosts were Amanda Lee and JK.
03:42Also, Dan Hewitt was in front of the control room.
03:45And Hewitt immediately announced the motto.
03:49Only the paranoid.
03:51Survive.
03:52The plan was massive.
03:54First, a passively safe suborbital trajectory.
03:58Then, a check of all systems.
04:00Then, a single raptor for insertion into orbit.
04:03After that, 26 Starlink satellites.
04:06About 9 hours in orbit.
04:08With 6 laps around the Earth.
04:11And after almost 10 hours, a splashdown, far off the coast of Chile in the southern South Pacific.
04:17Built-in were exit points.
04:19Points where the mission can be shortened.
04:21Remember that.
04:21It will be important later.
04:23Fully fueled.
04:24Both stages carry about 5200 metric tons of methane and liquid oxygen.
04:30The countdown passed the built-in hold point at T-60 seconds without a hold.
04:34From T-17 seconds, the flame deflector was running.
04:38T plus zero.
04:39All 33 Raptor 3 engines from Booster 21 lift the 124 meter tall stack of Pat Pacific.
04:49At T plus 29 seconds.
04:52A camera looks from the underside of the control surface at the ship.
04:56The lettering.
04:57S-41.
04:58The black tiles.
05:00Below them, the Gulf Coast of Texas.
05:02Down on the grass at Starbase.
05:04According to the commentators, the whole building shook.
05:08At T plus 49 seconds.
05:10Flight control reports max Q.
05:13The point of maximum aerodynamic pressure.
05:15At just under 1060 kilometers per hour.
05:19At an altitude of 5.3 kilometers.
05:22Then the first setback.
05:23At T plus 1 minute and 10 seconds.
05:26It is reported that one of the 13 inner engines may have shut down.
05:32At T plus 1 minute 21.
05:34It is confirmed.
05:3432 out of 33 during ascent.
05:38That's manageable.
05:39But not necessarily during landing.
05:41Because the booster will need exactly those inner 13 engines later for braking.
05:46At about 2 minutes 19.
05:48The booster shuts down almost all of its engines.
05:51That's called MECO.
05:53Or most engines cut off.
05:54And the ship's 6 engines ignite.
05:58While both stages are still connected.
06:02That's hot staging.
06:03Since flight 13.
06:05The ignition sequence has been adjusted.
06:07So that it tips the booster in the right direction.
06:10And that's exactly what happens this time as well.
06:13Here you can see how the upper stage's exhaust creates a streak.
06:16Melting the ice on the outside of the booster.
06:18At T plus 2 minutes 33.
06:21The boost back occurs.
06:22The turnaround maneuver toward the coast.
06:24With 31 out of 33 engines.
06:27In the engine grid at the bottom left.
06:29Two dots in the middle ring remain grey.
06:32So a second engine has already stopped firing at this point.
06:35After that the booster throttles down to 11 instead of 13.
06:39Then to 3, 2, 1.
06:42And at T plus 3 minutes 8 seconds engine cut off occurs.
06:47And at 4 minutes it reaches its apex at just under 99 kilometers.
06:52And at T plus 4 minutes it reaches its apex at just under 99 kilometers.
06:58According to SpaceX this boost back was intentionally designed to burn off the remaining oxygen in the main tank.
07:05SpaceX wanted to test the performance limits before boosters fly back to the launch site in the future.
07:11And Dan Hewitt is doing the math live.
07:14Two of the 13 inner engines are gone.
07:17As long as 11 ignite it's enough for the landing burn.
07:22At T plus 6 minutes 37.
07:24The landing burn ignites at around 3 kilometers.
07:27And on the grid 11 points light up.
07:30Exactly the minimum number.
07:32At T plus 6 minutes 42.
07:34It goes down to 5.
07:38As planned.
07:39For fine control.
07:41Then to 3.
07:42Here the catch with the tower arms was simulated.
07:45The booster camera shows the water getting closer.
07:48Then a steep angle of attack.
07:49And an S curve.
07:52At T plus 6 minutes 56.
07:55Even before impact a white cloud sweeps through the image.
07:59According to SpaceX the flight termination system was triggered as a demonstration.
08:04In the footage from NASA space flight you can see that the explosion occurs on the side of the booster
08:09and not from below.
08:13So there was no impact before that.
08:16Whether the simulated catch would have worked is still unclear.
08:19For context.
08:20On flight 13.
08:228 out of 13 engines ignited.
08:24And Scott Manley calculated an impact speed of around 160 kilometers per hour.
08:29Back then.
08:3011.
08:31Then 5.
08:33Then 3.
08:35Without any margin.
08:36But according to plan.
08:37Thus meanwhile all 6 of the ship's engines were firing.
08:41From T plus 6 minutes 10.
08:43A camera is looking into the engine bay.
08:46And if you look closely at the edge of the engine nozzles.
08:50You can see the small steering movements.
08:53That's thrust vector control.
08:55TVC for short.
08:57At work.
08:57And just take a look at how beautifully purple MetaLox burns.
09:03On the stainless steel of the upper stage.
09:05You can see temper colors shimmering.
09:07Colorful oxide layers that form when steel gets hot.
09:10Those of you who work with metals know what I'm talking about.
09:14At T plus 7 minutes 18.
09:17One of the 3 large dots in the engine symbol goes out.
09:21Dan Hewitt explains shortly after.
09:23Engine 6.
09:24One of the 3 vacuum engines called RVAC for short.
09:27Shut down about 30 seconds too early.
09:30Similar to flight 12.
09:32That too.
09:32In the first flight of version 3.
09:35The remaining 5 just burn longer.
09:38And ship 41 still reaches the planned trajectory.
09:42And now.
09:43Watch the black sky to the left above the fuselage.
09:46At T plus 50 seconds.
09:48A small almost full disk appears there.
09:51The moon.
09:52Two days.
09:53After the full moon.
09:54Illuminated to 96%.
09:58At T plus 7 minutes 45.55.
10:02You can even still see the launch cloud below.
10:05Which has now risen much higher.
10:07For me.
10:07This is the most powerful image of this ascent.
10:10Because that's exactly where one vision for this ship would take people.
10:13The first landing is now planned for Artemis 4.
10:16At the beginning of 28.
10:19Artemis 3 in 2027 will only be an undocking test in Earth orbit.
10:25The engine cutoff called SECO or second engine cutoff.
10:28Happens at T plus 8 minutes 33.
10:30Instead of the planned T plus 8 minutes 11.
10:33At around 26,500 kilometers per hour.
10:38At an altitude of 165 kilometers.
10:42The spacecraft is in space.
10:44But on a trajectory that would bring it back to the Indian Ocean on its own.
10:48At T plus 8 minutes 52.
10:50Dan Hewitt gives the warning.
10:52Even an engine failure during ascent could already cause you not to reach orbit.
10:57And at T plus 11 minutes 44.
11:01The statement is made.
11:03The team has decided not to commit to orbit.
11:07The Starlink satellites should stay on board.
11:10At T plus 12 minutes 34.
11:13The turnaround.
11:14They're trying to reset the hold.
11:15And you're getting this in real time.
11:17Says Hewitt.
11:18Just as I'm seeing it myself.
11:20At T plus 12 minutes 53.
11:23Then we are not giving up on reaching orbit yet.
11:26The failed RVAC is no longer needed.
11:30What's crucial are the three inner sea level raptors.
11:33Because only they ignite for the insertion and later for the return trip.
11:37At T plus 15 minutes 23.
11:40The good news.
11:42All three are healthy.
11:44The trajectory.
11:45This time by the way.
11:46Passed south of Cuba.
11:48And while there was discussion in the control room.
11:51The ship moved over the northern coast of South America.
11:55River mouths.
11:56Sediment plumes in the sea.
11:58Cloud fields stretching to the horizon.
12:00These are images you could frame.
12:03At T plus 18 minutes 44.
12:06Hewitt explains the maneuver.
12:08A single raptor is supplied from the small header tanks in the nose.
12:12An ignition from these tanks in space has happened before.
12:16An insertion into orbit has never happened.
12:19Just before.
12:20T plus 22 minutes.
12:22He then says the sentence.
12:23We are going into orbit.
12:25The broadcast switches to cheering people in Starbase and Hawthorne.
12:29They've done it.
12:30But that was only half the battle.
12:32At T plus 25 minutes 19 it says.
12:37Burn 2 has started.
12:40In the engine bay you can clearly see how two of the three sea level raptors swing out of the
12:44way.
12:45One ignites and controls.
12:47After that both return to their original position.
12:49About 15 seconds.
12:51And the display climbs from 26,042 to 26,368 km per hour.
13:01No alarms on the board.
13:03And at T plus 26 minutes and 12 seconds.
13:06Hewitt confirms the successful insertion.
13:08According to the display the altitude then fluctuated between about 263 and 277 km.
13:15At around 26,400 km per hour.
13:19So that's about 7.3 km per second.
13:23That means we had a slightly elliptical orbit.
13:26The apogee.
13:27That is the highest point of the orbit.
13:29Was therefore around 277 km.
13:33SpaceX itself says the orbit was 275 km.
13:38According to my calculations.
13:40The short burst provided about 90 meters per second.
13:44Exactly these, 90 meters per second, separate a ship that inevitably comes down, falls down,
13:51from one that stays up until it wants to come back.
13:54At T plus 32 minutes and 40 seconds the payload bay door opens.
13:59Deployment was deliberately slow.
14:02About one satellite per minute.
14:03Because this time they were meant to stay.
14:06At T plus 35 minutes and six seconds.
14:11The first one is out.
14:13The V3 are monsters.
14:15Each satellite about one terabit per second downlink.
14:19Six lasers with up to 400 gigabits for the network in space.
14:24Built in Redmond near Seattle.
14:26All 26 together deliver up to 26 terabits.
14:30According to Starlink.
14:31About 10 times that of a Falcon 9 launch.
14:35With 60 satellites per starship in the future.
14:39One launch will even replace 20 Falcon 9 launches.
14:43With an internal price of about 15 million US dollars.
14:46A single operational launch will thus save 300 million in Falcon 9 launch costs.
14:53By the way some tiles on the ship were intentionally painted white.
14:58To the cameras they look like missing tiles.
15:01At T plus 37.
15:03The coast of southern Africa passes beneath the ship.
15:06And again and again.
15:08The ship rotates into a new orientation.
15:11You can see it on screen and below.
15:13On the attitude display.
15:14At T plus 49 minutes 28.
15:18You can see two of the deployed satellites.
15:20As they are already positioning themselves.
15:22At T plus 51 minutes and 30 seconds.
15:25You can already see four in the picture.
15:27And there are more and more.
15:29At T plus 52 minutes and 38 seconds.
15:34The ship crosses the day night boundary.
15:36The image shifts in seconds.
15:39From gold to deep blue.
15:40And at 53 minutes 26.
15:43The first three satellites already have laser contact.
15:47Now comes the sequence that I love most about this flight.
15:50From T plus one hour and one minute.
15:53The islands of Southeast Asia shine below in the night.
15:57And according to the commentary.
15:58The small points of light in the background.
16:00Are the satellites that have just been deployed.
16:03The last three satellites have powerful spotlights and cameras.
16:07That look at the tiles.
16:08Before SpaceX brings the ship back to the launch site.
16:12The heat shield has to be practically flawless.
16:15And only someone flying alongside that information can see that.
16:19At T plus one hour two minutes 16.
16:22The light of the first of these three comes on.
16:25The ship lights up in the middle of the night.
16:27And from T plus one hour six minutes 37.
16:30It slowly rotates for the scan.
16:33At T plus one hour four minutes 25.
16:37Number 26 is out.
16:40Shortly after SpaceX reports contact with all 26.
16:43Via laser ground stations.
16:45And also customer terminals.
16:47SpaceX showed what the deployment looked like from a satellite's perspective.
16:51After splashdown.
16:52The camera is mounted on the satellite.
16:55Behind it the entire starship drifts away.
16:59And you can see how the next satellite is already coming out.
17:03Until recently we only knew this scene from animations.
17:07During the long free flight phase.
17:09Cameras and even Starlink transmitters were powered down.
17:12At T plus one hour 26 minutes and 29 seconds.
17:16The control room checks back in.
17:18The plan was to use the first checkpoint and return earlier.
17:21Did the orbit burn at about two hours and twelve minutes.
17:24Landing in the North Pacific after a little over three hours.
17:28Even that is more than three times as long as any previous starship mission.
17:33SpaceX says it made that decision out of caution.
17:36Because of the engine problem during ascent.
17:39The new target was far north of Hawaii.
17:42The astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell counts two orbits around the Earth.
17:47My assessment clearly marked as an opinion is clear.
17:50That was correct.
17:52The six orbits were mainly meant to show how the ship withstands temperature changes for hours.
17:58And if you've just lost an engine.
18:01For reasons that are still unclear.
18:03You'd rather secure the data you already have.
18:06For the braking thrust starship turns.
18:09The rear is now facing the direction of flight.
18:12At T plus two hours 12 minutes and 20 seconds.
18:16Two raptors in the engine bay swing out of the way again.
18:19And one ignites.
18:20The speed drops from 26,382 to 26,187 kilometers per hour.
18:29By my calculation that's about 54 meters per second.
18:33That's all it takes for the trajectory to dip into the atmosphere.
18:36By T plus two hours 39.
18:39Ship 41 drops from 270 to 121 kilometers.
18:46And because it's falling, it actually gets faster as it goes.
18:49Without this ignition, a starship in orbit would be a piece of space debris weighing over 100 tons
18:56that would eventually come down uncontrollably.
18:59Flight 14 delivered them from a real orbit for the first time.
19:04A short pause before things really heat up.
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19:25And now hold on tight.
19:27We're heading back into the atmosphere.
19:29At T plus two hours 40 minutes and 35 seconds,
19:33the first plasma appears on the flap camera at an altitude of 115 kilometers.
19:39First purple white, then orange, red and pink.
19:41At around two hours and 43 minutes,
19:46the flaps take control.
19:48And at T plus two hours 44 minutes and 41 seconds,
19:54starship reaches its top speed of 26,948 kilometers per hour.
19:59When there aren't any vortices running through the plasma,
20:02it looks like it's standing still.
20:04And compared to flight 13, far fewer sparks are flying off.
20:09That's good news because sparks mean that material is being eroded.
20:12At T plus two hours 47 minutes and 29 seconds,
20:16the control room switches to a fish eye camera above the lower control surface.
20:20All around a pink violet plasma halo at T plus two hours 55 21.
20:28The strongest heating occurs at T plus three hours one minute.
20:33It's still Mach 12.
20:34The energy from the fuel that was put into the rocket through the engines.
20:39Now all has to be dissipated again.
20:42Flaps and heat shield are now converting it into heat and airing.
20:52And that's exactly when the plasma glows in bright magenta.
20:57From T plus three hours, three minutes, 24 seconds.
21:00The view is clear.
21:02Deep blue sky and the heat shield turned golden brown.
21:05What the heat shield looks like overall will only be shown by the images from the camera satellites.
21:09And as of today, September 29th, those images are not available.
21:14Not yet.
21:15At three hours, four minutes.
21:18Ship 41 is still traveling at about 6,000 kilometers per hour.
21:22Now comes the belly flop controlled with four flaps like a skydiver.
21:26With arms and legs.
21:28And then the sun rises over the Pacific.
21:31I say that in every starship analysis.
21:34So, again now.
21:35We have the most beautiful planet far and wide.
21:39So, be good to each other.
21:40And to it.
21:41At T plus three hours 6 minutes 13.
21:44The ship is subsonic.
21:46At around 18 kilometers altitude.
21:49You can clearly see now how the flaps are working and actively steering the ship.
21:54First, one flies to the right and then one to the left.
21:57At T plus three hours 7 minutes and 12.
21:59The flight control reports it's flying exactly toward the landing zone.
22:04At T plus three hours 7 minutes and 45.
22:07The final approach begins.
22:08Still about 440 kilometers per hour.
22:11At an altitude of 5 kilometers.
22:13At three hours 8 minutes and 16.
22:17All three sea level Raptor engines ignite at just over one kilometer altitude.
22:21And pull the ship into a vertical position.
22:24After that it goes down to two.
22:26Then to one engine.
22:27The final readings on board are below 40 kilometers per hour.
22:31At around 100 meters altitude.
22:33An external camera which was previously placed there with a buoy.
22:37Shows ship 41 just above the water in a cloud of fire and steam.
22:41And at T plus three hours 8 minutes 34.
22:46Comes the call out.
22:49Starship has landed.
22:51The splashdown itself was soft and precise.
22:54Then the ship tipped over and exploded.
22:57A fireball blazes on the water.
22:59Hewitt called it dry.
23:01Not quite as extra soft as last time.
23:03But Starship is in the water.
23:05After flight 13.
23:07Where an intact ship was floating in the Indian Ocean.
23:10This feels like a step backwards.
23:13I think that's the wrong perspective.
23:14Because what was tested was the approach and the splashdown.
23:18By the way.
23:19Ship 40 is on its way home.
23:21On the semi-submersible ship Forte.
23:23And is scheduled to arrive in Brownsville on October 8th.
23:27Not a question that can be missing on a channel called Mars Chronicles.
23:31Flight 14 was a step toward Mars.
23:35Anyone who wants to go there will have to be refueled by tankers in Earth orbit.
23:39And for that you need exactly what worked for the first time today.
23:43A ship stable in orbit.
23:45That controls how it comes back down.
23:48For the next step transferring fuel between two ships.
23:51There is no set date yet.
23:55Finally my assessment.
23:56And it's two-fold.
23:58Flight 14 delivered everything it was supposed to.
24:02The first orbit.
24:03The first deployment of a payload with contact with all 26 satellites.
24:08The first.
24:09The orbit burn.
24:10A precise approach after three hours.
24:14In addition a booster that performed its landing burn with exactly the minimum number of engines.
24:20The other half is called Raptor.
24:22Two engines on the booster.
24:25One on the ship.
24:26And an RVAC that fails during ascent.
24:29Is already the second one in version 3.
24:32After flight 12.
24:34As long as SpaceX doesn't name the cause.
24:37That remains the biggest unanswered question.
24:39Just like the long term test with six orbits.
24:42After flight 12.
24:44The FAA requested an investigation.
24:46Whether they will do that again is still open.
24:48Flight 15 was listed on a planning slide from US air traffic authorities.
24:53With the date October 19th.
24:55A Starlink mission 11 days later is listed by NASA spaceflight as launching from launch pad 39A in Florida.
25:04Both are preliminary.
25:05At the time of publication I personally hold a position in SpaceX stock.
25:10And I expressly do not give any buy or sell recommendation.
25:14This video is a journalistic analysis.
25:17Not investment advice.
25:18And one last detail.
25:19Exactly.
25:2118 years earlier to the day.
25:24So on September 28 2008.
25:27Falcon 1 reached orbit on its fourth attempt.
25:31As the first privately developed liquid fueled rocket.
25:34Back then with a 165 kg dummy payload.
25:38Today with 26 real satellites.
25:43What do you think?
25:44Was aborting the six orbits too cautious or just right?
25:48And when will we see the first catch of a ship at the tower?
25:52Let me know in the comments.
25:53My name is Sirvan and this was Mars Chronicles.
25:56Thanks for tuning in per aspera ad astra.