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A week after landing in the Indian Ocean, Starship\h
is still floating. And SpaceX just made a decision\h\h

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nobody expected. They're going to get it.
At the same time, Elon Musk posted five\h\h

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words about the tower arms that change everything\h
about the next flight. And he put a date on Mars.

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My name is Felix. Welcome to What About It!?
Let’s dive right in! Starship Updates

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Let's start in the Indian Ocean, because Ship 40\h
is still there. I saw your comments asking what\h\h

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will happen to Ship 40. Here’s your answer.
One week after Flight 13's splashdown,\h\h

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the ship is floating on its belly, intact, riding\h
the waves. On Wednesday, Musk posted video of it\h\h

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with the caption "Starship still floating in the\h
ocean." A version 3 Starship, bobbing in the sea\h\h

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like it has nowhere else to be.
That rhymes!\h

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Remember, these ships are not designed to\h
float. They're designed to be caught. Every\h\h

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previous ship that survived its splashdown\h
tipped over and exploded, and in return,\h\h

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sank shortly after. Ship 40 came down so\h
gently that it didn't either. It just stayed.\h

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And SpaceX has been watching it closely.
The official recovery team statement says\h\h

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they've continued gathering imagery of\h
the vehicle. Then Musk added the part\h\h

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that made headlines. Quote. "We're sending\h
a ship out to recover Starship." End quote.\h

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They're going to get it!
Think about what that means. If the recovery\h\h

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succeeds, SpaceX gets back the first Starship\h
that ever flew to space and survived. An intact,\h\h

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flown version 3 vehicle. The heat shield that\h
went through reentry, available for inspection\h\h

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tile by tile. The engines that performed the\h
landing burn, ready to be torn down and studied.\h\h

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Every weld and every bracket. This is the kind\h
of data you simply cannot get from telemetry.\h

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And before anyone asks about\h
the legal side, because the\h\h

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ship is sitting in waters near Australia.
The United States and Australia signed a\h\h

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Technology Safeguards Agreement in 2023,\h
and it entered into force in July 2024.\h\h

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It's the same type of treaty that lets Rocket\h
Lab, a US company, launch from New Zealand,\h\h

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and it explicitly covers launching and returning\h
US space technology on Australian soil. SpaceX\h\h

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would still need Australian permits, but bringing\h
a Starship into an Australian port is not blocked.\h\h

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The path is open. So, where does Ship 40 end up?
I don't know yet. But if that ship ever stands\h\h

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at Starbase as a display piece, it will be\h
the most historically significant rocket\h\h

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exhibit since the Saturn V displays.
There’s a Spot being built right now at\h\h

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Starbase. And the leading theory is that it will\h
be a new Rocket Garden, since the old one lost\h\h

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public access a while ago. A display of what’s\h
happened and what’s to come. Ship 40 would be\h\h

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just the item for that display.
Now to the post that\h\h

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matters most for what comes next.
On Wednesday morning, Musk wrote, quote, "The\h\h

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ship landing was precise, meaning that it would\h
have been caught by the tower arms." End quote.\h

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So, the Flight 13 splashdown wasn't\h
just soft. It was accurate to within\h\h

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catch tolerance. If Mechazilla had been\h
standing in the Indian Ocean, Ship 40\h\h

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would be hanging in the chopsticks right now.
That's the strongest possible endorsement of\h\h

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a Flight 14 catch attempt, and it comes\h
from measured landing data, not optimism.\h

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The question we asked two episodes ago was\h
how SpaceX proves a ship is precise enough\h\h

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and healthy enough to bring home. Flight 13\h
just answered the precision half in full.\h

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And the health got its own answer this week too.\h
Musk confirmed, quote, "This flight intentionally\h\h

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had much higher acceleration to test how well the\h
heat shield tiles would remain attached at high\h\h

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dynamic pressure. Test was successful." End quote.
So the tiles held through the hardest ascent\h\h

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profile Starship has ever flown. The landing\h
was catch-accurate. And on top of all of that,\h\h

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the FAA confirmed that no mishap investigation\h
is required for Flight 13, despite the booster's\h\h

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early boostback shutdown. The regulatory\h
path to Flight 14 is completely clear.\h

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Every gate to the first ship catch in\h
history is now open. Which brings us to\h\h

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the vehicle that will fly through those gates.
In the night of July 26th, Ship 41 received its\h\h

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third and final vacuum Raptor. The sea-level\h
engines are harder to spot because of their\h\h

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height behind the fence, but there's a good\h
chance they're being installed as we speak.\h\h

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Ship 41 should essentially be engine-complete.
So let's do the estimate. When can we expect\h\h

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Flight 14 to take place knowing all this?
Ship 39 got its engines in early April and\h\h

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flew on May 22nd. About 7 weeks. Ship 40\h
got its engines June 5th and flew on July\h\h

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24th. Also about 7 weeks, and that included a\h
strange single-engine static fire, a rollback,\h\h

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and a launch abort with six engine swaps.
Ship 41 is finishing engines right now,\h\h

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at the end of July. Seven weeks from now\h
is mid-September. But here's the thing.\h

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Both previous timelines carried heavy delays.\h
If Ship 41's static fire campaign runs clean,\h\h

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late August is absolutely in play. Exactly\h
the monthly cadence Shotwell promised,\h\h

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and almost exactly the August timeline\h
we extrapolated a few episodes back.\h

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Flight 14's launch date will tell us, more\h
precisely than any statement could, whether\h\h

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SpaceX has finally beaten the gremlins.
Gremlins is a perfect segue for this…

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Alright… watch this.

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Some people are planning to break into a house,\h
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security camera. Nice James Bond roll there, bro.\h
This part is actually what caught my attention.\h\h

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what you just saw is called Active Guard.

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There’s no Safe Like SimpliSafe. Try it out today\h
and help "What about it?!" in return! Safe and\h\h

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00:07:19,840 --> 00:07:26,160
sound! Now to the other Musk post of the week. And\h
this one puts a date on the biggest goal of all.\h

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In a reply to Peter Diamandis and NASA\h
Administrator Jared Isaacman, Musk wrote,\h\h

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quote, "People on Mars in roughly 5 to 7 years.\h
Mars lander a few years sooner." End quote.\h

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Let's translate that into calendar terms.\h

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People on Mars in 5 to 7 years means crewed\h
landing somewhere between 2031 and 2033.\h\h

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A lander a few years sooner points at the 2029 or\h
2031 Mars transfer windows for the first uncrewed\h\h

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touchdown. Yes. Uh now, I know what some of you\h
are thinking. Musk has given Mars dates before.\h

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In 2016, the plan was cargo by 2022 and\h
crew by 2024. Those dates came and went.\h\h

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So why take this one seriously?
Here's why this one is different.\h

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Every previous Mars timeline was announced by a\h
company that didn't yet have the rocket. This one\h\h

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comes from a company that flew that rocket last\h
Friday, landed it precisely enough to be caught,\h\h

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is building the next three vehicles in parallel,\h
has a pad designed for a launch every 60 minutes,\h\h

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and just raised $86 billion explicitly\h
to spend on things like a Moon and Mars\h\h

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base. The prospectus literally lists\h
it. Now, I'm not saying 2031 happens.\h

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Mars transfer windows are unforgiving, and orbital\h
refueling, the single technology that makes any of\h\h

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this possible, hasn't been demonstrated yet.\h
But for the first time, the gap between the\h\h

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stated date and the existing hardware is a\h
gap of execution, not a gap of imagination.\h

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And one more note on this. Musk gave a long\h
interview to The Economist this week, 85 minutes.

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Starship came up exactly once, when he reaffirmed\h
the plan to launch it more than once per hour.\h\h

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Asked directly whether he's shifted his focus\h
from Mars to AI, he answered that he's interested\h\h

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in whatever propagates consciousness\h
into the future to the maximum degree.
 \h

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"You know, in the case of SpaceX, I need\h
... I want to extend consciousness beyond\h\h

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Earth and and have a growing civilization on the\h
Moon, Mars, and elsewhere in the solar system."

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Make of that what you will. But the concrete\h
Mars numbers didn't come from the interview.\h\h

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They came from a reply on X. Sometimes the\h
most important statements are five words long.\h

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Now an update on an old friend. And what\h
about very old friends? The mystery nose cone.\h

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You remember this one. The strange bracket near\h
the tip. The pipe socket. The six connection\h\h

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holes. We speculated about a propellant transfer\h
interface. The community speculated about a\h\h

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docking adapter for Artemis. Well, this week the\h
cone rolled to Mega Bay 2, and observers are now\h\h

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describing it as a structural test nose cone.
And the supporting evidence is interesting.\h

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A small reaction frame has been placed onto a\h
casting that forms the base of a PEZ dispenser,\h\h

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with hydraulic hard lines and valve hardware\h
added. The leading read is that this setup\h\h

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will mimic the high stresses that the satellite\h
loader experiences during liftoff and max Q.\h\h

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More steel has also been added to the tip of the\h
nose, pointing to further load testing up there.\h

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So the picture forming is this. It's\h
a test article for structural loads.\h

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And that connects directly to what Musk\h
just confirmed. Flight 13 deliberately flew\h\h

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a higher-acceleration, higher-dynamic-pressure\h
ascent to carry more payload. If SpaceX wants\h\h

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to keep pushing in that direction, they\h
need to prove on the ground that the nose,\h\h

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the payload bay, and the PEZ loader can take\h
it. That's likely what this article is for.\h

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Is that the final answer?\h
Not officially confirmed.\h

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The connections at the tip still don't have a\h
stated purpose, so a fueling or docking role for\h\h

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that specific hardware isn't dead. But "structural\h
test article" is now the confirmed category.\h

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What do you think? Does the load-testing\h
explanation cover those six holes,\h\h

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or is there still more to this\h
cone? Let me know in the comments!\h

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At Pad 1, the old ship quick disconnect\h
arm has been removed from Tower 1. The\h\h

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Buckner LR11000 lowered it to the ground on\h
Monday, where it's headed for demolition.\h\h

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Parts for the new QD arm are already\h
staged at Sanchez, right next to the\h\h

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Bays. Ready for construction. The Tower\h
1 rebuild has reached the arm-swap stage.\h

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And at the Cape, it's now\h
official through all channels.

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The final module of SLC-37A's Starship\h
tower has been stacked. The tower we\h\h

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watched go from module 6 topped out in 11\h
days is complete, and outfitting comes next.\h

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So, what does this all mean?
A ship floating in the Indian Ocean,\h\h

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about to be recovered, that landed precisely\h
enough to be caught. Tiles that held through\h\h

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the hardest ascent ever flown. A clean bill from\h
the FAA. The next ship taking its final engines.\h\h

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And a Mars date backed, for the first\h
time, by hardware that actually exists.\h

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Every thread runs through the same needle.\h
Flight 14, and the first attempt in history\h\h

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to catch a Starship out of the sky.
The ship that would have been caught\h\h

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is floating in the ocean. The ship that\h
will be caught is sitting in Mega Bay 2.\h

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Excitement guaranteed!
Yay! You’ve reached the middle of the video!\h\h

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You made it! Thank you from the bottom of my heart\h
for watching and liking the video! If you’re among\h\h

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00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:52,560
the 40% who haven’t subscribed yet, and there was\h
at least one video you learned something new from,\h\h

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00:12:52,560 --> 00:12:57,520
it would mean the world to me if you did. It’s\h
free, and it genuinely helps more people find\h\h

145
00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:02,480
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146
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members club on Patreon and right here on\h
YouTube. Click the card or the join button\h\h

147
00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:13,360
right here under the video! You’re the reason\h
we keep doing this. Thank you so much! You Rock!

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Rocket Lab just announced that the company\h
will add another launch site to its portfolio.\h\h

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It’s located in one of the wildest, most\h
remote corners of North America: Alaska.

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Thinking about Alaska, you likely picture\h
snow, bears, and an endless wilderness,\h\h

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but most likely not rockets. So,\h
why does Rocket Lab make this move?

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The answer lies somewhere between physics\h
and money. Here’s the deal: last week,\h\h

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the US Space Force handed Rocket\h
Lab a contract worth up to $266\h\h

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00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:49,120
million. That's the money part. This firm,\h
fixed-price order is for a run of suborbital\h\h

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launches. 12 of them are already locked\h
in, but there is an option for six more\h\h

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launches on top. The first flight is set\h
for no earlier than the end of this year.

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Most of these missions will fly from\h
a brand-new Rocket Lab launch pad at\h\h

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the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak Island.

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00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:10,400
This addition makes Alaska the third\h
launch site alongside Rocket Lab's\h\h

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00:14:10,400 --> 00:14:15,920
home turf in New Zealand, and its two pads\h
over in Virginia at the Wallops Space Port.

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The paperwork is not quite specific about\h
which rocket actually does the flying. But\h\h

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there’s really only one vehicle in Rocket Lab’s\h
hangar that fits the bill. Ever heard of HASTE.

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HASTE stands for Hypersonic Accelerator\h
Suborbital Test Electron. Yeah,\h\h

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00:14:31,440 --> 00:14:36,160
that’s a mouthful, but it explains quite\h
clearly what this rocket is all about.\h\h

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Take Rocket Lab’s little Electron rocket.\h
That is the one that normally transports\h\h

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small satellites to orbit. But the\h
HASTE variant has a different focus.

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It’s a heavily modified version of Electron that\h
is not intended to circle the globe. Instead,\h\h

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the mission profile is to\h
launch test hardware fast,\h\h

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high, and then straight back\h
down. A suborbital flight.

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Simply up and down again.

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You can think of HASTE as a delivery van\h
for hypersonics. Those are devices that\h\h

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fly faster than five times the speed\h
of sound. That is just the kind of\h\h

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tech that both weapons programs and\h
missile-defense teams are desperate\h\h

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to test over and over. And HASTE has flown a\h
perfect record since its debut back in 2023.

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One question still remains, though. Why\h
Alaska? Why bother to go all the way north\h\h

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to a foggy island where the neighbors\h
are Kodiak bears? Well, bear with me.

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When a rocket launches, it can't just\h
fly off in any direction it likes. You\h\h

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can point it only out over the open\h
and empty ocean. Never over cities,\h\h

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never near people. Too risky. What if it fails?\h
What if it crashes down onto populated areas?

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Besides China, no one does that…

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This has its own surprising implications.\h
The compass direction you launch in\h\h

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ultimately decides the tilt of the path it flies.

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That is what engineers call the inclination.

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Launch to east, and you will get\h
a shallow, equator-hugging path.

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Fire up toward the poles, and you end up\h
with a steep, high tilted inclination.

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Engineers testing missile-defense systems\h
love those steep trajectories. When you take\h\h

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that into account, you’ll find out that most\h
launch sites are simply bad for your needs.

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Take Florida, or Rocket Lab’s own Pads in\h
Virginia. These are all built to fire east.\h\h

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Straight out over the Atlantic Ocean.\h
That’s perfect for the usual orbits,\h\h

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unless you want to go steep. That would\h
lead to a flight path over populated areas.

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There is a sort of a cheat that can be\h
used. A maneuver called a dog-leg. No,\h\h

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not that leg. A mid-flight swerve intended to\h
bend the path onto the angle the mission needs.

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This comes with a major drawback, though:\h\h

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A dog-leg maneuver is expensive\h
in both cost and capacity.

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Picture merging onto the freeway,\h
but instead of a clean on-ramp,\h\h

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there is a building in the way. You have to brake,\h
swerve around it, and then accelerate again.

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You lose speed, so you have to burn extra fuel\h
to gain it back. Extra fuel means extra weight,\h\h

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and extra weight always leads\h
to less payload capacity.

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Kodiak is a perfect solution. It\h
sits way up north at 57° latitude.\h\h

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The island is surrounded by the ocean and offers\h
a wide range of directions you might need.

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The launch site offers the widest range\h
of headings of any commercial spaceport\h\h

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00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:31,200
in the United States. In fact, the\h
site offers the full arc from 59\h\h

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all the way to 110°. and there is nothing\h
but cold water below your rocket's path.

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No dog-legs. No swerving. Just aim and\h
go, straight onto the angle you want.\h\h

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And because the whole thing faces the Pacific,\h
you've got a huge open runway of ocean to watch\h\h

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a hypersonic vehicle streak across and splash\h
down. All while staying well away from anybody.

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And that’s the whole secret. Kodiak isn’t cheaper,\h\h

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and yes, it is unforgivingly cold.\h
But it is in the perfect location.

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For high-tilt, national-security testing,\h
that geometry isn't a nice-to-have. That\h\h

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makes Kodiak Island the only readily\h
available option. Which is why this\h\h

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quiet island has quietly hosted\h
secret military tests for years.

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A fact that Rocket Lab and the Space Force can now\h\h

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profit from. Kodiak already has testing\h
infrastructure. That’s the reason why a\h\h

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new launch site can be established\h
in mere months instead of years.

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Let’s stick with Rocket Lab, but move over to\h\h

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00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:34,080
the much more inviting facilities\h
over at Wallops Island, Virginia.

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00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:39,440
This is Launch Complex 3, the home of the\h
company’s big new Neutron rocket. The one\h\h

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00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:45,200
we’re all waiting for. The one with the very\h
Bond-rocket-looking “Hungry Hippo” fairing system.

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00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:49,360
NSF’s eagle-eyed Micah Pieczarka\h
caught the Rocket Lab crews doing\h\h

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00:18:49,360 --> 00:18:53,360
some serious heavy lifting last\h
week. A crane was rigged up early\h\h

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00:18:53,360 --> 00:18:57,840
in the morning and it had come to take\h
some hardware off Neutron’s launch pad.

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This contraption is the second-stage\h
static-fire test stand. Using this adapter,\h\h

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00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:06,880
the company can perform upper-stage\h
testing right on the launch mount.

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00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:11,920
Kind of like when SpaceX static-fired upper\h
stages on the OLM after they lost the Massey\h\h

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00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:17,920
test stand during the Ship 36 explosion. With\h
a difference that this is intended. Not a fix.

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00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:22,480
Soon the crane hoisted the static-fire\h
test stand clean off the pad in a slow,\h\h

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controlled 180° swing. After about 9 minutes,\h
it set it down just to the right of the pad.

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But there was no transport trailer or\h
SPMT waiting for it. From the looks of it,\h\h

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the stand will stay nearby, ready to be\h
used in further testing in the future.

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But there is another, intriguing possibility. This\h
move could have been part of the preparation for\h\h

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mating the actual Neutron Second stage. A moment\h
the whole space industry and space fans alike\h\h

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00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:54,080
are waiting for. I’ll keep watching this closely\h
and let you know as soon as something moves here.

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Let’s leave Wallops eastward\h
and move on over to Spain,\h\h

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to the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex.

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00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:04,960
Never heard of that? You are not alone.\h
This is one of the quieter NASA sites,\h\h

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00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:08,000
but at the same time it’s\h
one of the most important.

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Let me explain.

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00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:12,880
Sending your spacecraft to orbit and\h
beyond is one thing. But once it’s out\h\h

239
00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:16,640
there, you still have to be able to\h
communicate with it. And last week,\h\h

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00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:23,040
one of humanity's most important pairs of ears\h
came terrifyingly close to burning to the ground.

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00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:28,400
Spain, right now, is living through some of\h
the worst wildfires in modern European history.\h\h

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00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,520
It suffered three brutal heatwaves back to back;\h\h

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00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:39,040
a national emergency was declared, and over\h
300,000 people evacuated across Spain and France.

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00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:43,920
Sitting right in the path of the flames,\h
about 65 kilometers west of Madrid,\h\h

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00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:48,480
is a place every single deep-space\h
mission leans on: The Madrid Deep\h\h

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00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:53,920
Space Communications Complex. And\h
On July 24th, the fire reached it.

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00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:58,640
NASA pulled all 90 people off the site,\h
and then came the sentence nobody wanted\h\h

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00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:03,280
to read in an official statement: The\h
wildfire has passed through the complex.

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00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:07,680
It was not a near miss; instead, the\h
flames rolled across the grounds where\h\h

250
00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:13,280
six giant radio dishes have been\h
listening to spacecraft since 1964.

251
00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:17,120
Amongst them, a monster of\h
an antenna: 70 m across,\h\h

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00:21:17,120 --> 00:21:22,800
about as wide as a football pitch,\h
weighing around 2,700 tons. The\h\h

253
00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:27,600
weight of seven fully loaded jumbo\h
jets balanced on a single swivel.

254
00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:31,520
But why does one dish farm\h
outside Madrid matter this much?

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00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:35,600
Here's the slightly nerve-wracking\h
design choice. NASA's Deep Space\h\h

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Network has just three sites: This one in Spain,\h\h

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one at Goldstone in the California desert,\h
and one near Canberra in Australia.

258
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:50,640
They're spaced almost perfectly evenly around\h
the planet, roughly 120° apart. This spacing is\h\h

259
00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:56,560
the trick. As the Earth spins, one site is always\h
in view of whatever spacecraft you’re trying to\h\h

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00:21:56,560 --> 00:22:01,920
reach. And that's what ensures there's no moment\h
where NASA goes deaf to a deep space probe.

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00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:06,480
This system is what is holding up every\h
conversation we have with Voyager,\h\h

262
00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:11,040
with the Mars Rover fleet, essentially\h
with everything past Earth orbit.

263
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:15,600
If you take away one of these three\h
stations, even for a few hours a day,\h\h

264
00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:20,640
you punch a hole in the coverage that the\h
other two have to scramble to fill during\h\h

265
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:25,440
the times they have contact. This is\h
not an option. Not even for a day.

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And Madrid isn't just any station.

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It can combine its six dishes to form a virtual\h
mega-dish. And that is why we still have contact\h\h

268
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:39,840
with the Voyager probes. As they drift further\h
and further away, their whisper of a signal gets\h\h

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00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:45,040
so faint that only this configuration\h
can still pull the science data down.

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00:22:45,040 --> 00:22:47,760
But fortunately we can end with good news.

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00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:53,120
When NASA's team got back on site for a\h
first look on July 25th, the early word\h\h

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00:22:53,120 --> 00:22:58,880
was about as good as it could get: Damage to the\h
pavement and the scrubland around the dishes,\h\h

273
00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:03,920
but no significant structural damage to\h
the antennas or the buildings themselves.

274
00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:07,920
The fire ran right up to the\h
hardware, and the hardware survived!

275
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:12,640
A fuller inspection still has to happen, and\h
the site won't just flip back on overnight.\h\h

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00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:18,560
But the dishes appear to have made it. Madrid\h
should soon be fully back up and running and has\h\h

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00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:24,400
already started up again, at least partially. So,\h
everything is fine. But it shows how delicate this\h\h

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00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:30,480
deep space network really is. One bigger problem\h
is enough. Time to update the system? You tell me…

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00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:34,800
And that’s it for today! Smash that like\h
button. Subscribe for more! This is what\h\h

280
00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:39,120
fuels the Algorithm! And this is how you can help\h
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281
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282
00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:49,200
are there for you to explore! Click the card\h
or the US or worldwide link in the description!\h

283
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:54,400
History is being written in real time. If you want\h
to catch other historic stories from recent weeks,\h\h

284
00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:58,640
click the video on screen and continue\h
the journey now. Thank you for watching,\h\h

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00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:01,040
and I'll see you again in the next episode! Yahoo!