Starship Prepares for Flight, SpaceX Falcon Crashes, China Launch from Ocean & MORE Starliner Issues

Lots of Starbase news to cover again, as SpaceX prepares for Starship Flight 5, and we saw a staggering 3 Falcon 9 launches, one of them unfortunately coming to a fiery end. Blue Origin carried 6 crew to the edge of space on NS-26, Space Perspective's Voyager tourist craft was spotted at Port Canaveral for testing, China launched 6 satellites from an ocean platform, NASA's SLS program was hit with another colossal price tag, this time involving Block 1B's launch tower, Starliner faced more troubles aboard the ISS after Butch Wilmore discovered the craft to be creating some strange noises, Europa Clipper had its massive solar arrays installed and tested, and much, much more!
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[@newton.2.0.]

4:58 wdym they are the only ones to reuse the first stage, no hate but i'm confused

[@steveaustin2686]

I think he was saying the only OTHER company to reuse the first stage.

[@MattLowne]

@@steveaustin2686 how on Earth I made that verbal typo I have no idea 🤦‍♂🤦‍♂🤦‍♂ Yes - I was supposed to say the only OTHER company 😩😩

[@logandarklighter]

@@MattLowne I came to the comments to check and see if I was the only one that noticed that. Apparently not! Good on you, Matt, for owning it. It's okay, dude. Happens to all of us eventually. Doesn't getting old suck? 😅

[@misokocka2752]

i noticed it too

[@stanleydodds9]

@@MattLowne I'm still confused as to why virgin galactic doesn't also count, since it does the same thing as blue origin and is also reusable. To me it seems like all suborbital rockets are reusable these days.

[@lukamarko1037]

Space this week: Helping us space nerds survive mondays, one episode at a time

[@alexb-mc4jo]

Especially after school 🙏

[@Sjellokat]

This is the second thing I watched today, after the latest @PheonixSC video. Such a great thing to put my hurting feet up and chill to. For context, I just got home after a hard day of helping someone move their entire apartment, and storage unit over 7+ hours, including driving the largest possible U-Haul for over an hour and a half 😅

[@Hungary_0987]

@@Sjellokatwell, Have a relaxing day

[@Mike.The.Jeweler]

Man starliner just really setting records for not being able to hold itself together

[@alexholden]

“An ITAR-safe protective blanket” : otherwise known as an ITARP

[@judet2992]

😂

[@Allthegoodhandlesaretakenlmao]

Lmao

[@Hungary_0987]

Wwwhats the joke guys?

[@alexholden]

@@Hungary_0987 a “tarp” is a big sheet of waterproof cloth you use to cover stuff outdoors.

[@teebob21]

@@Hungary_0987 ITAR is a United States regulatory agency to restrict and control the export of defense and military technologies to safeguard national security. A tarp is a piece of material (such as durable plastic or waterproofed canvas) used especially for protecting exposed objects or areas; short for tarpaulin. A protective blanket that ensures ITAR regulations are met could be referred to as an ITARP.

[@Wise_Snowy]

Imagine someone was was playing subnautica while watching this LMAO

[@Tizzy_22]

i was but below zero lol

[@Random7303]

Rare non-starship thumbnail

[@MattLowne]

You're one of the people who got served a non Starship thumbnail lol - KZbin lets you upload 3 thumbs, and it serves them randomly to different people, then sets the thumbnail as whatever got the most clicks. So far it's never not been a Starship thumbnail that "won" 🤷‍♂

[@alexb-mc4jo]

​@@MattLowne I mean starship is cool so....

[@Helycon]

I too got a non starship thumbnail, Chinese B O A T

[@kyleallred984]

Stg 0 thumbnail.

[@Random7303]

@@MattLowne Whoa I didn’t know that.

[@sztosikdang]

Leviathans in space [1000 yard stare] Bc i played subnautica that was suprisngly not scary the voicline is just so iconic i recognized it imidietly

[@kyleallred984]

How didn't. I just laughed.

[@sztosikdang]

@@kyleallred984 undrrstandable, in the game it couses fear here its a joke, i just made a rly Bad comment

[@danielfiene7770]

Looking forward to the Neptune tourist craft. Neptune is woefully underdeveloped as a tourism destination.

[@mrman5517]

i've dealt with Bechtel before, they are a middle-man contracting company, and they are an absolute nightmare to deal with. its not surprising that the costs have blown out to incredible levels if they are involved. in my experience Bechtel's expectations of quality were totally unreasonable (i'm talking atomic levels of precision, for everything), and their contracts were insane. our standard job contract was 6 pages; Bechtel's was nearly 900 pages of convoluted and interlinked clauses, many of which were physically impossible to satisfy, and failure to meet any would result in forfeiture of payment and total liability for everything under the sun. the costs for any job under the control of Bechtel could easy be 20x higher than standard, and it would still not guarantee success.

[@mikesibanda8688]

5 years!!! I can’t believe time has flown so quick it felt like it was only yesterday I watched that live stream

[@PersonThatExi]

My Subnautica PTSD really kicking up after this video...

[@HenryHenriksen]

Yh, I was watching this in a dark room, and upon hearing that I nearly teared up from terror. Pluss the starliner sound is unsettling af.

[@nugs2727]

Can't wait to see IFT-5

[@awilliams1701]

wait......is that windows 8 that starliner is running? LMAO

[@clay-tw5gc]

I think it uses DOS.

[@Hungary_0987]

Windows 5e

[@awilliams1701]

@@clay-tw5gc I clearly saw windows 8's full screen tablet interface.

[@clay-tw5gc]

@@Hungary_0987 DOS is a Little more ancient than Windows 5e. Do you think that Boeing would use something as advanced as Windows 5e?

[@babouinbleu6229]

Love the subnautica ref !!

[@tertiaryobjective]

The life leaders teach SpaceX about the components they need to pay most attention to as boosters age.

[@light1haven]

I started seeing someone else's space weekly thing and was like wait no I wanna hear this from Matt and waited patently for my weekly news XD

[@NooOneSpecial]

Neptune capsule looks like an ISD shield bubble

[@SpaceflightOperator]

That subnautica audio scared me lmao

[@weazel235]

i live roughly 13 miles as the crow flies from the launch pads at the cape. I dont even flinch or realize when there is a launch even when the house shakes.

[@Wrangler-fp4ei]

Another great entry of news, I always look forward to your news updates. Please keep them up!

[@JohnJCB]

SpaceX forgot to set Mech Jeb to Kill Rotation and left it on Sealevel -

[@TheCebulon]

5:11 Thank you for using “passengers”.

[@notapplicable7292]

IFT-5 and New Glen are both so exciting!

[@alexb-mc4jo]

The falcon 9 first stage tripped over, dont embarrass it

[@therealjamespickering]

The Subnautica clip was hilarious.

[@hue_jojo5736]

I waited the whole week for space this week🎉🎉🎉

[@mongolloyd8310]

I have the greatest enthusiasm for the mission, Dave.

[@roadrunnernm8044]

For future reference, Bechtel is actually pronounced "Beck Tell". Thanks for the very informative episode.

[@triangle__boy1377]

That subnautica reference in the audio from the ISS genuinely terrified me, my heart rate went from 80 to 110 in a couple seconds. PTSD man, PTSD.

[@DeadBaron]

There's something poetic about that shot of the welder and the assistant with a hammer working on the arms. The hammer has existed since mankind were just living in caves. Now it's being used to help build the most advanced spacecraft and its recovery systems to date.

[@myfavoritemartian1]

That odd noise in Starliner is normal! (On a submarine)

[@jonathanbout]

Wasn't Starhopper meant to go into the new office building?

[@slothomatic]

Starliner becoming a cylon

[@tech5298]

Nice to see Blue Orchid returning from space. Eventually, all travelers will be landing on the Rockets instead of just letting them get thrown away and disposed of.

[@bq5575]

The Subnautica reference had me rolling

[@TheIshikawaRin]

Subnautica referenced, absolute cinema.

[@ExtraCrispyColonel]

I don't own Space Perspective but the CEO lives in my building, pretty cool that his business is actually getting covered more nowadays

[@sdebeaubien]

The cost overruns on the SLS launch tower are simply unbelievable. How something can balloon to well over 8x its original bid/contract price, even if it's an estimate is simply beyond belief. Although I worked on one program at Hughes Aircraft back in the late 1980's that was part of the original SDI (Star Wars) program. It was THE pathfinder for an infrared telescope that was designed to search the sky and detect (and help shoot down) incoming ballistic missiles. But it was something never done before, and wound up costing like 5x what the original estimate was, due to all kinds of factors. Nobody had ever built such a large and complex IR telescope like that before. Nowadays, everyone is building them, based on the findings in that program.

[@teebob21]

SLS has never been a space program. It has always been a government pork jobs program.

[@smugwendigo5123]

Corruption probably seems like it's getting worse and worse

[@sarbanisarkar8748]

3:16 Orbital shells!?!? Electron shells?! Starlink electron shells!!

[@NurmYokai]

8:47 .. "One ping only, please." Captain Ramius, The Hunt for Red October (1990).

[@goldgamercommenting2990]

8:47 starliner has a radar?!?! (Joke)

[@Tufftyted]

They should get SpaceX to be sign and build the new atriums launch tower. I bet it would be half the cost and would be built on time.

[@wormyboot]

Fort Canaveral? That's the first time I've ever seen it called that.

[@steveaustin2686]

He said Port Canaveral. That's the name of the port just south of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS).

[@MaNNeRz91]

That balloon thing looks horrifying

[@MindsOfMany]

that subnautica reference gave me flashbacks

[@tilmerkan3882]

FIVE YEARS since Starhoppers hop? It always feel like they have build Starship within last years time.

[@GilWanderley]

5:57 Just saying, the whole thing reminds me of a certain submarine.

[@Vadertoothless]

Before the subnautica stuff that noise for some reason gave me the creeps.

[@abusufyan6932]

Something is aboard the starliner making noise, maybe a xenomorph?

[@koffeekage]

The system is working as intended. As far as spending is going

[@stephengalanis]

Sure, the SLS costs a lot and is way behind schedule. Just give SpaceX the same treatment.

[@tilmerkan3882]

Thats not how power structures work. I'm always amazed, how people talk about scams, not naming it as a scam. Stop being polite to scammers. That whole SLS is a scam and the thieves involved in it are scammers.

[@steveaustin2686]

SpaceX has yet to get a cost-plus contract, so we don't know how well SpaceX would do. With Musk's propensity to over-promise on timelines and capabilities, SpaceX could very well run over budget too.

[@ICKY427]

thats crazy, how do you plan 44 flybys of a jupiter moon? imagine having a contract to do that in ksp, having to pass through one of jools moons sphere of influence 44 TIMES.

[@michaelreid2329]

Of course NASA could always split the load and use a couple of Falcon Heavy launches and recombine the payload in orbit. On the downside the size of the savings would probably defeat their Project Management capabilities.

[@steveaustin2686]

Already looked at and discarded because of the added complexity needed. It's also moot for Artemis IV and beyond as the 8.4m EUS won't fit on the 3.7m Falcon Heavy.

[@lukamarko1037]

9:00 uh-oh

[@wolfensteinf0017]

What about polaris dawn!? Any news on its new launch date?

[@wolfie3657]

IMO, the starliner sonar problem, is a very good thing, the only purpose for it's still being in space is testing, it is a test mission

[@steveaustin2686]

Evidently, it was a configuration mismatch on the intercom for the ISS, which is apparently not uncommon with the multitude of systems on the ISS.

[@danzstuff]

excited for IFT5

[@alexb-mc4jo]

Same

[@hawkdsl]

The new tower for Artemis hasn't cost that much. Those numbers are from a GAO report that is only a *projection*, and one that NASA has disagreed with. This is like the third time some report from the GAO has bumped heads with NASA, and it only gets parroted by every ding bat on the planet. I think it's the only time anyone pays attention to the GAO.

[@fireX30]

“I feel bad for American taxpayers” hit different

[@AzureImperium7701X]

11:10. I think it’s also named after clipper ships, fast light ships from the 1800s. Source is Wikipedia, so idk.

[@erfquake1]

Okay, say Mechazilla successfully catches the booster....and one or more of the engines are on fire, as seems to be a common occurrence. Does Mechazilla have fire suppression available for something higher up on the structure? Nothing on ground level is going to be of help.

[@DouglasGibsonjr-zn6mm]

As a Is subnautica player thank you

[@FarokhBulsara4065]

7:30 while SpaceX on their way to finish the third tower and about to take down the tower that already finished at pad 39 because it was already outdated.

[@Schmidtelpunkt]

And now imagine what would happen if Nasa did something like that. Which is the reason why there is an additional layer of hierarchy just to dot the Is and cross the Ts.

[@rwldvreal]

very nice go IFT 5 !

[@mohammedalnayar]

Man what is NASA doing.. first they create an architecture that is sooo complicated yet minimally communicated (with SaturnV being on another level). And now this budget cost for the tower??

[@Allthegoodhandlesaretakenlmao]

What is that net around the SLS in the animation at 8:10. Is it for cameras or something else?

[@steveaustin2686]

Do you mean the stays for the towers surrounding LC-39B? Those towers are part of the lightning system at the pad, to direct lightning away from the pad as much as possible, so as to not impact the spacecraft. SLC-40 has a similar set of towers and they come up in every NSF live stream for that pad during SpaceX launches.

[@NENG_likes_Memes]

What is the purpose of europa clipper if there is juice? Can it do special things juice can’t do?

[@CalMariner]

As a taxpayer, space equipment is the least troubling thing that taxes get spent on.

[@mangus6191]

Matthew, I've been a long time viewer of your channel but I don't tend to comment. Just wanted to let you know that you make my day when you upload. Your Kerbal Space Program videos have honestly defined the my life so far as I head off to college for dual Aerospace Engineering and Physics. I would have never have gotten into space development as much as I have without your outstanding videos. I am truly grateful for you.

[@steveaustin2686]

Second.

[@Schneck-su9jk]

Starliner: Is literally not safe for humans to return to earth from the ISS. FAA: 🙈 Falcon 9: Slips and fall after landing on a 100% otherwise successful mission. FAA: GROUNDED!

[@ONEIL311]

That’s the current administration for ya

[@teebob21]

This comment demonstrates a lack of understanding of how flight regulations work. The FAA regulates aircraft, private rockets and launch site safety to the extent they impact the safety of the uninvolved public. It is common practice for a vehicle type to be grounded during an incident investigation. The grounding is mostly administrative and procedural to ensure that the public at large is not put at risk by permitting common operation. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was grounded in 2013 following a battery fire on an Air Nippon flight. Following the failure of a door plug on an Alaska Airlines flight in January 2024, the FAA immediately grounded 171 Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft operated by U.S. airlines. In 1979, after the crash of American Airlines Flight 191, McDonnell Douglas DC-10 was grounded worldwide for 37 days.

[@steveaustin2686]

​@teebob21 EXACTLY. Landing is a part of the launch license that SpaceX put in, so the mishap triggered the investigation. The Atlas-V launching Starliner performed perfectly, so no FAA involvement. Issues in orbit fall to NASA who took steps about Starliner.

[@steveaustin2686]

🙄 Landing is a part of SpaceX's launch license, so triggered the mishap investigation. Starliner's problems were in orbit and fell under NASA.

[@steveaustin2686]

​@ONEIL311 🙄🤡 SpaceX put the landing as a part of flight in their license.

[@Stukov961]

I wonder just how many layers of grift are weighing down the SLS programme like a lead blanket.

[@Fishiest-Hylian]

85 likes 1 minute? Matt is bot falling off bro

[@Xtro_Tech]

My sources say ift5 should be happening on September 21st

[@hbr-v2h]

I know he's probably wearing a harness, but the dude at 0:07 climbing from one cherry picker to the other made me squirm a bit.

[@LegendaryGodKing]

lol imagine if they were using starliner for gateway! your on your 3 day trip to the moon and then starliner is all like dong... dong...dong...dong...dong...dong... (starliner is for low earth orbit, it has no business going to the moon!)

[@steveaustin2686]

Crew Dragon and Starliner are LEO only spacecraft without the shielding, lifesupport, or range to leave LEO.

[@nathanielokkonen643]

Nice

[@darksars3622]

Detectided a what :)

[@tim_peaky]

What company is making the sls launch platform? Is’t just madness that price!

[@tim_peaky]

@@Allthegoodhandlesaretakenlmao I think it’s different companies building the launch platform

[@steveaustin2686]

Bechtel is making ML-2 and made ML-1.

[@steveaustin2686]

@@Allthegoodhandlesaretakenlmao 🙄🤡 Starliner has nothing to do with Artemis or the ML-2. Starliner is under the NASA Commercial Crew program, which has fixed-price contracts, so Boeing has been paying for Starliner's fixes, per their SEC filings. If you want to blame NASA for Starliner, then NASA gets all the praise for Crew Dragon, as it is under the SAME NASA Commercial Crew program. AND NASA saved SpaceX with the Dec 2008 Commercial Resupply Services contract to develop and fly the Falcon 9 and Dragon to take cargo to the ISS.

[@LavenderCat175]

I LOVE YOU MATT

[@pzkfw_warthunder]

4:56 what? No it isnt?

[@steveaustin2686]

I think he was saying the only OTHER company to reuse the first stage.

[@stanleydodds9]

@@steveaustin2686 what about virgin galactic then, which does essentially the same thing and is fully reusable? I really don't understand what he means, it makes no sense to me.

[@steveaustin2686]

@@stanleydodds9 Virgin Galactic doesn't cross the Karman line with SpaceShipTwo and SpaceShipOne only did it 3 times out of 17 flights.

[@stanleydodds9]

@@steveaustin2686 there wasn't any mention of the karman line in the video, nor that it has to be reused at least 4 times or something to that effect... I don't understand your arbitrary restrictions that you seem to be imposing.

[@steveaustin2686]

@@stanleydodds9 🙄 No, it is that Virgin Galactic is NOT doing the same tourist flights as New Shepard, since only 3 test flights early in the program ever went above the Karman line. So Virgin Galactic's tourist flights are not seen the same as New Shepard's flights that do cross the Karman line. MORESO in that Virgin Galactic uses planes, whereas New Shepard has been landing a rocket booster, a much harder prospect.

[@BRAHHHHHH]

Nothing happened this week. Not even Polaris Dawn

[@steveaustin2686]

Weather in the landing area is delaying Polaris Dawn again.

[@EveryoneWhoUsesThisTV]

SLS is meant to be expensive.... :D Who wants cheap pork barrels?

[@TimDavies1955]

Why not catch a falcon first ?

[@chillindylan9828]

When spacewalk

[@JJMuted2]

WOW

[@Sphinxery101]

cool

[@jayse1834]

I hope for that cost the staging platform will also fly !!! What a SCAM !!

[@nobelchurch4338]

I love SLS but NASA is shooting itself in the foot in a lot of things. I'm going to have to check how much the Starship tower cost. I'm currently certain SpaceX has not spent over 2 bil, for their tower. So much competition in the industry continues to raise several "bars" higher and higher. NASA seems to be falling behind.

[@RandomSwedishGuy]

Wow

[@Blurgert]

Day 33 of asking you to play REAL SOLAR SYSTEM the KERBAL SPACE PROMGRAM 1 Mod (I may have forgotten yesterday)

[@Blurgert]

Whoops

[@Blurgert]

Day 34 of asking you to play REAL SOLAR SYSTEM the KERBAL SPACE PROMGRAM 1 Mod

[@barneyrubble8107]

Hi

[@Tw_space]

video11 of asking for oputer planets mod

[@80aj]

NASA and the US Gov't has allowed over priced, "over budget" programs for so long, it doesn't even register surprise. I think I could do a video naming all the items the US Military and NASA have done that came in UNDER budget in about 2 minutes. If we did the over's I would need 4 discord servers, 3 YT channels, and a hire about 47 admins to keep up with that content.

[@parkman29]

I would rather pay for nasa rather than the military

[@thisonepikachu]

Hiiii

[@HistoryOnPaper]

Aliens have decided to communicate and they’re doing it through the biggest failure since crypto.

[@leocaers1408]

I wonder how much the mechazilla cost to make. I don't think it's even above a 100million, let alone 2 billion. Stupid NASA and their contracting smh.

[@misokocka2752]

we need blunderbirds irl to save starliner and it's crew

[@Coyote27981]

Technically Booster 1062 landed succesfully, there was no crash. The fire and toppling came after. That is still a biggest success than any other rocket company.