0:02 you'll see this video that SpaceX put on
0:04 Twitter it's actually the entire single
0:06 take launch of the transporter 6 Mission
0:08 the mission that launched a little while
0:10 ago carrying 114 different payloads into
0:13 space now it's awesome because it's a
0:15 single take of this Rocket taking off
0:17 and going up and doing the flip and then
0:18 turning back around and coming back down
0:21 and landing at the lz1 back on the shore
0:23 but there's so many little interesting
0:24 things that you can see if you pause it
0:25 and play it again pause it play it again
0:27 so I figured that we would do a little
0:29 bit analysis of the video so we could
0:31 talk about some of the things that you
0:33 can see as we go through the thing
0:34 the first important thing is to figure
0:36 out where this camera actually is right
0:38 if you look at the rocket it's actually
0:40 up above the grid fins you'll see that
0:42 later on in the video but the grid fins
0:44 are just below it and it's looking down
0:45 the bottom of the rocket the first thing
0:47 you'll see now that you know that this
0:49 camera is up a little more than halfway
0:51 up the rocket looking down is that
0:52 you're looking at the pad infrastructure right
0:53 right
0:55 and the number one thing is right in the
0:57 middle of the screen you see some water
0:59 jets sort of going in that's part of the
1:02 Deluge system that actually starts up
1:04 before the rocket engines actually light
1:06 and it's there to absorb some of that
1:09 initial like ignition impact and so what
1:10 you do is you put some water in the way
1:12 and that energy coming out of the
1:15 engines hits that water and atomizes it
1:17 turns it to steam and sort of diffuses
1:18 and diffracts it so it's not just
1:19 bouncing straight back up at your rocket
1:21 the next thing that you'll see are
1:23 what's called rain Birds coming on in
1:25 the rain Birds you see across the top of
1:26 the screen and those are like sort of
1:28 nozzles that spray a little bit wider
1:30 fan in that comes on after the center
1:32 Deluge pipes come on the active
1:35 vaporizing that water from liquid into a
1:37 gas takes energy and that is energy
1:39 that's not going to come back at your
1:40 rocket or go off in all sorts of random
1:42 directions flame directions are a big
1:44 part of launching Rockets like keeping
1:46 control of that energy when you're close
1:48 to the ground is super important cough
1:51 cough Starship another thing that you
1:52 can sort of see is the transporter
1:54 erector the Tes on the right hand side
1:57 and that sort of leans back a little bit
1:59 in advance to sort of get out of the way
2:01 but you don't want it to be right next
2:03 to the rocket as the engines pass it and
2:05 spray flame all over it so what you see
2:07 happen right there after ignition and
2:10 liftoff is that transporter erector
2:11 throws back it's literally the
2:13 transporter the te throwback and it
2:15 throws back even further so that the
2:17 Flames of the rocket engine don't
2:18 directly impact the sight of it the
2:20 transporter erector actually carries up
2:22 some of the umbilicals like how they
2:24 fuel the rocket and how they get
2:25 electrical connections to the second
2:27 stage and all these different things
2:29 right and so you want to protect those
2:32 lines those hoses equipment whatever as
2:34 we get off of the pad a little bit here
2:37 there's a great shot of the flame
2:39 director the flame trench that's
2:40 controlling the direction that exhaust
2:42 goes now if you've seen that awesome
2:45 drone shot of Starship doing a static
2:48 fire down at Starbase you see there's no
2:50 flame trench there it's just a flat
2:51 piece of concrete underneath and
2:52 therefore the exhaust goes in every
2:55 direction right
2:58 here at pad 40 there's actually a built
3:01 thrust Direction trenched flame trenches
3:02 whatever you want to call it that
3:05 creates this big directional plume out
3:07 in One Direction and that sort of
3:09 controls where that exhaust is going to
3:10 end up it doesn't just go in every
3:12 direction and end up in all your other
3:14 GSE and into your dumpsters and whatever
3:17 it goes in a specific Direction you can
3:19 really see how that plume is I don't
3:23 know directed by the flame trench as you
3:25 continue to go up you see the Rockets
3:27 start to do a little bit of a roll there
3:28 you can see the space coast in the
3:30 background all the little roads there
3:31 the beach that's all part of Cape
3:33 Canaveral space force station and so the
3:35 first pad of Cape Canaveral space force
3:37 station that we see is over on the left
3:39 hand side of the screen that's going to
3:42 be slick 41 space launch complex 41
3:44 which is part of United launch Alliance
3:45 where they launched Atlas fives from and
3:46 where they're going to be launching the
3:49 Vulcans from so as we continue the role
3:50 in the rocket climbs higher and higher
3:53 launch complex 39a and 39b come into
3:55 view over on the left hand side lunch
3:57 complex 39a of course is where SpaceX
4:00 launches their other Falcon 9s from the
4:01 crew launches go from there and the
4:02 resupply missions going up to the
4:04 International Space Station go there
4:06 because unlike 40 which has no Tower or
4:08 crew access armor or anything like that
4:11 39a has the tower and crew access arms
4:13 that they can use to load I don't know
4:14 astronauts onto the crew capsule on the
4:17 way up the next pad over 39b we recently
4:19 saw launch from there that's where
4:22 Artemis 1 and SLS took off uh just a
4:24 little while ago and as we continue to
4:27 get higher away from the space coast we
4:29 see more things start to happen the
4:31 biggest thing that you really start to
4:33 see is how the fire coming out of the
4:35 back of the Falcon 9 starts to change
4:37 you know down on the ground you know if
4:39 you've ever drawn a rocket and you draw
4:41 like the little pencil flame coming out
4:43 of the bottom right that happens because
4:45 of the atmospheric pressure down at sea
4:47 level not at sea level there's all these air
4:47 air
4:49 it's not molecules air particles
4:50 whatever you want to call them right
4:52 densely packed in it's why you can
4:54 breathe pretty well when you're down at
4:55 sea level then you go up a mountain
4:56 you're like I can't breathe anymore
4:57 there's air is not as dense you're not
4:59 getting as much oxygen what that air
5:01 does is it actually keeps the flame sort
5:04 of like I don't know in a flame shape
5:06 coming out the bottom of the nozzle as
5:08 you get higher like climbing a mountain
5:10 the atmosphere gets a lot thinner right
5:13 and the thinner atmosphere has less of
5:14 an effect sort of pushing that flame
5:16 into the pencil flame coming out of the
5:18 back of the rocket and you see what's
5:20 called plume expansion the plume starts
5:22 to expand out the sides and of course
5:24 it's a falcon 9 it's got nine engines on
5:26 the bottom so instead of just one big
5:28 nebulous Cloud behind the rocket you
5:30 actually get sort of discreet little
5:33 expanding flame plumes coming out the
5:34 side of it of course there should be
5:35 eight of those right because you got
5:36 eight engines around the outside and
5:38 then one engine in the middle so the
5:40 higher and higher you get the thinner
5:41 and thinner the atmosphere gets and the
5:43 more and more that exhaust plume expands
5:45 out behind the Falcon 9 you really get
5:47 to see it there you get the main engine
5:49 cutting off and then all of a sudden
5:50 there's some things that you can't see
5:52 on this camera shot looking down the
5:55 rocket does a couple things you're gonna
5:57 see the upper stage separate that means
5:59 the second stage sort of separates from
6:00 the booster the parts that's going to
6:02 come back down to land at the cape and
6:04 the second stage is going to continue
6:06 going on also behind the camera for a
6:08 minute the fairings are going to
6:09 separate and those are those protective
6:11 AeroShell fairings up at the top that
6:13 protect the payloads while you're down
6:15 in the thick atmosphere but once you get
6:16 up high enough the atmosphere is thin
6:18 enough there's not so much air that you
6:19 can just get rid of the fairing don't
6:21 want to carry the mass of it anymore but
6:23 you don't also have to protect your
6:25 payloads from the atmosphere and so what
6:27 you see here all of a sudden is the
6:29 booster flipping around because this is
6:32 an rtls literally stands for return to
6:34 launch site right it's going back to
6:35 where it came from it's not going down
6:37 range to a drone ship or anything like
6:39 that it's going back to the k tape to a
6:41 landing pad call it LZ this one's going
6:43 to lz1 that's just a couple miles away
6:46 from where it launched so here you see
6:48 it flip around because right now it's
6:50 still ballistically falling away from
6:51 the launch site and it needs to turn
6:53 around if it's going to end up back
6:55 where it started so it does this flip
6:57 you see these cold gas thrusters sort of
6:59 spewing out the sides and that gives it
7:00 a little bit of force up at the top of
7:02 the rocket to help flip the rocket
7:04 around backwards once it gets flipped
7:06 around it literally did about a 180
7:08 there once it gets flipped around it
7:10 ignites the engines again not all of
7:12 them just a couple of them and it does
7:14 what's called a boost back burn the
7:15 Boost back burn actually keeps it from
7:17 falling down range it stops its progress
7:20 downrange and it starts to turn it
7:22 around so it starts to fall back towards
7:23 the cape instead of falling onwards to
7:25 the ocean down where the Drone ship
7:27 would normally be if it was a drone ship Landing
7:28 Landing
7:30 after the engine stops you can actually
7:32 see the grid fins deploy up at the top
7:34 of the Falcon 9 there's four grid fins
7:35 that sort of stick out to the side there
7:36 that almost look like little flippers
7:39 right the trick is up high there's not a
7:42 lot of atmosphere so the grid fins don't
7:43 really have anything to push against
7:46 they have air flowing through them but
7:47 when there's no air the grid vents are
7:49 just sort of out
7:51 they become more and more important the
7:52 lower into the atmosphere that the
7:54 rocket gets as you get closer down to
7:56 sea level there's more air molecules to
7:58 flow around the grid fins and that
7:59 allows the grid fins to you'll see them
8:01 turn side to side like this and help
8:03 direct the rocket without expending fuel
8:06 you can see the entire Coast of Florida
8:07 here you see the cape the bump of the
8:09 kit that's literally The Cape the Cape
8:11 is the part of the land that sticks out
8:12 from the normal Coast that's why it's
8:14 called a cave right there between the
8:15 grid Fin and the body you can actually
8:16 see Port Canaveral where the cruise
8:18 ships come in and where the stages that
8:20 end up on drone ships come back in if
8:22 you've seen any of our Fleet cam videos
8:25 you can also see other parts of Cape
8:27 Canaveral space force station and then
8:29 all of a sudden you get these supersonic
8:32 retro propulsion the entry burn that is
8:33 the atmosphere starting to get thick and
8:36 so Falcon 9 fires up more engines to
8:39 start to slow down and aim at The
8:40 Landing Pad it's not quite there yet but
8:42 it's helping slow itself down before it
8:44 gets into the thicker atmosphere
8:47 now watch closely when they do the entry
8:48 burn here you'll see one engine light
8:50 and the Flames get bigger as they light
8:52 two more engines just like before and
8:54 then you get shut down
8:56 all right all right now here's something
8:58 that we always get in the comments this
8:59 thing over here
9:02 that's actually a piece of ice whenever
9:04 we get the thrusters firing whenever we
9:07 get the engines start to uh light up
9:09 again there are little bits of ice that
9:11 have formed on the outside of the pipes
9:13 and tubes and things like that and when
9:15 they get this force of the engines
9:16 firing up sometimes it knocks a couple
9:19 little chunks of ice loose there's also
9:20 stiffener Rings there's a couple
9:21 different things that come off the
9:23 rocket stiffen rings on the second stage
9:25 on the way to orbit but all the time we
9:27 get people in the comments saying oh
9:30 geez UFO it's like everything can be a
9:32 UFO if you're really bad at identifying
9:35 flying objects that one was ice now the
9:36 cape gets closer and closer in the rear
9:38 view remember the camera's looking down
9:39 and the rockets sort of going down
9:41 towards the LZ pretty soon a lot more
9:43 quickly than you might think the round
9:46 lz's up here it's going for lz1 for this
9:48 landing and they used to have the SpaceX
9:49 logo on them I'm not sure they still
9:51 have this maybe they kind of have the
9:53 SpaceX logo but here you'll see the
9:55 final Burns this is the landing burn
9:57 when the engine's light one more time
9:59 and they help guide the rocket right
10:01 down to The Landing Pad there's some
10:03 thrust vectoring that happens so
10:04 literally the engine's sort of wiggling
10:06 a little bit in either direction to help
10:07 you know push the tail of the rocket
10:09 this way or push the tail of the rocket
10:10 that way you see those grid fins doing
10:12 work they're tilting back and forth
10:15 helping direct the airflow but the trick
10:17 with that is as the rocket slows down
10:19 the grid fins become less and less
10:21 effective if you don't have a lot of air
10:23 moving past the grid fins very quickly
10:25 you don't get as much Control Authority
10:27 off the grid fins so you've got this
10:29 really precarious balance where you need
10:30 to slam on the brakes but you don't want
10:32 to lose all your Control Authority and
10:34 you better be in just the right spot
10:36 when it's time to touch the ground
10:39 you may be wondering where are the legs
10:41 the entire launch of the rocket the legs
10:43 have been folded up onto the side of it
10:45 and even though the landings pad is
10:47 right there you still don't see the legs
10:50 right before touchdown with like as
10:53 little time left over as possible you'll
10:55 see those legs sort of your little puff
10:57 off the side and then they follow the
10:58 rest of the way down there's a little
11:00 push to help get them going but a lot of
11:02 this is just the rocket slamming on the
11:03 brakes and the legs wanting to keep
11:05 moving and that makes them unfold like
11:06 if you're in the car and you press on
11:08 the brakes it sort of pushes you forward
11:09 in your seat belt think of you know
11:13 you're next to you in your car having a
11:15 landing leg and you slam on the brakes
11:17 and the leg tries to keep going forward
11:19 as the car wants to stop it's the same
11:20 thing that's happening here the leg
11:22 tries to keep going and that's what
11:25 makes it unfold like you see now finally
11:27 if they've done everything right the
11:28 rocket touches down with just a little
11:31 bit of fuel left and shuts off all the
11:33 engines and you can see sometimes we
11:34 call it suddenly rock at the rocket has
11:36 appeared on the landing pad this is not
11:38 a suddenly rocket situation because they
11:41 gave us a single cut entire take of the
11:43 rocket from takeoff all the way back to Landing
11:45 Landing
11:46 from here on out there's a lot more
11:48 things that SpaceX has to do there are
11:49 things that need to be vented or cleared
11:50 from the rocket of course I have to
11:51 bring a crane over there they're going
11:53 to attach a crane to the top of it of
11:55 the cap and pick it up and lean it over
11:57 and put it on a transporter and move it
11:58 over for more processing but I think
12:00 those are a lot of the really
12:01 interesting things that you can see in
12:04 this video massive thanks to SpaceX for
12:05 putting this out I hope you enjoyed it
12:06 if you thought this explanation was
12:08 interesting or informative or I don't
12:10 know whatever leave a comment down below
12:11 if you want us to do more things like
12:13 this we don't do a lot of commentary
12:14 like this but maybe it's something we
12:16 should do more of in the future my name
12:18 is John Galloway for NASA space flight
12:20 and we'll see you nerds later foreign
12:22 foreign [Music]
