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Last month, we introduced SpaceX’s Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Super Heavy and Starship launch vehicles and described their engines and capabilities. This second and final instalment will cover their launch sites, some of the more notable missions and what they are planning for the future. Part two by Dr David Maddison VK3DSM Starship’s seventh test flight Image source: SpaceX / <at> Space_Time3 via X (Twitter). siliconchip.com.au Australia's electronics magazine August 2025  11 Fig.30: a rendering of what SpaceX’s HLS might look like on the Moon. Fig.31: a rendering of the lunar Starship version with landing legs. Fig.32: a concept from 2019 for a Starship CLPS vehicle. hen we left off in the previous issue, we had just described how Starship is launched atop the massive Super Heavy launch vehicle, powered by 33 Raptor engines. While Starship is still in the testing phase, it is intended to be able to deliver cargo and crew to the Moon and ultimately, Mars. It may even be refuelled in orbit, allowing a much heavier cargo to be sent to distant planets. After we look at some of these aspects of Starship, we’ll go through some of the more notable SpaceX missions to date, then look at two of their larger competitors and what they have done lately. Like last month, uncredited images are from SpaceX or public domain sources. The main variants of Starship envisioned are the Human Landing System (HLS), for landing on the Moon (Figs.30 & 31), the propellant tanker (see Fig.35), the propellant depot (Fig.36) and a cargo version. The version of Starship intended for Mars settlement will have heat shielding and flaps for guidance – see Figs.33 & 34. The CLPS Lander will refuel. It turns out that one reason SpaceX chose methalox as a fuel is that it can be manufactured on Mars. Methane fuel and oxygen for oxidiser can be produced on Mars from CO2 in the atmosphere and hydrogen from water, which is now known to exist on Mars beneath the surface and elsewhere. The reaction used to make methane is the Sabatier reaction, CO2 + 4H2 → CH4 + 2H2O. The fuel could be manufactured using electricity from solar energy or nuclear reactors. Hydrogen can also be extracted from water by electrolysis, which provides a supply of oxygen at the same time. Alternatively, the hydrogen could possibly be transported from Earth in a tanker spacecraft. Starship fuel depots could also be sent from Earth and placed in Martian orbit to later fully refuel Starship for a return trip. The fuel sent would be methane and oxygen. Or hydrogen could be transported for manufacturing methane on the Martian surface. The Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in 2020, successfully W The SpaceX Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) lander is a part of a contract to NASA to provide lander services to deliver payloads to the Moon as a precursor to landing astronauts on the Moon. Payloads have already been delivered to the Moon using Falcon 9 rockets. SpaceX has also proposed a Starship variant for these missions (see Fig.32). How will Starship get to Mars, land and leave? The most likely way Starship will go to Mars is as follows. Starship will be launched into Earth orbit and then be refuelled from a Starship tanker or fuel depot. Then, an energy-efficient path known as a Hohmann transfer orbit will be used to take Starship to Mars in 7–10 months. Starship will enter the Martian atmosphere using aerodynamic drag to slow down, then flip to a vertical position for a propulsive landing using its Raptor engines. Once landed on Mars, there is a lot of speculation about how Starship Fig.33: an artist‘s impression of Starships at a Martian settlement. 12 Silicon Chip Fig.34: another artist’s concept of a Mars settlement. Source: www.spacex.com/updates/ Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au Fig.35: a proposed method of inorbit refuelling of Starship. Fig.36: refuelling in orbit from another stripped-down Starship. Fig.37: the glass-coated silica-fibre tiles that protect Starship’s exterior. performed the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) to produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, although not methane. Carbon monoxide (CO) is a byproduct of the reaction used in that experiment; it can be reacted with water or hydrogen to produce methane. Starship more tolerant of a failure of the heat shield than the Shuttle was. The heat shield on the Dragon capsules is phenolic-impregnated carbon ablator (PICA-X). The material ablates or burns away, carrying excess heat with it. SpaceX also coats most vehicles with a heat-resistant, protective white paint for thermal control, thought to be a formulation known as AZ-93 (www.aztechnology.com/ product/1/az-93). complexity of landing legs on the booster. However, landing legs will be used for landing Starship on the Moon and Mars, at least until a Mechazilla is built in those places. Starbase has two Orbital Launch Mounts; Starships intended for re-­ entry to Earth will not need landing legs. Thermal protection systems For re-entry, Starship uses several types of thermal protection: 1. Its silica-fibre-based hexagonal tiles can withstand a temperature of 1400°C; they are similar to what the Space Shuttle used and have a similar consistency to Styrofoam. They are coated with a special heat-­resistant black glass layer (see Fig.37). There are 18,000 tiles, which is 6,000 fewer than the Space Shuttle used. 2. There is a secondary ablative layer under the primary tile heat shield for extra protection. 3. The Starship skin is made of stainless steel, which is far more resistant to heat than the aluminium of the Space Shuttle, and will make Launch pad & recovery Due to the enormous power of the Starship engines, a lot of damage was done to the launch pad and surrounding area in early tests, requiring modification of the launch support structure. Fig.38 shows the water deluge system (flame deflector) used to absorb some of the energy of the rocket exhaust. For recovery, the Super Heavy booster is caught in the “chopsticks” of the Orbital Launch Mount or “Mechazilla” launch tower, in a remarkable feat of guidance and control. This is done to avoid the extra weight and Fig.38: a full pressure test of Starship’s launchpad flame deflector on the 29th of July 2023. siliconchip.com.au Spaceports Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas (Fig.39) is the main site for launching the Starship rockets, including those that will be launched to the Moon and Mars. It is also the headquarters of SpaceX, and a production and test site for Starship. Apart from Starbase, the other launch sites used by SpaceX are: Kennedy Space Center (Launch Complex 39A or LC-39A, leased from NASA) in Florida – previously used for the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. It is now used by SpaceX, mostly for Falcon Heavy launches, including cargo and crewed missions with Dragon, and more complex missions. Fig.39: part of Starbase, showing a Starship on display. Source: SpaceX. Australia's electronics magazine August 2025  13 Fig.40: a Falcon Heavy being prepared at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Photo by Jack Beyer via X.com. Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida has multiple launch pads, including Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), which has been leased and upgraded by SpaceX since 2007 for launching Falcon 9 rockets. It has made at least 230 launches. It launched its first crewed mission in September 2024. It also has landing pads for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy reusable boosters: Landing Zones 1 and 2 (LZ-1 and LZ-2). Vandenberg Space Force Base (Space Launch Complex 4 or SLC-4E) is in California, and is used to launch satellites into polar orbits of the Earth and Sun-­synchronous orbits using Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy (see Fig.40). Fig.41: a Falcon 9 lands on the 52 × 91m platform of a drone ship off the coast of the Bahamas. Drone ships The drone ships used for Falcon 9 and Super Heavy booster recoveries are ocean-going barges, correctly known as autonomous spaceport drone ships (ASDSs) – see Fig.41. They have been made autonomous for the recovery of Falcon 9 boosters. The landing platform is about 52 × 91m, while the Falcon 9 v1.1 landing leg span is 18m. They are towed into position with a tug, then kept in place by autonomous station-keeping. After a landing, crews board the ASDS and secure the rocket. One of the ASDSs uses a robot called the “octagrabber” to secure it. Why not use parachutes? Port Canaveral in Florida is used as a base for the drone ships that operate in support of booster recoveries in the Atlantic Ocean from launches at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Port of Long Beach is a base for the drone ship doing recoveries in the Pacific Ocean from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The Space Shuttle used parachute recovery for its main boosters, so why does SpaceX use propulsive recovery, which is much harder to perfect? The difference is that the Shuttle jettisoned its boosters at a relatively low altitude and speed, whereas the SpaceX boosters are not jettisoned until near orbital velocity. The speed and energy involved preclude a parachute recovery. The second stage of Falcon is not reused, as it’s too complicated to Fig.42: deploying Starlink satellites. Source: NASAspaceflight.com Fig.43: the Sora-Q mini-rover from Hakuto-R. Photo by テレストレラッソ. 14 Silicon Chip Australia's electronics magazine recover. That’s a reasonable compromise because the second stage is a relatively simple and inexpensive structure. The trunk of the Dragon capsule is not recovered either. Unlike the Space Shuttle, which was more what you might call ‘refurbishable’ than ‘reusable’ (it cost about as much to refurbish between flights as building a new one), the SpaceX boosters are economically reusable. From a cost point of view, the Shuttle was a disaster, but the genuine reusability of the SpaceX boosters helps to significantly reduce the cost of launches. Very little needs to be done to a landed booster for its reuse. It’s pretty much just checked over and refuelled, then it is ready to go! Starlink’s role in SpaceX’s operations According to the video at https:// youtu.be/lgt4zSD9UUc, SpaceX plans to use the Starlink satellite network to maintain communications with Crew Dragon capsules during the re-entry phase when the plasma layer surrounding the vehicle normally causes a communications blackout. Fig.44: the Intuitive Machines-1 Odysseus lander. siliconchip.com.au Fig.45: the Intuitive Machine-2 Athena lander carries the Micro Nova Hopper. Source: Intuitive Machines. There is no other published information that we could find about the extent to which SpaceX platforms use or do not use Starlink. Notable SpaceX missions Hakuto-R Mission 1 On the 11th of December 2022, a Falcon 9 was launched to deliver the Japanese Hakuto-R Moon lander (Fig.43), but unfortunately, an error in the lander’s radar altimeter caused it to keep hovering at an altitude of 5km until it ran out of fuel and crashed. Hakuto-R Mission 2 (Resilience) Hakuto-R Mission 2 was launched on the 15th of January 2025 to deliver a payload to the Moon, including a lunar micro rover developed by ispace as a technology demonstrator for reliable transportation and data services on the Moon. This mission shared the same Falcon 9 launch vehicle as Blue Ghost Mission 1 (see below). Intuitive Machines-1 On the 15th of February 2024, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the first commercial mission to successfully soft-land on the Moon. It was also the first American-made spacecraft to land Fig.46: Polaris Dawn launched in the dark, carrying Jared Isaacman, Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis & Anna Menon. on the Moon since the 1972 Apollo mission. The Odysseus lander (Fig.44) carried a variety of instruments. It landed on its side, but the instruments functioned and it was judged a success. Intuitive Machines-2 Also known as Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1), this lander, called Athena (Fig.45), was launched on the 27th of February 2025 using a Falcon 9 rocket and landed on the Moon on the 6th of March. It carried The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain (TRIDENT), to drill for ice as a source of water for future habitation. The MSolo mass spectrometer was included to measure the amount of ice in the drill samples, as well as the Micro Nova Hopper. Unfortunately, the mission failed as the spacecraft landed on its side, like the Odysseus mentioned above. The Polaris program Polaris (https://polarisprogram. com/) is a private space flight program established by Jared Isaacman, now nominated to be the next NASA Administrator. The program was established under a contract with SpaceX. Isaacman’s first flight as a private astronaut on a Crew Dragon spacecraft was on the 16th of September 2021, to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The first flight under the Polaris program was on the 10th of September 2024, on Crew Dragon, taking the occupants to an apogee of 1400km, higher than any human has been in orbital flight since the flight of Gemini 11 in 1966 (with an apogee of 1368km) – see Fig.46. Two other flights are planned under the Polaris program. Blue Ghost Mission 1 On the 2nd of March 2025, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 lander landed on the Moon, having been launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 (see Fig.47). Among ten science investigations that spacecraft will perform will be receiving GPS signals using the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) to investigate extending the navigational capability of GPS to the Moon and beyond. We wrote about using GPS beyond Earth orbit, including near the Moon, in our October 2020 issue (siliconchip. au/Article/14597). There are also the Next Generation Visiting Starbase What is Max Q? As of the time of writing, you can visit Starbase and the surrounding areas. We suggest you look at the following links if you want help planning a trip to go there: During a rocket launch, including those of SpaceX, one often hears the expression that the vehicle is going through Max Q (or “max q”). This is the time of maximum aerodynamic drag on the vehicle and maximum stress, when something is most likely to go wrong. The engines are frequently throttled back during Max Q to minimise the structural load on the vehicle. • https://siliconchip.au/link/ac5m • https://siliconchip.au/link/ac5n • https://everydayastronaut.com/ how-to-visit-Starbase/ • https://siliconchip.au/link/ac5o siliconchip.com.au Fig.47: a rendering of the Blue Ghost lander on the moon’s surface. Australia's electronics magazine August 2025  15 Fig.48: at 1.2m in diameter, the Dragon cupola is the largest Fig.49: four astronauts wearing Starman suits in the Dragon capsule to protect against depressurisation. window in space, made from layers of polycarbonate. Retroreflectors (NGLR), targets for Earth-based lasers to accurately measure Earth-Moon distances. The first laser retroreflectors were placed on the Moon by Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969, followed by Apollo 14 (1971) and Apollo 15 (1971). They are still in use today. This mission shared the same Falcon 9 launch vehicle as Hakuto-R Mission 2, launching on the 15th of January 2025. This was the first commercial venture to fully successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon. International Space Station rescue mission Due to technical problems with the Boeing Starliner that was docked with the ISS, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were unable to return to Earth at their scheduled date of the 14th of June 2024 (their mission was originally meant to last for eight days). The problems with Starliner were not solvable in any reasonable amount of time, so SpaceX offered a rescue mission but that offer was not accepted by the previous US Administration. However, the new US Government accepted the offer, and they launched a rescue mission on the 14th of March 2025, docking on the 16th. The spacecraft was a Crew Dragon launched by a Falcon 9. It delivered four new astronauts and finally returned to Earth on the 18th of March 2025, carrying Wilmore, Williams and two others. The full video of the re-entry and splashdown is available at www.spacex.com/launches/ mission/?missionId=crew-9-return For a shorter version of the video, see https://x.com/SpaceX/ status/1902116771806732511 or https://youtu.be/fd-bMz4fGN4 Fram2 Fram2 was a private mission paid for by Maltese billionaire Chun Wang. He and several of his guests, including Australian Eric Philips, were launched by a Falcon 9 on the 31st of March 2025 and they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on the 4th of April. After stage separation, the booster landed on the drone ship named “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean. Their Dragon capsule was inserted into a polar retrograde orbit, the first time astronauts have ever been put into polar orbit. The capsule communicated with Starlink via a laser beam, Fig.50: a Crew Dragon with its Trunk attached prepares to dock with the ISS. The white part is the IDA. 16 Silicon Chip the same way Starlink satellites communicate with each other. A cupola for viewing was placed beneath the nose cone (Fig.48), in the area normally used for docking with the ISS and exiting Dragon. There was an amateur radio station onboard transmitting SSTV (slow scan TV on 437.550MHz) images as part of a high school and university competition. Among a variety of 22 experiments, the crew took the first x-ray of a human ever in space. The mission websites are https://f2.com/ and https://fram2ham.com/ plus there is a video at www.spacex.com/launches/ mission/?missionId=fram2 Dragon to the Moon As an alternative to the hugely expensive, delayed and problematic Boeing Space Launch System (SLS) and Lockheed Martin Orion spacecraft for landing people on the moon, Dr Robert Zubrin of the Mars Society and Homer Hickam have suggested sending a modified Crew Dragon, incorporating features from Red Dragon, to the Moon. This mission would involve both the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, but there would be no landing. That mission Fig.51: the Dragon capsule as it was about to dock with the ISS on the Crew-5 mission. Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au would resemble Apollo 8 (1968), orbiting the moon but not landing. An alternative mission that would involve landing would be to launch Crew Dragon into low Earth orbit, with astronauts then transferring to Starship HLS (which never lands on Earth), fuelled in Earth orbit, to land on the Moon. The return to Earth would be a reverse of that. Space suits The Starman suit, also known as the intravehiclar activity (IVA) suit, is custom made for the astronaut who will wear it; the helmets are 3D-printed to the required shape. This suit protects against depressurisation only; it has no radiation protection, so it cannot be used outside the spacecraft. Astronauts regard these suits as very comfortable. Astronauts can be seen wearing these suits in Fig.49. SpaceX also has a space suit for extravehicular activities (EVA). This suit is also suitable for use inside the spacecraft, and among its many features is a heads up display within the helmet to display parameters such as pressure, temperature and humidity etc – see Fig.52. Docking adaptors With increasing space activity, it is important to have standard docking interfaces between spacecraft. One standard is the International Docking System Standard (IDSS). The NASA Docking System (NDS) is NASA’s implementation of this system; it is used on the ISS, the Boeing Starliner, the Orion spacecraft and Crew Dragon 2. The ISS used to use the Russian-­ developed docking standard of APAS95 (as did the Soyuz, former Space Shuttle and former Mir space station), but the International Docking Adapter (IDA) was brought to the ISS by SpaceX Dragon and used to convert those adaptors to the NASA Docking System, which complies with the International Docking System Standard. An IDA is shown in Fig.50. Fig.51 depicts a Dragon capsule as it is about to dock with the ISS. Note the Draco thruster firing and the open docking hatch (nose cone) of the Dragon with the docking interface inside. If you want to try your hand at docking with the ISS with a simulator, visit https://iss-sim.spacex.com/ Starlink Starlink is a subsidiary of SpaceX, with SpaceX launching thousands of Starlink satellites to provide satellite-delivered internet services almost worldwide (and now telephony). Starlink can provide download speeds of up to 200Mbps, with uploads of 10–40Mbps and latencies of 25–80ms. As of the 27th of February 2025, there were 7052 working Starlink satellites in orbit at about 550km altitude (see Fig.53). They can be seen at night with the naked eye, making them a concern to astronomers. SpaceX has permission to launch a total of 12,000 satellites (Fig.54), and is seeking permission to increasing that number to as high as 30,000. On the 5th of December 2024, Elon Fig.53: the Starlink constellation at the time of writing. Source: https://satellitemap.space/?constellation=starlink siliconchip.com.au Fig.52: the SpaceX EVA suit can be worn outside a spacecraft. Musk wrote, “The first Starlink satellite direct to cell phone constellation is now complete. This will enable unmodified cellphones to have internet connectivity in remote areas.” (https://x.com/elonmusk/ status/1864571206004838425). For more about Starlink, see our article on it in the June 2023 issue (https:// siliconchip.au/Article/15815). SpaceX’s software SpaceX’s software (and hardware) obviously must be reliable, especially those used for flight operations. They use Linux-based systems for flight computers; flight software and other systems are written in C++. A stripped-down version of Linux is Fig.54: a depiction of Starship delivering the next generation of Starlink satellites. Australia's electronics magazine August 2025  17 used; it is tailored to the demands of spaceflight. SpaceX maintains its own Linux kernel with the PREEMPT_RT patch installed to enable real-time processing for applications like engine control and navigation (standard Linux is not real-time capable). They also use custom drivers. The flight software runs on triply redundant dual-core x86 processors, all performing calculations in parallel. If the result of one core disagrees with the others, it is ignored. This provides fault-tolerance without having to use expensive radiation-hardened computers. LabVIEW by National Instruments is used for data logging and monitoring of various parameters. A variety of different software is used for web applications. For Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), they use a proprietary system called WARPDRIVE for all sorts of day-to-day management functions. Siemens NX is used for computer-­ aided design (CAD), engineering analysis and manufacturing processes. It creates 3D models and can perform simulations to predict performance, including structural analysis and aerodynamics. Teamcenter is used for managing product data such as CAD files, documentation, CNC code etc. It maintains revisions and allows collaboration between different departments. NX and Teamcenter operate together and help reduce SpaceX’s costs and improve reliability of products. • Is developing the New Glenn heavylift orbital launch vehicle. • Is involved in the Blue Moon human-capable lunar lander for the NASA Artemis program, which can land people and 3600–6500kg of cargo to the lunar surface (depending on version). • Is working on the Blue Ring spacecraft for refuelling, transporting and hosting satellites. • Is working on the Orbital Reef low Earth orbit space station to support ten people; it is expected to be operational in 2027. It will support both commercial space activities and tourism. Like Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic (founded by Richard Branson) also offers space tourism services. It is believed to charge US$450,000 (~$750,000) for a sub-orbital trip into space, with around 700 people on the waiting list. They have made seven commercial passenger-carrying flights, the last being on the 8th of June 2024. It reached an altitude of 87.5km. They’re working on a new space plane, the Delta-­class (Fig.56). Other private space ventures Videos to watch While this article has been primarily about SpaceX, there is news on two other private space ventures involving crewed vehicles. Blue Origin (www.blueorigin.com) is owned by Jeff Bezos. It is providing commercial sub-orbital passenger flights into space on the New Shepard sub-orbital rocket system (Fig.55). Its last flight at the time of writing was on the 25th of February 2025, when it took six paying passengers to an altitude of around 100.5km. You can watch a replay of the flight at https:// youtu.be/zXRzcSw_bdc The cost per passenger is unknown. So far, they have made ten passenger flights. In addition to space tourism, Blue Origin: • Produces engines for other spacecraft. • How SpaceX Reinvented The Rocket Engine: https://youtu.be/nP9OaYUjvdE • The Real Reason SpaceX Developed The Falcon 9: https://youtu.be/LmK18kPfMjA • How SpaceX Reinvented The Rocket: https://youtu.be/7vE95eBX6M0 • Why The Raptor Engine Is Ahead of Its Time: https://youtu.be/6cwue7jMkww • What Really Happened to Starship: https://youtu.be/tlAo_6CG9o8 • SpaceX Upgrades Everything Inside Crew Dragon: https://youtu.be/dThdld_f0Rk • Does the SpaceX Crew Dragon have a toilet: https://youtu.be/GT5Sm6v4oqo • Lunar Lander Missions on SpaceX 18 Silicon Chip Fig.55: Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket system. Source: Blue Origin SpaceX’s future SpaceX has dramatically decreased the cost of delivering cargo to space, and will likely continue to do so. Elon Musk’s vision is to have a fleet of rockets with a turnaround time the same as passenger aircraft. He also wants a fleet of 1000 Starships continuously running 100–150 tonnes of cargo and/ or passengers into Earth orbit, the Moon or Mars. Australia's electronics magazine Fig.56: Virgin Galactic’s latest Deltaclass spaceplane. Source: Virgin Galactic Rocket: www.youtube.com/live/ XOLnPRCpdYU • China Tested Mechazilla Chopstick Clone: https://youtu.be/ohREX1PDYY0 • This Is the End of Boeing: https://youtu.be/7f56Qldi_Fo SC siliconchip.com.au