 The first static fires of 2022 have finally happened, taking us back to the excitement buzzing around Starbase in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Let's get into the nitty-gritty and analyse what just happened underneath Booster 7 and Ship 24. This is Tomorrow Space News. The week which we've all been waiting for is the week that I go away on a staycation, halfway to the other side of the country, which is some very convenient timing by SpaceX. Anyway, annoyance is over, here's what we've been waiting to see. Just one of the outer ring raptors, the only full set currently installed, was fired up to begin with, but it was still a wonderful sight to see. Before the dust plumed over the launch mount, we could just make out some beautiful muck diamonds as well. Following B7, Ship 24 joined the party with this powerful contribution of its own. Two raptor engines were lit up in this instance, although officially SpaceX hasn't told us which two they were. It was very exciting to see those tests go successfully, just like with any other brand-new heavy lift rocket, although the extra cherry on top of the cake is the fact that Booster 7 has gone through a bit of a rough time. First it was the crumpled transfer tube, then it was the big bang on the launch mount, but finally it has fired without any complications. And for good measure, SpaceX performed a second static fire test. This one lasted 20 seconds, which is nowhere near enough for this Booster's launch profile, but it is a new record for this vehicle, which is good progress. It's also a big change from the severe lack of static fire testing we've been seeing lately, although to be fair we are spoiled with SpaceX's openness of the programme. As I said earlier, only the outer ring of the non-gimbling Raptor 2 engines are currently installed, which means that Booster 7 will have to be lifted off the pad and taken back to the production site, which is exactly what has happened. On Friday, B7 was lifted by SpaceX's LR11000 crane due to the chopstick still being offline and placed back onto a transport stand, before being swiftly whisked away down the highway back to High Bay 2. 13 remaining Raptor 2 engines will be installed here before B7 is heading back to the orbital launch mount. After that, the team stand at Starbase will be performing more static fire tests and, eventually, we will hopefully be seeing all 33 of the Methilox beasts lighting up the surrounding area. And just to tease us, Elon Musk posted this 5-second video on Twitter showing the work of the final Raptor installation's beginning. Speaking of Booster 7's transfer tube earlier, Ship 25's has just rocked up. This week may have been all about the static fires, but normal work still has to continue with it being lowered into the guts of the vehicle a couple of days later. The Florida facilities for Starship have been moving very fast since the last new show, with construction happening all over the place. At Launch Complex 39A, the sixth section of the orbital launch tower has been stacked on top of the five already standing, bringing the height closer to the fixed service structure's not-a-lighting rod. The distances between the camera and the towers are different here, so making that call is difficult, but if you have the time to do the maths, please let me know the exact heights in the comments. The tower's ninth and final normal section has been spotted by NASA spaceflight's latest flyover as it continues assembling. Atop this will be a cap, and that's about it, other than whatever else SpaceX chooses to accessorize their new launch mount with. Florida's Star Factory has seen a massive growth, expanding significantly. It's now nearly the size of the Star Factory in Texas, and it has done that in just over a week. That's all of SpaceX's updates for this week, but don't go anywhere as they still had a couple launches last week, which we'll be covering in space traffic. First up, the Indian Space Research Organisation launched their brand new small satellite launch vehicle, abbreviated to SSLV, for the first time last Sunday at 0348 UTC. The launch initially went to plan with the first, second and third stages all performing nominally. However, an issue with the fourth and final stage meant that the payload, the EOS 02 Observation Microsatellite and the Azadi SAT CubeSat were placed into an unusable orbit. This isn't an incredibly large issue for the SSLV program, though, as two more development launches are still planned, the former for late 2022 and the latter for Q2 of 2023. After those launches, which hopefully are successful, the SSLV will be handed over to the Commercial Division of the ISRO New Space India Limited. Of course, it wouldn't be space traffic without another launch from China, with the company Galactic Energy launching their Ceres-1 rocket for the third time at 0411 UTC on the 9th of August from the Zhiyuquan Satellite Launch Centre. The primary payload was a pair of Taizheng-1 satellites, which are used for Earth observation. Russia was aiming for the skies once again on August 9th, as at 0552 Coordinated Universal Time, this Soyuz 2.1B launched from Site-31-6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Inside the payload fairing were 17 satellites, the primary payload being K-ARM, an Iranian satellite with a potential resolution of 0.73 meters. The other 16 satellites were CubeSats for different universities and institutions. The first of the two SpaceX launches was Starlink Group 4, mission 26. This batch of 52 satellites lifted off from LC-398 at 0214 UTC on August 10th to an initial 335 by 232 km 53.22 degree low Earth orbit. The mission was an expected success, with the booster used for this mission B-107-3 landing back to Earth on the drone ship a shortfall of Gravitas. It's back to China we go for this next launch, with 16 Zhiyun-1 satellites launching atop this long March 6th. It lifted off from the Tyarn satellite launch centre at 0450 UTC, also on August 10th, just over two and a half hours after SpaceX's Starlink mission. The Zhiyun-1 constellation is made up of remote sensing satellites and it is projected to be completed in 2030. And the reason for the cancelled live show this week was Starlink Group 3, mission 3. 46 satellites launched atop Falcon 9 B-106-1 from Slik-4 East and Vandenberg Space Force in California at 0214 UTC on August 12th. Of course I still love you, was in the ocean, waiting once again, just in time for the booster to smoothly kiss the surface of the vessel. This marked this specific booster slide from its third total launch pad, having flown from all of SpaceX's active Falcon pads, 39A, Slik-40 and now Slik-4 East. Before the next new show, we're expecting… no launches. Sorry for this disappointment, I can't do much about that unless China pulls a sneaky on us and launches something anyway. Thank you to all the citizens of tomorrow who contribute to the show financially every month. This isn't a cheap machine to operate and thanks to the ground support suborbital, orbital and escape velocity citizens as well as NeuroStream, the burden on Jamie is lessened. These people also get exclusive perks, such as private Discord channels, members only hangouts before and after our main weekly live show and they also get their names at the end of everything we make. If you want to join them, head to the join button below or youtube.com forward slash tmro forward slash join, they both do the same thing. Regular viewers will have noticed that this is a shorter show this week at an unusual time and it's going to be similar next week, but don't worry, you won't miss out on the stories. All of the exciting non-SpaceX stories I've missed, especially those surrounding the 2022 SmallSat conference which was happening last week in Utah and the lead-up to Artemis 1 will probably be coming on Wednesday with Dr. Tammathus Scoves the next weather update on Thursday. We'll then round out the week on Friday with a live show before commencing normal operations once again the following week. That's it for now and I hope I'll see you next week. Thank you for watching and goodbye.