HOW ROCKETS ARE MADE (Rocket Factory Tour - United Launch Alliance) - Smarter Every Day 231
HOW ROCKETS ARE MADE (Rocket Factory Tour - United Launch Alliance) - Smarter Every Day 231 on HackerTube: recommended by 5 Hacker News commenters across 5 separate months, 2020–2025.
Destin Sandlin tours United Launch Alliance's rocket factory with CEO Tory Bruno, showing friction stir welding, structural rocket skins and large milled parts.
What HN commenters said
8 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
tastyfreezeDec 2020Strongly recommends
A lot of rocketry advancement would not be happening if SpaceX didn't enter as a competitor. For that reason alone SpaceX should be lauded. It helps that SpaceX is pursuing the dream of a space faring civilization that was promised decades ago. Relativity Space looks cool. But until they launch they will sit in the stack of neat tech to maybe be excited about. I am excited by humans doing things to advance the species. I don't care much who is doing it. But, I have been burned by too much vaporware to get excited by marketing pieces. If you haven't watched Smarter Every Day's ULA factory tour I highly recommend it. There is even a nice bit about how their materials have improved as computers were better able to model stresses. ▶ this video
in “Starship SN9 damaged in an accident in the high-bay” · View on HN
tiffanyhDec 2025Recommends
There’s a great “Smarter Every Day” video on how rockets are made and the guest host was Tory Bruno. ▶ this video Two things I recall from this video from years ago 1. Tory really seemed to be a true expert. Not a typical “CEO”. 2. Seems like a genuinely nice guy, see this moment when Tory recognized Dustin’s dad [link]
in “Former ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno Joins Blue Origin” · View on HN
AdamJacobMullerJun 2024Recommends
In fairness, ULA has done that too. ▶ this video Also literally everything Destin/SmarterEveryDay puts online is worth watching.
in “Navigating Starlink's FCC Paper Trail” · View on HN
polytelyAug 2021Recommends
It's so cool to get a tour like this, fascinating stuff. The part at 13:30 seems to be some really valuable knowledge, when he says: if you are not occasionally adding things back in, it means that you are not eliminating stuff aggressively enough. Smarter Everyday did a tour of the ULA facilities [0], which is also worth checking out if you like this kind of thing. [0]: ▶ this video
in “Everyday Astronaut: Starbase Factory Tour with Elon Musk” · View on HN
725686May 2020Recommends
Smarter Every Day has a very interesting video[1] inside the factory of United Launch Alliance in which, among a lot of other things, shows the friction stir welding used in their Atlas Rocket[2]: [1] ▶ this video [2] ▶ this video
in “Crew Dragon Docks with ISS” · View on HN
enragedcactiMar 2023Cites it
I'm far from an expert but it seems like at least some companies use cnc milling very extensively which I can't imagine is all that fast either. Many of the huge parts in this SmarterEveryDay video at ULA have tool markings e.g. at 8:40. I'm also skeptical of 3d printing being as big of a boon as they pitch but I also wouldn't be super surprised if it nets an improvement in speed for some parts. ▶ this video
in “Relativity Space launches first 3D-printed rocket in historic test” · View on HN
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rtkweJul 2020Cites it
Doing a model rocket would be tougher there's a lot of bits they just couldn't show him due to ITAR restrictions. Also beyond the engines rockets are a LOT of empty space, there is some interesting structure in the skin but most of the volume is just empty. Destin from Smarter Every Day did a tour of the ULA factory where you can see the skin that provides a lot of the structure for their rockets. ▶ this video
in “1:60 scale Boeing 777 made from manila folders” · View on HN
gpmMar 2020Cites it
> Ideally you would use a turntable to rotate the cylinder while welding the sections together with a sub-arc machine. [link] Uh, at least in the video that steel is pretty thick. Starships skin is slightly less than 4mm thick... while in that video they have a 2cm deep groove, would the same technique actually work? For what it's worth, ULA stainless steel (<1mm thickness) upper stages are resistance welded instead ▶ this video That said, I think a lot of the decisions right now are based on "what can we quickly experiment with" not "what is a good long term plan". Building a 9m turntable (diameter of the rocket) would take a long time.
in “SpaceX’s Starship SN1 prototype blows up during pressure test on its Texas pad” · View on HN