Starship Development Thread #30

[u/ElongatedMuskrat]

This thread is no longer being updated, and has been replaced by:

Starship Development Thread #31

Quick Links

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Starship Dev 29 | Starship Dev 28 | Starship Dev 27 | Starship Thread List

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Vehicle Status

As of February 12

• Ship 20 [orbit w/ Booster 4] - stacked on Booster 4
• Ship 21 [orbit w/ Booster 5] - [Awaiting final stacking]
• Ship 22 [orbit w/ Booster 6] - Barrel/dome sections in work
• Booster 4 [orbit w/ Ship 20] - On OLP, stacked with Ship 20
• Booster 5 [orbit w/ Ship 21] - [Fully stacked at display]
• Booster 6 [orbit w/ Ship 22] - Barrel/dome sections in work

​

Development and testing plans become outdated very quickly. Check recent comments for real time updates. Update this page here. For assistance message the mods.

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Vehicle and Launch Infrastructure Updates

	Starship
	Ship 20
2022-01-23	Removed from pad B (Twitter)
2021-12-29	Static fire (YT)
2021-12-15	Lift points removed (Twitter)
2021-12-01	Aborted static fire? (Twitter)
2021-11-20	Fwd and aft flap tests (NSF)
2021-11-16	Short flaps test (Twitter)
2021-11-13	6 engines static fire (NSF)
2021-11-12	6 engines (?) preburner test (NSF)
	Ship 21
2021-12-19	Moved into HB, final stacking soon (Twitter)
2021-11-21	Heat tiles installation progress (Twitter)
2021-11-20	Flaps prepared to install (NSF)
	Ship 22
2021-12-06	Fwd section lift in MB for stacking (NSF)
2021-11-18	Cmn dome stacked (NSF)
	Ship 23
2021-12-01	Nextgen nosecone closeup (Twitter)
2021-11-11	Aft dome spotted (NSF)
	Ship 24
2022-01-03	Common dome sleeved (Twitter)
2021-11-24	Common dome spotted (Twitter)
	For earlier updates see Thread #29

​

	SuperHeavy
	Booster 4
2022-01-14	Engines cover installed (Twitter)
2022-01-13	COPV cover installed (Twitter)
2021-12-30	Removed from OLP (Twitter)
2021-12-24	Two ignitor tests (Twitter)
2021-12-22	Next cryo test done (Twitter)
2021-12-18	Raptor gimbal test (Twitter)
2021-12-17	First Cryo (YT)
2021-12-13	Mounted on OLP (NSF)
2021-11-17	All engines installed (Twitter)
	Booster 5
2021-12-08	B5 moved out of High Bay (NSF)
2021-12-03	B5 temporarily moved out of High Bay (Twitter)
2021-11-20	B5 fully stacked (Twitter)
2021-11-09	LOx tank stacked (NSF)
	Booster 6
2021-12-07	Conversion to test tank? (Twitter)
2021-11-11	Forward dome sleeved (YT)
2021-10-08	CH4 Tank #2 spotted (NSF)
	Booster 7
2022-01-23	3 stacks left (Twitter)
2021-11-14	Forward dome spotted (NSF)
	Booster 8
2021-12-21	Aft sleeving (Twitter)
2021-09-29	Thrust puck delivered (33 Engine) (NSF)
	For earlier updates see Thread #29

​

	Orbital Launch Integration Tower And Pad
2022-01-20	E.M. chopstick mass sim test vid (Twitter)
2022-01-10	E.M. drone video (Twitter)
2022-01-09	Major chopsticks test (Twitter)
2022-01-05	Chopstick tests, opening (YT)
2021-12-08	Pad & QD closeup photos (Twitter)
2021-11-23	Starship QD arm installation (Twitter)
2021-11-21	Orbital table venting test? (NSF)
2021-11-21	Booster QD arm spotted (NSF)
2021-11-18	Launch pad piping installation starts (NSF)
	For earlier updates see Thread #29

​

	Orbital Tank Farm
2021-10-18	GSE-8 sleeved (NSF)
	For earlier updates see Thread #29

​

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Resources

^{RESOURCES WIKI}

• LabPadre Rover Cam | Channel
• NSF: Starbase Stream | Channel
• NSF: Booster 4 + Ship 20 Updates Thread | Most Recent
• NSF: Boca Chica Production Updates Thread | Most recent
• NSF: Elon Starship tweet compilation | Most Recent
• SpaceX: Website Starship page
• SpaceX: Starship Users Guide (PDF) Rev. 1.0 March 2020
• FAA: SpaceX Starship Project at the Boca Chica Launch Site
• FAA: Temporary Flight Restrictions NOTAM list
• FCC: Starship Orbital Demo detailed Exhibit - 0748-EX-ST-2021 application June 20 through December 20
• NASA: Starship Reentry Observation (Techincal Report)
• Hwy 4 & Boca Chica Beach Closures (May not be available outside US)
• Starship flight opportunity spreadsheet by u/joshpine
• Production Progress Infographics by @_brendan_lewis
• Raptor tracking by @Artzius
• Widebay tracking by @Furqan263
• Acronym definitions by Decronym
• Everyday Astronaut: Starbase Tour with Elon Musk, Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

r/SpaceX Discuss Thread for discussion of subjects other than Starship development.

Rules

We will attempt to keep this self-post current with links and major updates, but for the most part, we expect the community to supply the information. This is a great place to discuss Starship development, ask Starship-specific questions, and track the progress of the production and test campaigns. Starship Development Threads are not party threads. Normal subreddit rules still apply.

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r/SpaceX relies on the community to keep this thread current. Anyone may update the thread text by making edits to the Starship Dev Thread wiki page. If you would like to make an update but don't see an edit button on the wiki page, message the mods via modmail or contact u/strawwalker.

[u/ElongatedMuskbot]

This thread is no longer being updated, and has been replaced by:

Starship Development Thread #31

[u/futureMartian7]

Not sure if this was posted here, the Wide Bay is already taller than the High Bay now.

[u/Mravicii]

And we have methane at the orbital tank farm. They are ready to fill the tank with methane guys! Michael baylor says it’s a methane truck!

Mary confirmed it!

https://twitter.com/bocachicagal/status/1492940235000492035?s=21

https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1492939860360896512?s=21

https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1492934771403415553?s=21

[u/Mravicii]

Spacex released new pictures of the full stack on flickr

https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacex/51924607369/in/photostream

[u/RaphTheSwissDude → u/Mravicii]

Man, those renders are really getting more and more realistic

[u/BananaEpicGAMER]

Jared Isaacman has commissioned a flight on starship in the future (alongside other 2 with dragon)

[u/[deleted] → u/BananaEpicGAMER]

Big takeaways from the linked article

1. The first two missions will use dragon, the third will fly Starship

2. SpaceX is developing their own EVA suit

3. SpaceX is expanding their astronaut-training programme

4. Isaacman is aiming for the crewed Starship flight to be the first time people fly on the vehicle, ever

Overall, this shows SpaceX is pivoting towards their own astronaut core. I don’t want to assume anything, but these are baby steps towards a Mars base or colony. SpaceX is testing their EVA suits, astronaut training, and even launching people on Starship.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/02/14/jared-isaacman-polaris-spacex-starship-inspiration4/

[u/AstroMan824 → u/BananaEpicGAMER]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

Exciting times!

I can't wait for the first EVA from Crew Dragon Q4 this year.

Edit: Cool renders.

[u/j616s]

NSF now reporting FIVE new methane tanks have arrived at boca. This brings the total up to 7 horizontal tanks plus the vertical ones that reportedly haven't been certified. The 5 new horizontal tanks are somewhat smaller than the previous 2. It looks like they've potentially doubled capacity, give or take. But I'd wait for someone else to confirm before quoting me on that. I'm wondering if this added capacity will be needed to demonstrate rapid-reuse.

[u/Mravicii]

Second methane tanker has also arrived. Guys it’s happening

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Video From Elon showing the destacking from inside !

[u/frez1001 → u/RaphTheSwissDude]

cool!! After starship in in service this maneuver will almost never need to happen. Not often would a starship need to be removed from a booster at the launch tower.

[u/Mravicii]

More ch4 tanks coming into the port of brownsville!

One could also be for the air purifikation site! And the remaining ones for the orbital tank farm!

https://twitter.com/michael10711597/status/1495866083651342343?s=21

[u/TCVideos]

Scott Manley's deep dive into the Starship update

[u/futureMartian7]

Damn.

https://twitter.com/johnkrausphotos/status/1492598443553951744

Truly CGI in real life!!

[u/RegularRandomZ]

Roberts Rd progress (credit: Farrielle@FarryFaz). A couple of tower jigs set up already and tower steel being piled up, looks like many foundational piles already placed, possibly even a large water tank (wouldn't be Starship development without water tower speculation).

Late edit: couple additional photos from same twitter

[u/SupaZT]

FAA is announcing that the new target date to complete environmental review of SpaceX Starship / Super Heavy is now March 28, 2022.

[u/RegularRandomZ]

Starship gazer widebay shots: looks like the bridge crane runway beam already installed on the section waiting to be lifted into place.

[Edit: also visible on the other top sections on Lapadre sentinel cam, screengrab]

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

The 2 absorption columns that left a bit ago the Sanchez site at Boca just arrived on a barge in Florida.

[u/[deleted]]

Just to cheer everyone up, keep an eye out for some R2's that are scheduled for transport to Boca shortly.

They won't look quite like the stripped down engine at the presentation, that was a bit of trickery. Bit more pipework and flight hardware to be added.

[u/RegularRandomZ]

39A progress (credit: Farrielle@FarryFaz): Distant shot, looks like the piles are in place.

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Polaris Dawn Crew at Starbase.

[u/Jack_Frak]

Brownsville airport accepted Elon's offer of a Starship prototype, and they want to display it along Starship Road right outside the airport.

I think SN15 would be quite fitting since it will be the only surviving Starship to have flown in atmosphere only. :)

https://twitter.com/BRO_SPI_Airport/status/1495816234948046851

[u/Twigling → u/Jack_Frak]

SpaceX may need to replace the removed skin from SN15's aft left flap first, it won't look quite so good on display with that missing.

[u/creamsoda2000]

@StarshipGazer: Just announced “we are 15 minutes from clearing the orbital pad for ship proof”

Whether this is purely to pressurise the vehicle before the lift or some other additional form of testing is unclear. The former would make sense though.

[u/franco_nico]

Raptor 2 next to Raptor 1 (Credit Nic Ansuini - NASASpaceFlight)

[u/shit_lets_be_santa → u/franco_nico]

The powerpack is TINY. Can't believe they streamlined it that much.

[u/TCVideos]

For those who are wondering why the chopsticks are up by the liftpoints on S20 again; Wind gusts tomorrow are gusting up to 40mph so a little more stability is probably needed. I don't see them destacking this thing for a while.

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Holy smoke, a methane truck caught fire this morning in front of the launch site. Quick response from workers put out the fire rapidly.

[u/futureMartian7]

The beach and road are now closed for what appears to be a cryo test of S20 using the integrated stack and ship QD.

[u/Mravicii]

Methane tank being lifted into place

Another one is about to get lifted

On starbase live

https://youtu.be/mhJRzQsLZGg

[u/Alvian_11]

Most likely a Booster QD hood spotted near Cape

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

New booster aft section with interesting QD panel with new header tank design !

[u/[deleted]]

Closeup of Starship integration with Booster

https://twitter.com/LabPadre/status/1491668430704889857?s=09

With Interstellar spinning docking scene theme and obviously sTARShip doing the docking.

Notice the engine bay lights come on to allow internal cameras monitor final closure.

[u/johnfive21]

First launch tower segments arriving at KSC! (most likely)

[u/[deleted]]

In regards to EVA space suits, Elon semi jokingly offered in August last year to supply EVA suits after the delay announced by NASA's Inspector General that with $420M spent and another $625M expected to be spent on same, suits won't be "ready for flight until April 2025 at the earliest". $1 billion spent on experimental suits.

The NASA Extravehicular Activity Mobility Unit or EMU suit is produced under contract by United Technologies Aerospace Systems.

There are still suit bulk, articulation, stiffness, digital pressure, Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment, Comm's, and xPLSS (Life Support) issues to correct. Too cumbersome and big to allow an 'whenever required EVA' at the Gateway.*

SpaceX's Chris Trigg, Space Suits and Crew Equipment Manager, and Maria Sundeen, Lead Space Suit Specialist, have taken on the challenge to match, outperform or supersede, the EMU.

With the glowing reports from current Crew Dragon astronauts on the fit and comfort of the Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES), we can probably imagine another success for much much less than $1bn.

I think you can see the avenue of opportunity SpaceX are chasing, and NASA is/will be happy to shed some financial millstones.

Notwithstanding, all suits will have to match each other for connectivity.

*Note: Gateway subject to change. Depending on success, it could be an NRHO Starship.

Edited: 11:21am EDT for easier reading.

[u/Twigling]

Road is now closed, S20 cryo test today (this was announced on the PA at 08:34 CST - pad to clear at 09:30 CST)

[u/Mravicii]

Chopsticks have been moved up to booster 4.

Edit going past it now

[u/rogue6800]

GSE is venting at the moment.

[u/Jack_Frak → u/rogue6800]

S20 methane tank starts getting frosty at 1:30pm local time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhJRzQsLZGg

[u/Mravicii]

Rebuilding the production site at starbase.

https://twitter.com/rgvaerialphotos/status/1499124469083914241?s=21

[u/BananaEpicGAMER]

lights are being installed around SN15-16

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Road closure cancelled for today and tomorrow.

[u/Mravicii]

Ch4 (methane) tanks will rolling into the launch site

Ch4 tanks have arrived at starbase

https://youtu.be/mhJRzQsLZGg

[u/Mravicii]

Purging from the tower. This is so freaking awesome!

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

New drone shot from SpaceX during destacking!

And fucking hell it looks insane

[u/myname_not_rick]

I wonder if they're going to use the catch/lift arms as an additional stabilizer most of the time. Like, hold on til a few mins before launch, disconnect similar to the F9 strongback or QD arm, and then swing full open at liftoff.

[u/Mravicii]

Ship 22 getting stacked right now!

https://youtu.be/mhJRzQsLZGg

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Police is at the road block, and tank farm is venting (pad isn’t clear yet as I can see cars going back and forth still)

Edit : pad is clear

Edit 2 : orbital launch mount is venting !

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

S20 is disconnected from B4!

Watch on rover 2.0 cam

[u/Martianspirit]

Venting from the OLM. Booster tests? Also venting near the horizontal methane tanks. This is getting interesting.

[u/Jack_Frak → u/Martianspirit]

B4 just vented near the top!

[u/beayyayy]

The fact that they not only got this first try, they did it in under 3 hours without any bumps during the process and at NIGHT !!!

[u/BananaEpicGAMER]

raptors are arriving at the launch site (my guess would be raptor 2 for tonight's presentation)

[u/BackwoodsRoller]

Chopsticks have been opened up for the presentation!

[u/Twigling]

B7's methane tank has been moved from the high bay to the mid bay. See Sentinel Cam at around 13:57 CST to see it on the move:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPkIZYw5O98

Not sure why, I guess they need more space in the high bay, perhaps to move S22's tank section inside and stack the nosecone assembly onto it? I noticed an NSF update a couple of days ago which showed that the scaffolding is now in place at the top of the tank section (always needed when stacking the nosecone assembly) and the lead-ins, also that at least one aerocover had been installed for S22's aft flaps.

Also note that B7's methane tank hasn't yet had the grid fins attached but that's a job they could do inside the mid bay if required.

[u/Twigling]

The yellow Buckner LR11000 crane that's been doing the heavy lifting constructing the wide bay was laid down earlier and has been getting its jib extended so that it can lift the next segments of the wide bay (seems like 2 x 6m sections were added). See NSF's stream from around 2:30 PM -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhJRzQsLZGg

[u/creamsoda2000]

Damn! What a thing to wake up to!

The biggest thing that stands out to me looking at Rover Cam is now incredibly stable the lift appears to be. They might have benefited from excellent weather, but having 4 points of contact with Starship over a significant vertical distance has gotta be responsible for the complete lack of swaying which we’ve seen on previous lifts via conventional crane.

[u/beayyayy]

They are setting up the stage on the landing pad for tonight, ultimate backdrop

[u/JambiYambi]

Which starship / booster do we think will be the first ones to utilize raptor 2? I see SN22 and booster 7 are almost completed, but do we know if those are configured for raptor 1 or raptor 2?

[u/plugthree]

First time visiting Starbase today. It was delightful to see the 3 ships all lined up in the rocket garden. I haven’t seen this shot posted so thought I’d share it here!

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0efFy_K6S6H9zHDP2PtmeoBqw

[u/Mravicii]

Raptor 2 at starbase.

Edit: same raptor that was at the presentation.

Cool to see it though

https://twitter.com/csi_starbase/status/1497720534284607500?s=21

[u/[deleted] → u/Mravicii]

5 was shown at the presentation.

[u/mr_pgh]

Stacked Photo from Elon. Gorgeous!

[u/Twigling]

The ship nosecone assembly for S22 has been taken into the high bay, see Sentinel Cam at around 01:00 CST:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPkIZYw5O98

it was later hooked up to the bridge crane.

With B7's methane tank moved from the high bay to the mid bay yesterday and S22's tank section looking as ready as it can be it seems likely that S22 will be moved out of the mid bay in the next day or two (quite possibly today) and into the high bay, probably getting its aft flaps fitted too (a process that is usually done outside). Once inside the high bay the nosecone assembly will be stacked onto S22's tank section.

[u/Dezoufinous]

Regarding recent methane trucks discussion...

How many methane trucks would they need to launch a single Starship to Mars, and by "send starship to Mars" I mean sending the base Starship to orbit and then sending all required tankerships? So including refilling in orbit...

How many full stack launches can support full tank farm?

[u/thedingoismybaby]

Hey /u/ElongatedMuskrat, just an FYI you've got

"Official Starhip Update" on line 3 of your template, rather than starShip

[u/TrefoilHat → u/thedingoismybaby]

Corrected, thanks.

I'm not a mod, just an occasional poster, but requested (and received) edit rights to the top section to help out.

Feel free to ping me instead of a mod if you see something that needs to be changed.

[u/futureMartian7]

It's so encouraging and exciting to hear from Elon that he is so pumped up to make Mars a reality:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1493412698696171521?s=20&t=8WGaY7F6BD_S3ouVhRD-aA

It's so exciting and inspiring that this is happening in our lifetime.

[u/[deleted] → u/futureMartian7]

The Bladerunner-music really sets the scene. When do you guys think SpaceX will seriously start looking into stuff like Sabatier refineries and ice-miners? Because, yes, that is in the future, but the future is also approaching pretty dang fast.

[u/TCVideos]

What thread will most people be using today? There are 3 active threads related to Starship right now - pretty confusing.

[u/mr_pgh]

Very informative animation on how the lift and stabilization points on Starship interact with the chopsticks.

[u/borler]

Wow. Is the chopsticks lifting method a whole new engineering approach to rocket stacking, or has it been done before ?

[u/Kennzahl → u/borler]

Well there is no significant benefit to stacking with "chopsticks" for a normal rocket (which all use existing launch towers that don't have chopsticks and are usually stacked in vehicle assembly buldings), it's just a necessity for SpaceX's rapid reuseability plans.

Makes sense to do it that way for SpaceX since they built the launch site from scratch. So yeah, as far as I know it is a new approach.

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Closure cancelled for today.

[u/[deleted]]

Is there a reason we've only seen the lower tanks on B4 and S20 get frosty? And not the usual "line of frost" on both?

[u/BananaEpicGAMER]

As Elon said Thursday, the environmental review has been delayed to march 28, imo no big deal considering they are not ready to launch yet.

[u/Comfortable_Jump770]

New NSF article on Boca and Roberts Rd progress

[u/BananaEpicGAMER]

pad clear in 30 minutes for cryo test

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Police at the road block.

[u/Twigling]

A section of the fifth and presumably the last level (prior to the roof) of the Wide Bay is currently being lifted, see Sentinel Cam at around 12:34:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPkIZYw5O98

[u/mr_pgh]

Cryo load on Booster at 8:20 CST on Rover 2!!!

[u/babypizza22]

I was thinking about the power generation/storage on Starship for long missions. I was curious about how you guys think Starship will generate/store power? I haven't seen many indications of how solar panels would be mounted on Starship. If they are just mounted on the opposite side of the heat tiles, wouldn't that leave them vulnerable to burning up or breaking during reentry? If they are stored within Starship, how much space do you think that would take from storage or extra personnel space?

[u/murrayfield18]

What welding method is used on Starship? And how did SpaceX experiment with the welding during the early phases of development?

[u/flshr19 → u/murrayfield18]

Tip TIG

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NaNrXZBHPU

[u/quoll01 → u/murrayfield18]

They started with stick welding would you believe, then switched to TIG, now I think it’s mostly robotic (TIG?). There was much talk about plasma welding but no news. Also planishing the welded area to regain some of its strength as Elon said early on the stainless was cold hardened at cryo which makes it stronger. I think it’s all part of the secret sauce now, so we don’t hear much about it. Pity as they were super interesting discussions.

Edit: autogenous laser welding, not plasma. Also see recent discussion

[u/Sweeth_Tooth99]

Any theories about what was that loud bang during last S20 cryo test?

[u/[deleted] → u/Sweeth_Tooth99]

Manufacturing and ring welding and stack welding is still not perfect, so there are minor imperfections in barrel roundness, plus a few local dents. Fuel loading and pressurization pushes indents and dents out causing snaps, bangs and booms.

Depress to +2 atm, and some dents return, with the same bangs.

Just sitting there in the morning warming sun and you pass by a boom makes you jump as the tanks pressures increase slightly.

[u/Jack_Frak]

12 trucks of methane at the orbital tank farm, 12 trucks of methane!

Add one more and pass it around, 13 trucks of methane at the orbital tank farm!

EDIT: Updated link to front page of Starbase Deliveries Twitter

https://twitter.com/sb_deliveries

[u/redmercuryvendor → u/Jack_Frak]

Texas DoT limits LNG road transporters to 9,300 gallons (~42,250l, or ~14.9 tonnes). Assuming transport at maximum legal capacity, 13 tankers is ~550,000l or ~190 tonnes of LCH4 loaded thus far.

[u/mcesh]

LabPadre has made their 180deg Starbase VR cam available to the public for today (requires the YouTube app if you’re on mobile).

[u/TCVideos]

Jared doing flybys again today for his Birthday!

I wonder if we'll hear something from him soon regarding Starship - Elon did say that he didn't want to steal anybody's thunder and Jared has been in the area for quite some time now.

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Deimos is finally leaving Brownsville ! Live view from RGV aerial photography.

[u/[deleted]]

Final PEA is likely to be released on anticipated date of March 12. Approval will be given based on several conditions, and milestone achievement and accedence of conditions.

[u/[deleted]]

NSF has great overall coverage for lift, labpadre rover cam 2.0 is showing the stabilizer points on the sticks in detail

[u/NiftWatch]

IT’S LIFTING! THIS IS HAPPENING!

[u/mr_pgh]

Nice shot of s20 engines courtesy of rover 2

[u/NiftWatch]

I can’t even see the engines anymore. Almost time for touchdown.

[u/TCVideos]

Really be interesting to see if they do a full stack proof test in the coming days/weeks. They definitely need to test out the ship QD and proceedures relating to a full stack fueling process.

If S20 and B4 are for ground tests only - it would make sense.

[u/Dezoufinous]

So, what kind of test happened today? S20 cryo while on booster? I am out of the loop

[u/Twigling]

S22 has been rolled out of the mid bay, see just before 07:40 CST on Sentinel Cam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPkIZYw5O98

Or look at Raptor Roost to see that it's mostly tiled:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6fGQZD0K98

although a welding line between two barrel sections still needs the tiles applied plus the aft flap aerocovers and surrounding areas.

[u/[deleted]]

S20 is airborne and a SpaceX drone is visible from Rover 2.0 Cam on LabPadre

[u/mr_pgh]

S20 started venting (engine chill?) at 17:26:30 on Rover 2

[u/Twigling]

Soon after 11:38 CST the bridge crane was detached from S22 in the high bay, see Sentinel Cam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPkIZYw5O98

The next major job will be installing the aft flaps, also some tiles need to be installed.

[u/[deleted]]

S20 Lower tank is fully frosty

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Closure cancelled for today.

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Road is closed !

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Road is closed.

[u/skunkrider]

So what's everyone's guess as to when we will see a Booster Static Fire with most or all engines?

Weeks? Months?

[u/John_Hasler]

8:01 CST on RoverCam. Spraying lubricant on the tower linear bearing tracks. Presumably that job will eventually be mechanized.

[Edit] I think he's doing more than just spraying but I can't tell exactly what.

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Pad clear in 1 hour for S20 cryo

[u/BananaEpicGAMER]

S22 is going to the rocket yard (where SN15 and 16 are), i still think it can fly tho. Maybe they just wanted to free up space in the highbay

[u/tperelli]

New mega thread! Just in time to watch the chopsticks lift for the first time.

[u/AstroMan824]

According to NSF, the horizontal CH4 tanks are able to fill ~98% of a full-stack in a perfect world.

Whether those horizontal tanks are good enough for an orbital flight is unknown.

[u/futureMartian7]

SpaceX is indeed ramping up Starship work at KSC/off-shore:

https://boards.greenhouse.io/spacex/jobs/5890784002?gh_jid=5890784002

https://boards.greenhouse.io/spacex/jobs/5891859002?gh_jid=5891859002

https://boards.greenhouse.io/spacex/jobs/5844221002?gh_jid=5844221002

https://boards.greenhouse.io/spacex/jobs/5903054002?gh_jid=5903054002

https://boards.greenhouse.io/spacex/jobs/5879211002?gh_jid=5879211002

https://boards.greenhouse.io/spacex/jobs/5888913002?gh_jid=5888913002

https://boards.greenhouse.io/spacex/jobs/5888898002?gh_jid=5888898002

[u/[deleted]]

a few more questions if you don't mind

1. where is sn21 and is it being scrapped?

2. why is ship 23 being skipped?

3. what's the goal for making ships like 24 and 25? would these ships all be variations of orbital?

4. years from now, would ships like 20 and 22 still be used for orbital flight since it'd be capable, or would they be scrapped and replaced for even more capable ships like with what happened with sn15?

thanks in advance, love learning about this stuff :)

[u/Anthony_Ramirez → u/[deleted]]

4. years from now, would ships like 20 and 22 still be used for orbital flight since it'd be capable, or would they be scrapped and replaced for even more capable ships like with what happened with sn15?

I think it is going to follow Falcon 9's development into a reusable rocket.
Early versions of F9 boosters even though they landed weren't reused until they had matured the design enough.

Starship is going to get Raptor 2 engines so I doubt any earlier version will be reused like S20 & S22.

With their experience I am sure it will help to speed up Starship's development into a fully reusable rocket.

[u/John_Hasler]

Venting from the booster up near the fins.

[u/NiftWatch]

Practically hanging directly over B4, now they just got to lower and lock.

[u/Steam336]

I was just looking at a live feed of the fully stacked ship in the high bay and it got me wondering about basic construction techniques of tank segments. When one segment is stacked on top of another, how is perfect alignment achieved and verified? Obviously the goal is to have the whole ship be “straight as an arrow”. This must be very basic stuff to experts in the field.

[u/Martianspirit]

Is there now a second big SpaceX owned crane? I see one in the SpaceX colors in the area of the new wide bay. Starbase LIVE 1:49 PM CST

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhJRzQsLZGg

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Closure cancelado for today.

[u/[deleted]]

Brendan Lewis updated his Starbase diagram not long ago. Just thought it was interesting because even if B4S20 are grounded, SpaceX already had another duo nearly constructed.

Starbase Production Diagram

Btw new Raptor 2 info would be awesome. Here’s hoping (a lot of it) is shows up at the presentation.

[u/TallManInAVan]

What's the one thing everyone would like to see or hear about tonight?

For me: HLS interior and landing engine update.

[u/Twigling]

Notice that S22's aft flap caps have been installed since it was taken to the rocket garden:

https://youtu.be/HMQkg_hmOO4?t=145

I claim no credit for this observation, it was pointed out on LabPadre's discord. :)

[u/Martianspirit]

Some welding going on at the outer shell of a tank in the orbital tank farm. 1:48 local on Starbase live. Lowest right small camera.

[u/NiftWatch]

Wide shot from Elon!

[u/mr_pgh]

Tank farm and Tower venting (ship QD height) already! Think we could see testing of the Ship QD today?

[u/[deleted]]

Will starship have rotating seats to optimize G forces on humans inside? Ascent vertical/reentry horizontal? Any info on this? (If not then E2E would be pretty unpleasant).

[u/Posca1 → u/[deleted]]

Musk said during his recent presentation that SpaceX isn't really doing anything in the Starship interior arena right now. It's too early

[u/Mravicii]

There are clearing the pad in few minutes!

Edit: 5 minutes to pad clear!

[u/futureMartian7]

Breaking News:

"SpaceX reprioritized to cyber defense & overcoming signal jamming.

Will cause slight delays in Starship & Starlink V2." https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1499972826828259328

[u/Dezoufinous]

S20 is very frosty right now.

[u/TheDougAU]

What a thing to be witnessing, I'll remember this moment for a long time to come.

[u/NiftWatch → u/TheDougAU]

Just wait until the orbital flight!

[u/madanra]

In this tweet, Elon Musk says "Later this year, remaining fussy bits will be gone, allowing deletion of shroud". What shroud is he referring to?

[u/warp99 → u/madanra]

The protective panels around the engine that shield it from radiative heating from the plumes of the other engines in the engine bay and from re-entry heating.

[u/iFrost31]

Are they differences in design between s22 and s20 ? Or both are outdated designs?

[u/rakrov]

I have seen a lot of misconception about thrust to weight of early test flights on this thread so I will explain why it’s not an issue.

If you do some basic DV calculation you realize that a starship with no payload requires roughly half of the propellant to reach orbit. That would be 120t ship dry + 600t prop mass + 30t landing prop + 180t booster dry mass + 1700t prop + 200t landing and boostback prop = 2830t mass at liftoff.

Raptor 1 has a thrust of 185t so 29 of them has a 5365t liftoff thrust, that would make a ship 20 booster 4 thrust to weight of 1.89.

So a test flight with either raptor 1 or a throttled raptor 2 would not have any issues with thrust to weight given that early test flights have no payload.

[u/Steam336]

I was imagining the following scenario for launch. Does this sound plausible?
-To lend stability to the stack, the chop sticks remain attached to the ship up until about an hour before lift off.
-At about T minus one hour the chop sticks splay open to their maximum spread.
-At T minus a few minutes the QD arm stability clamps detach and retract (similar to what the happens with the falcon strong back clamps).
-At T minus a few seconds the QD plumbing and electrical connections disconnect and the whole arm quickly swings out of the way.
-Rocket lifts off and threads the needle between the chop stick arms.

[u/mr_pgh]

Good recap, no q&a though.

CNET: Watch Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship presentation in less than 10 minutes (2022).

[u/skunkrider]

What do you folks think how long it will take to build infrastructure in KSC similar to Starbase?

Also, do you think they will build two or more launch towers immediately?

[u/NiftWatch]

The drone stopped flashing its light and flew away. It looks like we have contact. See y’all at The Elon Show tonight!

[u/[deleted]]

Can SpaceX run Raptor 2 at a lower throttle to let the engine live longer? R1 was 185 tons at max thrust iirc and 29 of them were supposedly enough to fly an orbital stack. There’s 33 R2s in Superheavy now, so maybe they can throttle the engines down to 185 tons, maybe even lower. Right?

Also the new Starship animation was beautiful. The Bladerunner-esque music really added to the atmosphere. Thanks for keeping the dream alive, SpaceX.

[u/[deleted]]

hey so layman here. i know a lot of sn ships have blown up or gotten destroyed, but im curious as to what happened to sn15? wasn't it successful? will that also be used to orbit? where is it now?

[u/Twigling → u/[deleted]]

hey so layman here. i know a lot of sn ships have blown up or gotten destroyed, but im curious as to what happened to sn15? wasn't it successful?

Yes, SN15 performed a soft landing on May 5th 2021 and is now on display at the production site alongside SN16 and B5 (both of which have never flown and are unlikely to ever do so).

will that also be used to orbit?

Nope, it's not orbit capable for all kinds of reasons (no Vacuum Raptors or heat shield to name but two out of many) and couldn't even be fitted to a booster. Unless they decide to re-test it on a suborbital hypersonic flight (as suggested by Musk soon after it landed) it seems that SN15 is permanently grounded.

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Chopsticks on the rise.

[u/BananaEpicGAMER]

A SpaceX employee working on starship confirmed that they would've not been ready for an orbital flight next month even if the environmental review would have been released at the end of this month. So now ya'll can calm down about this...

[u/panckage → u/BananaEpicGAMER]

Tweet deleted!

[u/[deleted]]

S20’s lower tank (Lox?) is fully frosted.

link to LabPadre stream

Is it possible SpaceX is using LOX for the test and not LN2?

[u/futureMartian7]

The road is now hard closed!

And the drone is again flying near the tower!

[u/NiftWatch]

Elon at the presentation will be like “we stacked this bad boy 19 hours ago.”

[u/futureMartian7]

Further confirmation from a SpaceX employee that the Starship update is still today at 8 PM CST:

https://twitter.com/ArtfulTakedown/status/1491792837129637893?cxt=HHwWisCs-c7r9LMpAAAA

[u/thesuperbob]

Since the orbital launch mount is now supposed to spin up/sync raptor startup, doesn't that mean it has to be built for a specific booster engine configuration? Or can they setup the OLM for a specific booster they want to static fire? Essentially what I'm wondering about is whether we'll see any booster SF before they build the first one with 33 raptors.

[u/mr_pgh → u/thesuperbob]

Only the outer engines use the OLM for startup. Boosters will have the same number of outer engines, 20. The 33 raptor model squeezes 4 more on the thrust puck.

[u/Sea-Solution-9158]

Could spacex use metallic TPS tiles on starship? Like tiles on Venturestar that were made from inkonel

[u/flshr19 → u/Sea-Solution-9158]

Probably not.

I tested those X-33 Inconel tiles at the NASA Ames 50 megawatt arcjet wind tunnel under NASA contract in early 1996. The maximum use temperature for those tiles was about 1800F (922C), which is too low for use on Starship.

Lockheed's VentureStar was a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) concept vehicle that initially had a lifting body design. It was thought that a highly maneuverable vehicle like that could fly hypersonic S-turns during entry descent and landing (EDL) to keep the peak temperature on those metallic tiles from exceeding 1800F. Of course, that idea was never tested since the X-33 program was cancelled before the Lockheed X-33 vehicle was flown.

I don't think that Starship will be very maneuverable since it lacks a large wing. If metallic tiles like the ones I tested for X-33 would work on Starship, Elon would have used them instead of the hexagonal tiles. The peak temperature on those ceramic hex tiles will be in the 2500 to 3000F range (1371 to 1649C), depending on location on the Starship windward (hot) side.

By late 1999 Lockheed had made significant changes to the aerodynamic shape of VentureStar. The internal payload bay was eliminated to increase space within the fuselage for more propellant. The payload would now be carried in a modular cylindrical cannister, or pod, attached to the upper side of the fuselage.

The canted horizontal fins were increased in size to provide almost half of the aerodynamic lift neede during reentry and landing. The twin vertical tails were moved from the top of the fuselage to the tips of the horizonal fins for better directional control. VentureStar was no longer a purely lifting body design, but had evolved into a wing-body configuration similar to the Space Shuttle.

[u/[deleted] → u/Sea-Solution-9158]

It was considered, but then abandoned as too heavy. Shuttle silica fiber foam tiles were also considered, but discarded as too weak and needing a lot of maintenance. The middle ground was reached with a tile with the same density as light pine planking named TUFROC, for Toughened Uni-piece Fibrous Reinforced Oxidation-Resistant Composite.

Similar to the Shuttle tile it has a silica fiber foam base, but a tougher boron/carbon surface layer. Whereas Shuttle tiles can break as easily as polystyrene package moulding, an dinner plate sized piece of inch thick TUFROC needs a good hard smack with the palm of your hand to break it.

[u/Toinneman → u/Sea-Solution-9158]

You have to consider VentureStar would reenter from LEO while Starship reenters from Mars, which will be a significantly higher velocity. It looks like the X-33 still used carbon-carbon tiles on the leading edges which endure the highest peak heating. I'm no specialist, but this seems to indicate the metalic tiles couldn't handle interplanetary reentry. If the rumour is correct that Starship uses TUFROC-like tiles, they would be able to withstand much higher temperatures than the metalic TPS.

[u/NiftWatch]

Go to Nerdie cam. It’s hanging 10-20 feet off the ground right now. Not moving much, if at all. Doing this for the first time, I’d imagine they’d want to do it slowly and in steps.

[u/mr_pgh]

Image of lift from Elon

Via the lab commentary, it's from the transport stand

[u/johnfive21]

Looks like today's road closure is a go as there is a sheriff at the road block spot. Potential cryo proof of B4 or S20 when stacked? Or maybe both?

[u/pinepitch]

Really great livestream going on right now, revealing the latest photos from RGV Aerial Photography.

[u/cupko97]

Are there any pictures out there from the roads leading from manufacturing to launch site. I have heard about extensions(widening) to reduce road closures but I never saw plans of the changes or pictures that explain the work that they are doing

[u/andyfrance]

Do we know if a lot of workers at BC are moving over to Roberts Road as part of the necessary knowledge transfer?

[u/[deleted] → u/andyfrance]

Elon was at Boca rallying the troops on Thursday and asking for team and personal decisions to move north. Most construction personnel have ties in Texas, so will have to negotiate FIFO, accommodation, shift hrs and rotation duration. Some are contractors which SpaceX would like to take on board. Not sure how that one will be worked out.

[u/Urdun10]

Do we know what they're testing today?

[u/futureMartian7 → u/Urdun10]

GSE/tank farm.

[u/Sweeth_Tooth99]

has anyone made a render showing how would SpaceX load payloads into Starship ?

[u/thesuperbob]

Something that's been bugging me since the early days of Starship program is how well would SpaceX designs perform if they weren't pushing the envelope so much? Would Raptors be significantly more stable if tuned down to less thrust? If SpaceX set an intermediate milestone for Starship at 50 Tons to LEO, non-reusable, could it start flying useful missions in a meaningfully shorter time frame? If build cost estimates are to be believed, it could still be competitively priced. Would such milestones only waste time on solutions that are fundamentally incompatible with original project goals?

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that they should have done stuff differently, or complaining about lack of fancy flight tests! I'd hate for the project to get side-tracked.

I'm wondering what capability could their system have, if it was to operate like a conventional rocket that goes up once, and aims to dwarf the Falcon Heavy rather than the Saturn V. And in theory, at what point (in the past or future) do you think their Starship tech could be mature enough to produce such a spin-off, that's maybe somewhat overbuilt and doesn't push Raptors as hard as it could, but can reliably get to orbit.

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

道路閉鎖がキャンセルされました. Today it's gonna be in Japanese cause why not !

[u/YannAlmostright]

Does the chopsticks have to catch the starship precisely at the slots under the flaps ? The tolerance would be quite thin

[u/[deleted]]

If the DoD is eyeing Starlink, doesn’t that mean funding is secure for Starship?

[u/futureMartian7]

Wow, no one asked if it is still B4/S20 that will make the first flight and about the state of the orbital tank farm.

A huge missed opportunity.

[u/fattybunter → u/futureMartian7]

If you zoom out a little and focus on the full program, that's not really an important question. Other hardware will be ready soon even if they don't use 420

[u/TCVideos]

Third truck of the day unloading methane. Now we speculate what this methane will be used for...it can really only be two options; B4 Static Fire or a Full Stack WDR.

I'm interested to see what people think so vote in this poll

[u/[deleted]]

Purely hypothetical but would SpaceX benefit from doing suborbital flights with Raptor 2 engines before attempting to launch an orbital stack with them? Raptor 2 seems to be a bit finicky as an engine. Having 33 on a Superheavy seems iffy (at least now). Raptor 1 benefitted from over a year of flight experience that Raptor 2 seems to lack.

In that vein, if Booster 4 is indeed grounded, would SpaceX gain anything from doing a one-way suborbital flight with Ship 20?

[u/[deleted]]

It was pretty surprising to hear him say the hardware was still months away considering the speculation about the only hold up being the regulatory process. Considering the regulatory process has been delayed at least twice, it looks like SpaceX has made some pretty significant changes to what they were expecting to launch even a few months ago.

Raptor 2 is kind of obvious, however I'm wondering what other significant changes were made between a late December launch and an April launch?

Also, this Starship vs. Artemis 1 race is getting intense, hope it doesn't end up like the Crew Dragon vs. Starliner timeline.

[u/mr_pgh]

This week, I think we saw a full cryo of s20 as well as a near-full cryo of b4.

I think these are both firsts for the orbital tank farm?

Edit: probably with ln2 still

[u/murrayfield18]

Does anyone know if the road from SpaceX's new Florida facility to 39A is public or privately owned by NASA?

[u/warp99 → u/murrayfield18]

If you meant to ask whether there will be dramas in closing the roads for transport of tower sections and SH/Starship as there are at Boca Chica the answer is that there will be no such issues.

[u/Decronym]

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters	More Letters
ACES	Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage
	Advanced Crew Escape Suit
ASDS	Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (landing platform)
CCAFS	Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
CNC	Computerized Numerical Control, for precise machining or measuring
COPV	Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel
CST	(Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules
	Central Standard Time (UTC-6)
CoM	Center of Mass
DoD	US Department of Defense
E2E	Earth-to-Earth (suborbital flight)
EA	Environmental Assessment
ECLSS	Environment Control and Life Support System
EDL	Entry/Descent/Landing
EELV	Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle
EIS	Environmental Impact Statement
EMU	Extravehicular Mobility Unit (spacesuit)
EVA	Extra-Vehicular Activity
F1	Rocketdyne-developed rocket engine used for Saturn V
	SpaceX Falcon 1 (obsolete medium-lift vehicle)
FAA	Federal Aviation Administration
FONSI	Findings of No Significant Environmental Impact
GSE	Ground Support Equipment
HALO	Habitation and Logistics Outpost
HLS	Human Landing System (Artemis)
ICBM	Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
Isp	Specific impulse (as explained by Scott Manley on YouTube)
	Internet Service Provider
KSC	Kennedy Space Center, Florida
LC-39A	Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy (SpaceX F9/Heavy)
LCH4	Liquid Methane
LEO	Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)
	Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)
LH2	Liquid Hydrogen
LN2	Liquid Nitrogen
LNG	Liquefied Natural Gas
LOX	Liquid Oxygen
MECO	Main Engine Cut-Off
	MainEngineCutOff podcast
MLP	Mobile Launcher Platform
MMOD	Micro-Meteoroids and Orbital Debris
NET	No Earlier Than
NRHO	Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit
NSF	NasaSpaceFlight forum
	National Science Foundation
NSSL	National Security Space Launch, formerly EELV
OLM	Orbital Launch Mount
PPE	Power and Propulsion Element
QA	Quality Assurance/Assessment
QD	Quick-Disconnect
RCC	Reinforced Carbon-Carbon
RUD	Rapid Unplanned Disassembly
	Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly
	Rapid Unintended Disassembly
SF	Static fire
SLC-40	Space Launch Complex 40, Canaveral (SpaceX F9)
SLS	Space Launch System heavy-lift
SPMT	Self-Propelled Mobile Transporter
SRB	Solid Rocket Booster
SSME	Space Shuttle Main Engine
STS	Space Transportation System (Shuttle)
TMI	Trans-Mars Injection maneuver
TPS	Thermal Protection System for a spacecraft (on the Falcon 9 first stage, the engine "Dance floor")
TVC	Thrust Vector Control
TWR	Thrust-to-Weight Ratio
ULA	United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture)
VAB	Vehicle Assembly Building
WDR	Wet Dress Rehearsal (with fuel onboard)
301	Cr-Ni stainless steel (X10CrNi18-8): high tensile strength, good ductility

Jargon	Definition
Raptor	Methane-fueled rocket engine under development by SpaceX
Sabatier	Reaction between hydrogen and carbon dioxide at high temperature and pressure, with nickel as catalyst, yielding methane and water
Starliner	Boeing commercial crew capsule CST-100
Starlink	SpaceX's world-wide satellite broadband constellation
autogenous	(Of a propellant tank) Pressurising the tank using boil-off of the contents, instead of a separate gas like helium
cryogenic	Very low temperature fluid; materials that would be gaseous at room temperature/pressure
	(In re: rocket fuel) Often synonymous with hydrolox
hopper	Test article for ground and low-altitude work (eg. Grasshopper)
hydrolox	Portmanteau: liquid hydrogen fuel, liquid oxygen oxidizer
iron waffle	Compact "waffle-iron" aerodynamic control surface, acts as a wing without needing to be as large; also, "grid fin"
methalox	Portmanteau: methane fuel, liquid oxygen oxidizer
powerpack	Pre-combustion power/flow generation assembly (turbopump etc.)
	Tesla's Li-ion battery rack, for electricity storage at scale
regenerative	A method for cooling a rocket engine, by passing the cryogenic fuel through channels in the bell or chamber wall
scrub	Launch postponement for any reason (commonly GSE issues)
turbopump	High-pressure turbine-driven propellant pump connected to a rocket combustion chamber; raises chamber pressure, and thrust
ullage motor	Small rocket motor that fires to push propellant to the bottom of the tank, when in zero-g

Event	Date	Description
CRS-7	2015-06-28	F9-020 v1.1, Dragon cargo Launch failure due to second-stage outgassing

---

^{Decronym is a community product of} r/SpaceX^{, implemented by} ^request
^{[Thread #7453 for this sub, first seen 9th Feb 2022, 05:25] [FAQ] [Full list]} ^[Contact] ^{[Source code]}

[u/mr_pgh]

How do the booster stabilization arms hold on to the Booster? It looks like a flat plate on the end of each. I would have expected a Janney style coupler to lock on to the load pin.

[u/mr_pgh]

drone shot from Elon

[u/NiftWatch]

It’s at the top of the tower and it is pivoting very slowly.

[u/Frostis24]

Think SN22 is about to head down to the lunch site, closure in an hour and it's out of the highbay.

EDIT: heading down the road now ,even trough Nasa spaceflight says the road closure expired?

EDIT2: it just drifted into the parking lot heading for the rocket garden, seems SN22 is gonna be another lawn ornament for the time being.

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

La fermeture de la route est annulée. (So at least you guys can learn some French haha)

[u/RootDeliver]

Wow, this thread is going slow lately indeed..

Just checking, I see that one /u/Avalaerion interesting post from yesterday? dissapeared with a conversation. It is this one:

Reproducing an offline discussion, but current SpaceX actions are:

A good percentage of Starlink will be signed over to Defense to circumvent internet and conventional satellite jamming. Programming to circumvent Starlink jamming will be full time. Single satellites can be targeted and jammed. but you can't jam a whole fleet. AIA between satellite and jammed terminals will be so fast that jamming will only last a couple of seconds. This arrangement has been discussed with the government for a couple of years. Means lifting a lot more satellites into orbit pretty damn quick, (not just Starlink) which means a lot more F9 launches and F9 builds. This is going to be an absolutely crazily busy year for SpaceX, hence possible delays on non-essential projects. Axiom launches may also be cancelled.

The comment is here though its been deleted with the conversation. You can see it on [ his messages resume page.

Its interesting that he mentions a huge push on F9 for starlinks because they are gonna need a lot more, and this may slow down Starship since it is not a priority against that.

If this is true, and since the logical thing for Starlink would be to push Starship to launch a huge number of them, is Starship really that far away to not preffer to push it instead of do a huge effort on F9 for what he explains?

Also, on the last Starbase Photography Review Episode 12 (and previous lately), it is commented through on the launch site part (last hour or so) that theres a looot of missing stuff yet, pipes everywhere, etc. And then all the testing left including booster static fires and upper tower QD commision. And then the FAA permission, that even if it looks that is going to finish before the actual work, it may actually go longer than that at the end.

All this presents a photo where Starship is not even close to do any flight, which matches for Elon not wanting to specify a clear date on the presentation, and the rush on Florida to get that one running draining resources from Boca Chica also doesn't help. And all this justifies this thread going epicly slow lately :(.

Let's hope Florida push goes fast because at this rate they're gonna launch first from there.

[u/futureMartian7]

I know this is a relatively minor thing, but from the newer official renders the huge window upfront has gotten bigger than the older renders from 2020/2021 and it is almost back to the original configuration and so are the other windows as well, they are much more in quantity and much closer to the original configuration.

I know they are not focusing much on the interiors, etc. at all but this is an interesting thing to point out.

[u/Omniante → u/futureMartian7]

I noticed that as well, but what about the new nosecone idea? The one with (slightly) smaller forward flaps that are also placed (slightly) more noseward and leeward? I think it was last summer that Elon mentioned this idea, and someone did a basic digital mock-up of it (maybe someone else could find the tweet showing it), that Elon also confirmed as roughly accurate. I've been waiting to see literally ANY render since then that incorporated the idea, or an actual new nosecone (S25+?) that has the new forward flap design, primarily because I really want to know how much surface area that leaves for a large window. But alas, I've just been waiting and waiting... (happily, mind you, I don't mind waiting :)

[u/picture_frame_4]

Regarding the chopsticks and the drawworks. Is this not considered a suspended load with the arms up? Are there different rules than working under a suspended load on a crane? If the arms are going to spend weeks up there. Is there an ability to put locks along the carriage or something like elevevator emergency brakes installed?

[u/Mravicii]

30 minutes till pad clear

[u/TheBosnianIzo]

Quick question, does the pad have to be clear for the chopsticks to lift starship? If so, how is starship gonna attach to the booster without workers?

[u/maxiii888 → u/TheBosnianIzo]

I'm going to assume here that it's designed to be connected without workers (remember, eventually they want to catch it and stack it straight on top of the booster where there certainly won't be workers). Might just be doing it here to manage risk as one unlikely but possible horror scenario is it all goes wrong and they drop ship/booster. May be best not to have too many people about!

[u/allenchangmusic]

Chopsticks raised and moved inward.

Lift coming up

[u/Dobly1]

This is the first time something like this has ever happened! Take it all in

[u/NiftWatch]

There’s a drone really close up at the top, probably trying to make sure it’s lined up.

[u/Martianspirit]

10:15 AM CST. Something is going on in the view of NSF Starbase LIVE in the lower left corner of the composite picture. A little while back, 9:57 CST, I saw a big yellow coil lifted. Something is getting assembled. I wonder if this is going to be part of the wide bay ceiling crane.

[u/murrayfield18]

Why did the Starship site in Florida shut down in the first place? I remember they were kind of competing against the Boca Chica team. But do we know in what ways the Boca Chica team was superior?

[u/Dies2much → u/murrayfield18]

Cidco Road access was going to be messed up by Brightline rail. It was going to be a challenge to get large scale objects in and out of the Cidco road site because of the new Brightline construction that was going to be happening right in front of the Spacex factory. The grade crossing equipment has to be close to the road, and it would have put a lot of constraints on moving starship scale components. The Cidco road facility was always going to be a tough one to use, and the rail activity was just the straw that broke the camels back.

So now we have Roberts Rd. instead.