New drone fly-by of the Cocoa Florida site:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNO2ElxXueQ
Reports today (Monday August 12) say that preparations might be underway to build a new access road to the Florida Spaceshipyard. It appears to the locals like it will extend from the dead-end road to the immediate left of the FedEx Ground facility (the white building in the upper right corner of the photo below), along a brown dirt path visible in the photo, to a point to the left of the blue-roofed building on the right side.
See blue line here. The Spaceshipyard is at the upper left in the photo below, to the left of and above the 'V' in 'V.A. Paving' (the next-door neighbor with the piles of dirt or gravel): (Map by local Cocoa FL resident Andrew Stoltz who might prove to be a good source of information)
https://twitter.com/Andrewhoonigan/statu...7564846089
The tall structure's framing seems to be complete and now they are starting on the walls (which seem to consist of tent-like seemingly plastic material). The Starship prototype's cylinder section has grown as tall as it's probably likely to get. It seems to have caught up with the Boca Chica version and is at a similar stage of completion.
The Florida site seems to have a whole different attitude than the Texas site. The Texas security guards are friendly, the Florida ones reportedly are surly. Texas allows interested spectators close-up access every day and aren't particularly bothered when people take photographs. (They have asked photographers like Mary not to photograph workers faces or auto licence numbers.) So everything Boca Chica does is minutely recorded and discussed internationally by space-geeks and aerospace professionals alike. The Florida site seems to want to operate in comparative secrecy, keeping spectators as far away as possible. See an example of the kind of signs that have been erected on nearby Cocoa FL roads here:
https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron/statu...1212270593
In more Florida news, despite the Starship prototype having reached what looks like full size (or almost), they appear to still be cranking out welded steel rings. There's speculation about that. The consensus seems to be that they have all these welders who can't just be laid off now that the Starship seems to have all the rings it needs, so they are preparing components that will be needed for building a third Starship prototype and/or the first Falcon Superheavy booster prototype.
In Boca Chica news, Mary/Bocachicagal's video of Hoppy's tanking tests on Friday feature a Texas touch: howling coyotes! I believe that coyotes live in Florida too (they live pretty much everywhere, even in urban areas here in California), but one nevertheless associates them with the West. Reportedly south Texas is overrun with coyotes which attack local livestock and are considered pests.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkzW7mycZhw
Still no move by the giant crane to stack the two Boca Chica Starship halves. Crews seem to still be installing all the tank bulkheads and piping that Mary photographed arriving the last few days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNO2ElxXueQ
Reports today (Monday August 12) say that preparations might be underway to build a new access road to the Florida Spaceshipyard. It appears to the locals like it will extend from the dead-end road to the immediate left of the FedEx Ground facility (the white building in the upper right corner of the photo below), along a brown dirt path visible in the photo, to a point to the left of the blue-roofed building on the right side.
See blue line here. The Spaceshipyard is at the upper left in the photo below, to the left of and above the 'V' in 'V.A. Paving' (the next-door neighbor with the piles of dirt or gravel): (Map by local Cocoa FL resident Andrew Stoltz who might prove to be a good source of information)
https://twitter.com/Andrewhoonigan/statu...7564846089
The tall structure's framing seems to be complete and now they are starting on the walls (which seem to consist of tent-like seemingly plastic material). The Starship prototype's cylinder section has grown as tall as it's probably likely to get. It seems to have caught up with the Boca Chica version and is at a similar stage of completion.
The Florida site seems to have a whole different attitude than the Texas site. The Texas security guards are friendly, the Florida ones reportedly are surly. Texas allows interested spectators close-up access every day and aren't particularly bothered when people take photographs. (They have asked photographers like Mary not to photograph workers faces or auto licence numbers.) So everything Boca Chica does is minutely recorded and discussed internationally by space-geeks and aerospace professionals alike. The Florida site seems to want to operate in comparative secrecy, keeping spectators as far away as possible. See an example of the kind of signs that have been erected on nearby Cocoa FL roads here:
https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron/statu...1212270593
In more Florida news, despite the Starship prototype having reached what looks like full size (or almost), they appear to still be cranking out welded steel rings. There's speculation about that. The consensus seems to be that they have all these welders who can't just be laid off now that the Starship seems to have all the rings it needs, so they are preparing components that will be needed for building a third Starship prototype and/or the first Falcon Superheavy booster prototype.
In Boca Chica news, Mary/Bocachicagal's video of Hoppy's tanking tests on Friday feature a Texas touch: howling coyotes! I believe that coyotes live in Florida too (they live pretty much everywhere, even in urban areas here in California), but one nevertheless associates them with the West. Reportedly south Texas is overrun with coyotes which attack local livestock and are considered pests.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkzW7mycZhw
Still no move by the giant crane to stack the two Boca Chica Starship halves. Crews seem to still be installing all the tank bulkheads and piping that Mary photographed arriving the last few days.