BFR Developments

[Yazata]

L/B Jill pulled into the Port of Brownsville this morning with B13's thrust section. It's expected to return home to Starbase tonight.

(Photo by Starship Gazer)

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[Yazata]

B13 returns home to the Massey's test site. Since the S36 explosion, it's where all the wrecked things go to support each other emotionally. (photo by NSF's Jack Beyer)

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The engineering geeks are getting excited by what's revealed in the new photos. For example, the inlet filters (to keep the engines from ingesting ice) There was lots of previous speculation about the likely need for these, but no hard data, until now. (This photo by StarshipGazer.)

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[Yazata]

Elon says:

"Shortly before the next flight, I will do a live technical update on Starship, going over progress to date and engineering/production/launch plans for the future."

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1948568264893686111

[Yazata]

When Ship 36 exploded on June 18, prior to a planned static fire at the Masseys test site, the ship static fire test facility was severely damaged and put out of action for months to come. That seemingly made ship static fires, which are necessary before flights, impossible.

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Well, SpaceX is nothing if not resourceful. They MacGyvered a solution!

Why not use the launch mount for ship static fires? The problem with that is that ships aren't compatible with the clamps on the launch mount, which are designed to fit boosters. What's more, the propellant feed fittings on ships are different from those on boosters and are in a different position.

Normally, when the ships are in the vertical construction bays, the ships are sitting on stands, which have clamp fittings for ships on top. What SpaceX engineers and technicians did was modify a ship stand to serve as an adapter, so that its bottom would be compatible with the booster fittings on the launch mount, while the top of the stand would continue to fit the ship.

Then they installed new pipes to tap into the propellant feed lines leading to the booster quick disconnect and routed them to a new repositioned fitting to fit a ship.

(The adapter and the modifications to the propellant feed lines will all have to be removed before the launch mount will once again fit boosters and be suitable for launches again.)

And yesterday, they performed a single engine static fire on Ship 37, which after the loss of 36 will now be the Flight 10 ship. And today, they successfully performed a full six-engine ship static fire!

It's impressive how quickly SpaceX reacted to the S36 disaster so as to get back on track preparing for flights in just six weeks.

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[C C]

When Ship 36 exploded on June 18, prior to a planned static fire at the Masseys test site, the ship static fire test facility was severely damaged and put out of action for months to come. That seemingly made ship static fires, which are necessary before flights, impossible.

Well, SpaceX is nothing if not resourceful. They MacGyvered a solution!

Why not use the launch mount for ship static fires? [...] And yesterday, they performed a single engine static fire on Ship 37, which after the loss of 36 will now be the Flight 10 ship. And today, they successfully performed a full six-engine ship static fire!

It's impressive how quickly SpaceX reacted to the S36 disaster so as to get back on track preparing for flights in just six weeks.

Good. Now they can get back to blowing up the remaining Block 2 Starships in orbit or re-entry. They're surely as defective as ever, with Block 3 waiting in the wings.

[Yazata]

Today, after the Ship 37 static fires, they are removing all of the modifications to the launch mount.

Here's a good view of the ship stand that they turned into their adapter to allow the ship to sit atop a launch mount designed for boosters, as they remove the adapter with a crane. (Photo by Carlos Nunez)

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And here they are removing the MacGyvered propellant fittings. The armored steel box they are on top of is the normal booster quick disconnect (BQD) housing, that protects the male plugs through which propellant flows into the booster. During launches this has to be free to open to expose the fittings, then it has to close very quickly to protect them during launch. So the impromptu modifications have to be gone to allow the BQD door to open and close freely. (Photo by Starship Gazer.)

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[Yazata]

Aerial photo by Mauricio of RGV Aerial Photography showing the current state of Pad 2 construction.

(We all called it 'Pad B', but have learned that SpaceX calls it 'Pad 2'.)

You can see white sun-shades where they are working on the booster clamps. The CH4 and LOX quick disconnects are visible. (Pad 1 combines both propellants into one booster QD.) The large framework on this side houses all kinds of pipes, valves and electrical gear, and will be covered by a sloping wall of armor shielding. The base of the tower is visible behind the flame trench at the top of the photo. The square plate on top with the round hole is one of Elon's water-cooled steel plates with countless small holes that will spray high pressure water. Water will also spray from the water-cooled flame diverter down in the trench.

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[Yazata]

Starbase update video from Nasaspaceflight.com, featuring Jack Beyer (who has more personality in his little finger than most people have in their whole body)

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/KINe5uOzC1Y

[Yazata]

Well, that was quick...

Today they are reassembling the ship propellant feed umbilical that they were disassembling a couple of days ago, and have returned the ship-adapter ring to the launch mount after removing it.

It seems that once Ship 37 was back in Mega Bay 2, the technicians removed vacuum raptor 514 and replaced it with an unidentified replacement vacuum raptor. Apparently the engineers decided 514 didn't perform satisfactorily in the six engine static fire.

So the new plan seems to be to return 37 back to the pad and then static fire it again with the new engine.

[Yazata]

Great photograph of the new Pad 2 by Carlos Nunez. (Carlos is a really good photographer and a great guy.)

Humans for scale. (Up in the upper right, working on the methane quick disconnect.)

The sloping framework with all the scaffolding will soon be covered by armored steel cladding. So this is one of the last chances to see what's inside.

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