BFR Developments

[Yazata]

Local TV station KRGV (for rio grande valley?) is reporting that Coast Guard in Corpus Christi will be announcing a 'notmar' (notice to mariners) defining a maritime keep-out zone extending about 10 miles out and from the Mexican border in the south up to near South Padre Island (a beach resort with high-rise hotels) in the north. The blue dot near the beach in the map below is the Boca Chica launch site. The Coast Guard says that there's a good chance that this first test will fail and debris will fall into the sea. So they want to ensure that ships and boats aren't underneath. These maritime keep out zones are routine off Cape Canaveral during launches. 

KRGV map

[Image: index.php?action=dlattach;topic=51332.0;...2669;image]

[Yazata]

Boca Chica residents have received the now-familiar impending doom warning for Monday. But they haven't been told to vacate the village.

Elon clarifies things.

"Just a static fire tomorrow. Flight no earlier than Wednesday."

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1333123173815087111

"Static fire is not risky from build site, but we need to clear the build site for early flights."

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1333123941297233920

There are reports that Sn-8 has been fitted with a flight-termination-system, plastic explosives to blow it up in the sky if it becomes uncontrollable. They don't want it getting out of control and heading for a populated place. But if they do blow it up in the air, there will still be tons of sharp steel fragments coming down to shred whatever is below. Hopefully they can keep most of the flight plan out over the sea.

[C C]

Boca Chica residents have received the now-familiar impending doom warning for Monday. But they haven't been told to vacate the village.

Elon clarifies things.

"Just a static fire tomorrow. Flight no earlier than Wednesday."

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1333123173815087111

"Static fire is not risky from build site, but we need to clear the build site for early flights."

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1333123941297233920

There are reports that Sn-8 has been fitted with a flight-termination-system, plastic explosives to blow it up in the sky if it becomes uncontrollable. They don't want it getting out of control and heading for a populated place. But if they do blow it up in the air, there will still be tons of sharp steel fragments coming down to shred whatever is below. Hopefully they can keep most of the flight plan out over the sea.

Finally, some fun again. If it was a month closer to New Year's the fireworks would really be fitting.

[Yazata]

Weekly Starship update video

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/-X5dwl6nmHs

[Yazata]

The FAA has just issued temporary flight restrictions for surface to unlimited effective Friday (4th) through Sunday (6th) for "rocket launch and recovery".

Some of the designated no-fly zone is Mexican airspace. I don't know how that legally works. I'm guessing that there's nothing that the federal government can do to any Mexican pilots who want to fly on their side, but they are being warned for their safety.

https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_0_8423.html

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid...33135&z=11

[Image: sect_0_8423.gif]

[Yazata]

And Friday's temporary flight restrictions have disappeared just as quickly as they appeared. Appears that SpaceX is no longer targeting Friday for the 15km 'Crazy Elon' flight.

We could sort of see that coming when the Boca residents received a familiar 'over-pressure' warning of impending doom notice for Friday instead of the anticipated Run For Your Lives warning.

Talk is that SpaceX is now targeting Monday Dec 7 for the flight and Cameron County has announced road closures for Monday with Tuesday and Wednesday as backup days. But Monday will require a new FAA no-fly notam.

Edit: The move to Monday is more than a rumor. It's what people in Boca are being told.

[Yazata]

Temporary flight restrictions have been issued for Sunday (12 -6), Monday (12-7) and Tuesday (12-8).

The corresponding road closures are for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Very reliable inside source says that they want to conduct the flight on Sunday and are trying to move it up from Monday. Lots of ducks to get in a row -- FAA no-fly zone, Coast Guard maritime exclusion zone, Sheriff's roadblocks, clearing both Boca and the build site. So it should be obvious when the flight is immanent.

Rumors that a nasa high altitude weather plane might fly down from Houston to measure upper level winds and to observe the flight from up around its max expected altitude, but that's just speculation at this point.

Indications that the exact Sn-8 flight plan is still being tweaked. (The engineers don't think that SpaceX wants it going supersonic on this flight. So there are questions about duration of rocket burn, throttle settings and initiation of various maneuvers.)

Photographers and space nuts are pouring into South Padre and local areas where the flight will be visible. Expect lots of streams, so many what there are worries that the local internet (never the best) will collapse under the demands on its bandwidth.

Excitement is growing to fever pitch.

[C C]

Temporary flight restrictions have been issued for Sunday (12 -6), Monday (12-7) and Tuesday (12-8).

The corresponding road closures are for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Very reliable source says that they want to conduct the flight on Sunday and are trying to move it up from Monday.

Despite Boca Chica being circa 3,700 miles from Hawaii, explosions on Pearl Harbor Day could perhaps be in poor taste.

Since most everyone expects it to at least fly a modest distance before calamity strikes, I wouldn't be surprised if it disappointingly blows up on the launch pad or after lifting 50 to 100 feet.

[Yazata]

Road closures have been announced for Sunday December 6 and the reason given was 'Sn8 Flight'. So they have indeed moved it up from Monday. (Doubt if Pearl Harbor Day was the reason though.)

Time for the road closures is 12 noon to 6 PM CST. (1 PM - 7 PM EST, 10 AM - 4 PM PST)

Boca residents and SpaceX workers (increasingly the same people) are being told that they will need to leave and run for their lives Sunday morning. Most of them are planning to regroup in South Padre. Along with lots of media and alternative space celebrities like Tim Dodd. Cameras with big zoom lenses are setting up on the roofs of the high rise hotels. (The community of South Padre Island hoped that SpaceX would bring tourists to their town and make it something more than a drunken college spring break destination. Well, it might be starting to happen.)

It's sort of snowballing into world-wide excitement.

An eccentric genius builds a giant spaceship out in a remote Texas field that he hopes will someday take humanity to Mars. He's not a government, just a guy with a crazy vision. Our Doctor Zarkov.

It's like watching a slow-motion science-fiction serial with a new Boca Chica episode every week.

In other news, Mary spotted the first pieces of Sn 16 today, helpfully labeled. So there are eight more Starships under various stages of construction after Sn8. Plus the first Super Heavy booster. They are cranking them out.

The pieces at the build site generally have labels positioned where Mary's camera can see them. Earlier they were identified by parts numbers and work orders. So it's been speculated that the simple explanatory labels are for Mary's benefit. But the consensus is that they are for the benefit of the workers, who may not have the parts lists and work orders (which are on the managers' tablets) and are told to go work on the Sn16 common dome or whatever it is. Keeps them from having to ask a boss to identify it for them.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/CHZvQD0GkxA

[Yazata]

Raining pretty heavily in Boca today. Tomorrow expected to be a lot better.

But Mary reports that residents have received a normal "overpressure" warning for Sunday, not an evacuation warning, so a flight isn't expected tomorrow. Looks like Monday is the new target.

https://twitter.com/BocaChicaGal/status/...1334989825