BFR Developments

**Yazata** · Jun 25, 2021 06:51 AM

Elon tweet!

"We're almost done with first prototype booster. This will go to test stand A. next one will fly to orbit. Team has been crushing it many days & nights in a row!"

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1408245758869086209

**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Jun 27, 2021 04:55 PM by Yazata.)

OLIT-6 was hoisted this morning. Two more segments to go.

The launch platform will sit atop the six legs just to the left. And the full Starship/SuperHeavy stack will be taller than the tower is now!

(Photo by Tyler Gray)

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**C C** · Jun 27, 2021 06:24 PM

July orbital flight is insane, but better than end of the year.

**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Jun 28, 2021 02:30 AM by Yazata.)

There was a big party in the Star Bar last night!

https://twitter.com/TylerG1998/status/14...5354013697

With a girlfriend like Grimes, who knows what was happening in there?

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/57cHzg9lszE

(Keep that girl away from the neurolink!)

Plus major fireworks!

(The wits are saying that it's to compensate for the lack of recent Boca Chica explosions.)

https://twitter.com/KSpaceAcademy/status...1724578818

Speculation that it was Elon's 50th birthday party.

**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Jun 28, 2021 08:48 PM by Yazata.)

This morning OLIT-7 made its way down to the launch area atop a couple of SPMTs. It's believed that it is the next to last, with OLIT-8 being somewhat different since it will host the crane atop the tower and probably other stuff as well. The entire tower should top out at 400+ feet (maybe closer to 500) making it the tallest structure in Texas south of San Antonio.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet (part of the Crew-2 bunch who flew to the International Space Station on a Crew Dragon) took this photo of the Boca Chica Starbase from orbit. He writes:

"Yes it is tiny but great things happen here: @SpaceX's other (other) launch site in Boca Chica (I hear I'm supposed to call it #Starbase now?). I couldn't spot a #Starship on the pad but maybe I wasn't looking close enough."

The Port of Brownsville ship canal (where Deimos is) is more or less parallel to the right edge of the photo. The windy meandering green line towards the upper left edge is the Rio Grande, the US/Mexico border. The double lobed white thing near the beach in the middle is the launch area. The build area is above it, partly under clouds. South Padre Island with its resort hotels and Port Isabel (the fishing port) are off the frame to the lower right.

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**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Jun 30, 2021 07:12 AM by Yazata.)

If they are building the tower and the launch mount, they will need something to put on it. So today they stacked the first real prototype Booster in the high bay. (The booster and starship numbering system is in flux and we won't know the proper designations until Elon tells us.) It's believed that this Booster is only destined for testing, but the next one after it should go orbital.

That's 15 and 16 over on the right, in overflow parking.

(Photo by one of the nsf robots.)

An honest-to-God Spaceship Factory! What Sci-Fi nuts have been waiting for all their lives!

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**Yazata** · Jul 1, 2021 02:07 AM

Elon tweets!

Somebody asked if Superheavy will have grid-fins

Elon: "First one to fly will, so Booster 4. Booster 3 will be used for ground tests. We're changing much of design from 3 to 4. Booster 3 was very hard to build. Expect especially rapid evolution in first ~10 boosters & first ~30 ships."

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1410327121432657929

**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Jul 2, 2021 01:01 AM by Yazata.)

HUGE!!!!

(Photo by Elon) Check out the little human on the lift on the left about midway for scale.

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(Photos by nasaspaceflight.com)

Imagine the one on the right stacked on top of the one on the left

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Rolling down to the road to the Launch Area atop SPMTs

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Booster and Hoppy (photo by SPadre) The holes near the top will be where the grid-fin actuators go on the next flight article. (This one is just for pressure testing to verify the tanks.) It doesn't have engines, grid-fins, flight control computers or any of that good stuff. Actual operational ones are intended to land like Falcon boosters and be reflyable after refueling, like commercial airliners, without any special refurbishment.

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**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Jul 2, 2021 12:19 AM by Yazata.)

Interesting event: we were watching the crane preparing to lift and there was some downtime for the crane operator as they prepared the load spreader. At one point I saw the operator and several others looking at Lab Padres's Padcam and one of them waved! Later one of the Padcam chat participants said that he was the crane operator and that he would wave. And the crane operator came out of his cab and waved! Holy crap! So yeah, they do watch the streams.

Then the guy proceeded to deftly place the giant Booster atop Pad A! Amazing!

(This photo from nsf since I don't have a photo from Lab's stream)

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**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Jul 2, 2021 04:37 AM by Yazata.)

With all the excitement about Booster 3's rollout, we mustn't overlook the early morning stacking of OLIT-7!

The magic word at Starbase today was TALL

(Photo by Elon)

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More Booster and Hoppy from the Daily Hopper (Hoppy has a weakness for tall ones.)

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