YazataOct 21, 2019 05:03 PM (This post was last modified: Oct 21, 2019 05:59 PM by Yazata.)
Big news this morning.
Severe weather and tornadoes swept through Boca Chica and South Padre Island last night. Many power lines down, power on South Padre is going to be out for days, and both LabPadre's and SpacePadreIsland's live webcams are down. (Due to electricity outages, reportedly.) Causeway to South Padre Island closed to all but residents.
While South Padre Island was hit by fierce winds, Boca Chica (just a few miles away) seems to have been a lot calmer. Lab Padre reports that the Starship is still standing.
Mary (who appears to be fine) reports that not only is Starship still standing, the crews are continuing to work on it like normal this morning. (It's Texas! They don't let little things like weather stop them.) Today they seem to be installing landing leg mountings.
Maria Pointer reports that a tornado was descending over Boca Chica but wasn't on the ground until it reached South Padre Island. It was a relatively weak EF1 tornado with about 100 mph winds, but bad enough. It would have destroyed Starship.
C COct 21, 2019 06:15 PM (This post was last modified: Oct 21, 2019 06:20 PM by C C.)
Well, that's nice: In addition to being in the the domain of hurricanes it's also in tornado territory. Seems like the latter may have been brought up before in this thread or another via a "tornado alley" map of the country or link to such (maybe the area was just outside an extreme tip by some miles).
YazataOct 22, 2019 08:25 AM (This post was last modified: Oct 22, 2019 08:35 AM by Yazata.)
From the International Astronautical Conference in Washington DC:
SpaceX says that the Mark1 Starship prototype (the one in Boca Chica) should fly in about two months. The SpaceX presenter wasn't Elon, so maybe that estimate isn't overly-ambitious 'Elon Time' this time. Interestingly Mk.1 is seemingly considered expendable, since Mk.2 (at Cocoa FL) is at a similar stage of completion and Mk.4 (the second Cocoa Starship) seems to have recently commenced very early construction. (Mk.3 will be the second Boca Chica Starship which we haven't seen any sign of yet. It's pointed out that the numbers are basically just identifiers and don't indicate order of completion. Unclear how many times they expect to fly Mk.1 before they either retire it or crater it. It's the Silicon Valley rapid-prototyping "failing forward" strategy.
SpaceX also says that they will fly a Falcon 9 for the fourth time (so far the most they have flown is 3x) early in 2020. The specific booster isn't specified yet but the payload will probably be a bunch of SpaceX's own Starlinks. (Suggesting that other paying customers want to wait and see before plopping down their cash for a ride on a triple-used booster.)
Buzz on how long NASA's hugely over-budget and behind-schedule multi-billion-dollar non-reusable SLS will last before SpaceX and Blue Origin replace it: "Not long".
Vice President Pence commits to manned spaceflight and a return to the Moon (to stay, this time) and Buzz (who has actually walked on the Moon) salutes him.
Blue Origin had one of their new BE-4 engines on display. These are larger than the Raptor and like it run on liquid methane, but unlike it have two fuel rich preburners and aren't full flow. A more conservative design and perhaps not quite as efficient.
Lab Padre's drone video of Boca Chica in beautiful HD.
It starts with the growing launch site, showing the fuel and oxidizer tanks, the new launch area and Hoppy overseeing everything. Then it switches to the Starship construction area, with the top and bottom halves of the Starship, Ironhenge etc.
YazataOct 23, 2019 06:32 PM (This post was last modified: Oct 23, 2019 09:16 PM by Yazata.)
New Boca Chica road closures have been announced, beginning October 30 and running through mid November. I'm doubtful whether Starship will be ready for prime-time by then, so it's more likely for ground support equipment tests. Moving liquid methane around comes with explosion risks.
Even rockets have to take a piss. This appears to be a hole intentionally drilled in the side of the bottom tank half, immediately above the top fuel tank bulkhead, in order to allow rain water that collects there to drain out. Lots of rain in the last few days in Boca Chica.
YazataOct 29, 2019 01:37 AM (This post was last modified: Oct 29, 2019 01:49 AM by Yazata.)
After a week spent installing Starship's rather lame-looking landing legs, the Giant Crane reappeared today. Photo from LabPadre's live stream shows it being set up. (It travels in several pieces.) I don't think that they are even close to being ready to stack Starship. (They need to get closer to installing the nose fins for one thing.) So I'm guessing that they want to remove the cylinder from its supporting structure and set it down on the rickety new legs, to verify that it can actually stand on them.
Speculation is that the cylinder, the bottom half of Starship still without its fins, is going to move to the launch area tonight or tomorrow for tanking and pressurization tests. (That's probably what the upcoming road closures are about.) The engineers expect that they will discover some minor leaks, but probably not bad. Lots of welds and piping, so it's probably inevitable. Then it will probably return to the construction area where it will be completed, the fins attached, aerosurfaces over the raceways, and so on. Then once it's stacked and the top half integrated with the bottom, the whole thing will return to the launch area for new pressurization tests. (The header tanks and their associated plumbing would need to be tested at the very least.) No doubt there will be all kinds of electronic tests that we won't see. Then static fire, then an actual flight.
Finishing touches being put in today to the structure at the launch area where the cylinder will sit. This is where fuel, oxidizer and electical lines will plug into the bottom of the cylinder.
Apparently the first in a series of road closures is on for tomorrow. That's probably so that the cylinder can take its joyride down to the beach on its Roll-lift ride. (Not a Tesla??) It's an extra wide load and only moves at walking speed, so it doesn't mix well with traffic.
The Giant Crane is at the launch site and currently appears to be preparing itself, and the cylinder isn't atop its platform yet. The platform has the necessary fuel and oxidizer plumbing and electrical connections.
Oct 21, 2019 05:03 PM
(This post was last modified: Oct 21, 2019 05:59 PM by Yazata.)
![[Image: 1590315.jpg]](https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/assets/48895.0/1590315.jpg)
![[Image: EHZ_qKtXUAA-i2b?format=jpg&name=small]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHZ_qKtXUAA-i2b?format=jpg&name=small)
![[Image: 1590512.jpg]](https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/assets/48895.0/1590512.jpg)
![[Image: 1591154.jpg]](https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/assets/48895.0/1591154.jpg)
![[Image: 1591156.jpg]](https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/assets/48895.0/1591156.jpg)
![[Image: 1591430.jpg]](https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/assets/48895.0/1591430.jpg)
![[Image: EIIkxjqW4AMEE6E?format=jpg&name=medium]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EIIkxjqW4AMEE6E?format=jpg&name=medium)
![[Image: liebherr-ltm-11200-9-1-working-position-...dscape.jpg]](https://www.liebherr.com/external/products/products-assets/115746/IMG_390x390/liebherr-ltm-11200-9-1-working-position-ehingen-landscape.jpg)
![[Image: liebherr-ltm-11200-9-1-working-postion-b...rtrait.jpg]](https://www.liebherr.com/external/products/products-assets/130829/IMG_390x390/liebherr-ltm-11200-9-1-working-postion-bracht-portrait.jpg)