BFR Developments

[Yazata]

Today at the Spaceport that Doesn't Exist

Word that 20's cryo test has been pushed back again. Probably because work continues on its thermal tiles. It's starting to resemble a pointillist painting as different colored pieces of tape are attached to the tiles to denote their inspection status. Really quite arty.

But all was not quiet. A little baby test tank scooted out of the build area and hurried off to the play area at the launch site. Its parents are visible in the background in the photo below. (The day comes when you have to let them venture out on their own, and just hope that nothing bad happens to them like being burst in a pressure test.)

A truckload of industrial robots arrived at the build site and appear to have disappeared into the nosecone tent. (Elon's masters arrived to inspect the operation.)

And work continued on the mechanical arms and on stringing cryogenic piping and cabling in the Orbital Launch and Integration Tower that Elon calls "Mechazilla".

Screenshot from the nasaspaceflight.com stream

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[Yazata]

Birds have become fond of sitting on top of the livestream cameras in Boca Chica. Here's one of them. The bird was causing a commotion stomping around and drooping its tail feathers over the lens, so the camera driver tried panning the camera upwards to dislodge it. And that got its attention as seen here.

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[Yazata]

Things seen in Germany, on the A2 Autobahn near Magdeburg. It's a big tank-tread thing painted black with a white SpaceX logo painted on it (black and white are SpaceX company 'colors'), coming from Austria and seeming on its way to port in Hamburg or Rotterdam.

It's been identified as part of a large Liebherr crawler crane (model not identifiable from the photos) and the paint job suggests that SpaceX is buying it new from the manufacturer rather than renting them like they've done up till now. Apparently they really like the 'Kong' and 'Bucky' Liebherr's they been using and believe that they need one permanently on station at Starbase for those extra heavy/high lifts. These super-cranes are designed to be broken down into lots of "small" road-transportable pieces like this and are assembled at job sites.

https://twitter.com/Max9907826460/status...1753337856

Edit 9-2-21: Elon verifies it, saying "Our new crane!"

Elon LOVES cranes and can never have enough of them!

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1433121450446127106

Photo by Max9907826460 from twitter

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Liebherr 11350 'Kong' in action (photo by Elon) Second largest crane of its type on Earth.

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[Yazata]

Old West and New West --- Pure Texas 

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[Yazata]

Today's episode of the Spaceport that Doesn't Exist is the appearance of a Giant Claw

Lots of speculation, but it seems to be either 1) an extension to the new GSE arm on the tower intended to reach out, grab and help stabilize huge rockets stacked on the launch mount - Octagrabber, meet StarshipGrabber, 2) filming a new Transformers movie, or else 3) part of a Giant Robot that heroic super-scientist Elon is building to battle the evil Bezos, his diabolical legions of lawyers and his plans for world domination.

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[Syne]

Today's episode of the Spaceport that Doesn't Exist is the appearance of a Giant Claw
...

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[Yazata]

It's come to my attention that one of these three horseback riders is Sian Proctor, one of the Inspiration4 astronauts set to launch into orbit in a privately contracted Crew Dragon on Wednesday evening Sept 15, 2021. (The first non-nasa crew on an orbital spaceflight from the US ever.) She was visiting Starbase and was being shown around by Rachel Gore, one of the people who make the Space Padre Island videos, and another friend. 

Old West and New West --- Pure Texas 

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Tropical Storm headed for Boca!

Peak storm surge projections 2-4 feet.

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at4.sh...t#contents

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[Yazata]

The FAA has issued a draft environmental assessment of SpaceX's orbital plans for public comment. It's 152 pages long and is filled with details about SpaceX's Boca Chica plans. Diagrams of the robot arms on the launch tower (Elon calls it "Mechazilla"), maps of future launch site expansion, details on what they plan to launch and how many of each, details on flight profiles, fuel handling, possible explosion risks, cryo testing, static fires, sonic booms, landing rockets... and everything anyone might want to know. See in particular pp. 17ff.

https://www.faa.gov/space/stakeholder_en..._Chica.pdf

[Yazata]

And here's an interesting video from nsf that covers the highlights of the FAA draft environmental assessment

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/oTiesMAdlU0

[Yazata]

There hasn't been much rocket action at Starbase as they wait on FAA approval for an orbital Starship launch. That could take months.

But things are happening. A new Starship (Ship 21) and a new Booster (B5) are under construction. The new wider High Bay has its foundations mostly in and prefabbed framing is being delivered.

At the Launch area the Orbital Tankfarm is being finished and we have seen some liquid nitrogen testing of its labyrinthine plumbings, pumps and valves. Work continues on the Orbital Launch Mount which is covered in scaffolding.

And most exciting, they are constructing Elon's crazy Grabber Arms that he promises can grab a landing spaceship out of the air making landing legs unnecessary. (And everyone thought that he was kidding. Think again!)

Photo of the arms from the nasaspaceflight.com stream. They aren't exactly small. Everyone calls them the Chopsticks, because Elon said something about plucking flies out of the air with chopsticks. It isn't clear what will move them together like tweezers, whether hydraulic or electric. The whole arm assembly will move up and down the tower, powered by cables connected to huge pulleys and the powerful Draw Works that SpaceX pulled off one of their offshore oil drilling platforms.

The whole thing moves up and down the tower on roller assemblies (photo below). And this afternoon a crane appears to have dropped one! By all accounts nobody was injured, but it's an industrial accident and work is currently halted.

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Photo of the roller that fell by RGV Aerial Photography. RGV asked Elon if they have a spare, and Elon replied "Yeah, on its way (sigh)"

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