BFR Developments

[Yazata]

SpaceX just put out another of their great short videos. This one shows the Starship inaugural test flight, complete with views inside the control room.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1662251874936934400

We see a cascade of things going wrong. Lost engines at ignition meant the thing kind of lingered on the pad much longer than intended, something like ten seconds rather than the expected three. (Which was probably a big part of why the pad was chewed up as much as it was.) Then it accelerated upwards more slowly than planned. Additional engines continued failing on the way up, which probably doomed any chance it had of making orbit. But what killed the mission and made its termination necessary was loss of both hydraulic power units, loss of thrust-vector-control and the thing starting to corkscrew, then cartwheel end to end through the air. But despite all those stresses on the airframe, the thing held together very well and only came apart when its flight-termination explosive charges were commanded to detonate.

Elon says:

"Major launchpad upgrades should be complete in about a month, then another month of rocket testing on pad, then flight 2 of Starship."

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1662263704262680577

[Yazata]

Yesterday they tore down the triangular shaped "lowbay" that was one of the original buildings at Starbase, since long before the other vertical assembly bays or the giant tents. It was one of the last remnants of Hoppy Days at Starbase. Most recently it's been used for nosecone assembly and tiling.

They are really moving fast clearing space for the future expansion of the new Starfactory building to full giga-factory size.

Here's the lowbay in better days

(Photo by Zack Golden)

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Here it is today

(Photo by Carlos of @cnunezimages on Twitter)

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The low white "propulsion building" (it was never used for propulsion and seems to have been a parts warehouse) in the lower right in the photo below is being torn down by tractors as we speak. The "pizza oven" towards the top must be very afraid right now. (It was used for metal fabrication, mostly for ground support equipment, ring-stands and similar things.)

The little grass rectangle is interesting. It's believed to belong to a private owner who is holding out for big bucks before he sells to SpaceX. Question whether they will pay whatever he's asking, or build around his little patch.

(Zack Golden again)

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[Yazata]

Here's Mauricio's latest flyover update video. While there won't be another test flight for several months, Starbase is always a hive of activity.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/3RPtBAET3Yw