BFR Developments

[Yazata]

Photos of the current state of the Starbase Gigabay (Photos by Amy Doehring of WAI). It's reached its final height and the four tower cranes are installing its internal bridge cranes and beginning to install roofing. Cladding the sides is progressing. (I expect the four tower cranes to come down soon.)

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The Florida Gigabay is actually further along than the Starbase one. Its tower cranes are already down, its bridge cranes are installed and the roof is on.

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[Yazata]

A Sea Shanty for the space age - written by a SpaceX Starbase worker who goes by Xander on X:

"She danced through fire, kissed the sea,
Drawn home by Earth’s own gravity.
From the void where dreamers roam,
Heave away, she’s coming home.



Yo ho, haul away, she’s weathered fire and foam,
She kissed the sea, refused to sink, and now she’s coming home.
Heave away, my brothers, let every sailor know,
The ship that sailed from heaven’s edge still rides the waves below."

https://x.com/MoonManX22/status/2084700531189047796

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Heave away, my brothers, let every sailor know,
The ship that sailed from heaven’s edge still rides the waves below.

[Yazata]

The tow is proceeding slowly, at 2 to 3 knots. At that rate, S40 should reach Dampier Western Australia on about August 13-14.

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[Yazata]

Ship 40 appears to still be afloat, though the tow attempt has been a failure so far. The flotation devices that they were trying to use weren't effective. 40 is being carried by the current northwest towards Australia's Christmas Island and then Indonesia.

Normand Ranger just made a short visit to Christmas Island and there was lots of speculation that it indicated 40 had been or would be scuttled. But Normand Ranger quickly put to sea again and has rejoined Go Australis so they don't seem to have given up yet. Their last remaining option seems to be to get 40 to Christmas Island, where there's a small container port and an airstrip able to handle jets. Not much else. It's unlikely that better flotation devices can be found there, though it's conceivable that inflatable ones have been flown in.

If they can't get 40 to Australian territory, whether the mainland or Christmas Island, they will have to sink it.

[Yazata]

At Starbase, the Gigabay construction crew posed for a group photo prior to installing the last roof truss section

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[Yazata]

Their last remaining option seems to be to get 40 to Christmas Island

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[Yazata]

Last I heard, 40 was just 38 miles from Christmas Island

Unfortunately, Christmas Island doesn't offer any sheltered port facilities. With only 1,700 residents, this small Australian territory only has minimal facilities. It does have an airfield though that's capable of handling jets.

Perhaps SpaceX hopes to fly in a planeload of engineers if Normand Ranger succeeds in bringing S40 all the way in.

Christmas Island's tiny approximation of a port:

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[Yazata]

It's currently right outside the little cove in the picture in the post above. (The little circle on the map below.) Reportedly, Christmas Island only has a conveyor system for loading mined phosphate into ships. There's also a crane used for hoisting shipping containers, but it's unlikely that it could lift much larger S40 onto land.

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[Yazata]

Christmas Island may only have 1,700 residents, but thanks to the wonders of X and Starlink, there's an Australian guy there photographing and posting what he sees.

https://x.com/Dean08468895/with_replies

He says, "So it’s still a fair way out but looks like we have a rocket ship. It’s apparently going to Moore at the fuel depot and another ship is coming to get it so should be able to get plenty of photos"

And there it is!

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[Yazata]

Cell phone photo taken by one of Dean's friends on Christmas Island

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And Dean says that the island's crane is a piece of junk and no way it could lift S40. People have suggested beaching S40... except that Christmas Island has no beaches, just rocky shoreline.

Edit - Talk on Christmas Island is that another ship will be coming out to take charge of S40. Unknown if it will be better equipped to attempt a tow, whether it will be a semisubmersible heavy lift ship able to carry 40 on its deck, or what.