Howdy star fans. It's been an action packed week here in Star Base.
We've had boosters rolling ships, rolling orbital launch mount testing.
We've even had some road closure scheduled,
which could mean that we're about to get some booster testing in earnest with
Booster nine. Furthermore,
we saw what could be the final piece of hardware that Booster nine needs ahead
of the next orbital flight attempt. Jack here for nsf. It's a lot to cover,
so let's get started.
Over here at the Orbital launch Mount,
we saw work continue reinforcing various parts of it that needed well
reinforcing after the first orbital flight attempt.
We also saw work on the draw works that raise and lower the chopsticks,
replacing the old Swiss cheese looking armoring on the draw works with new
cladding.
Let's hope that this time it's not hit with a whole bunch of flying concrete.
Here you can see the hardware inside the draw works that moves the chopsticks.
This red machinery is a winch that moves the chopsticks up and down,
and that's what needs to be protected,
hence the new seemingly stainless steel covering. Next up. At this point,
the deluge plate looks relatively operational,
though we still wonder if we're going to see a full scale test of it.
While it was a major focus of work in the last few weeks,
it no longer appears to be in the spotlight,
at least the installation of it more on the deluge. Later you can see part of
the deluge pipes are still visible on the surface.
You can even see them here next to everyday objects to get a perspective of just
how big they are.
We also saw the return of the white ventilation tubing that we've seen so many
times in the past and that got obliterated at booster seven's detonation.
Yeah, let's call it that.
These tubes go inside the orbital launch mount and provide air and ventilation
for workers inside to prevent them from asphyxiation hazards in the enclosed
space and now with properly installed ventilation.
Do I really have to say it work continues on the orbital launch mount.
Next up,
some late night ground support equipment testing was conducted and we saw some
piping get frosty. It's not clear what the exact purpose of this test was,
but we may have just seen the revalidation of the orbital tank farm,
which of course would be necessary to do after all the damage and subsequent
repairs following star ship's first integrated flight.
We also saw loads of rebar work around the launch area in the past few days as
part of the reinforcement and foundation work that's necessary ahead of the next
launch. Alright, now let's move on to some Ship 25 updates.
Ship 25 is once again attached to the crane.
This is to give the vehicle additional stability and prevent it from collapsing
while workers are inside it since you can no longer pressurize it with open
tanks. At this point,
we think testing on Ship 25 has basically concluded, so whenever they're ready,
they'll move it over to the launch mount and lift it up on the booster.
Nine crews are working on the thermal protection system tiles and doing who
knows what else inside the vehicle, but the static fire looked clean,
so let's hope that that's it for the upper stage test campaign.
Over at the production site,
we saw a movement of yet another new mega bay part that left the pre-assembly
area over at Sanchez and was moved to the final area for lift onto the new mega
Bay.
The ship thrust simulator was moved back to the production site from Massey's so
that SHIP 28 could be lifted on top of it.
This stand simulates the forces the vehicle will experience during flight in
order to test the structural integrity of its construction, of course,
it being the production site,
we saw the typical work of rings and barrels being moved around as well as a
load of work on the roof of the star factory,
which looks to be about half complete at this point. Here you can see a quad
being moved around. That's what we call a barrel section with four rings.
Next up late at night,
booster 10 was moved to Massey's for a cryo proof testing campaign.
It seems like this booster will be the next candidate for a flight once nine and
25 are out of the way.
The real question is which ship will be mated to booster 10?
I suspect ship 28 for reasons it will become clear shortly.
Booster 10 was then proof tested at Massey's.
You can see the frostings going up on both tanks as the test is conducted.
This test went on for hours until late at night, even for star base standards.
This seemed like a longer cryo test,
though the tanks were not filled completely.
I do wonder if a full cryo test of booster tan will be necessary or if this
partial test is sufficient to validate the structure. Come to think of it,
I'm not even sure they have enough nitrogen capacity at Massey to do a full cryo
on a booster, so as usual,
we'll have to keep watching and see what happens to it. Next,
over next to flaps,
the restaurant between the production site and the launch site,
we saw the Raptor installation stand get cut in half.
It's unclear if that's for modifications or if they're just done using it since
now. SpaceX basically uses the dance floor for everything over at the mega bay.
The next level is almost complete. Next up,
we'll also start to see the filling in of the gaps between the layers as the
building gets closer to completion.
The next segment for the fourth level was also lifted.
This is a corner segment which will complete all of the corners on level four
moving right along. Pour one out for Ship 27,
which won't be flying after all. Why you ask? Well, I kind of cut it in half.
Half ships usually do not fly that well,
so saying it's not going to fly is a safe bet. I think with this development,
we're all sort of expecting ship 26 to be scrapped as well,
but we'll just have to wait and see and so that's why Ship 28 does indeed seem
to be the next in line. In fact, speaking of Ship 28,
after being placed on the thrust simulator in the High Bay,
it was moved over to Massey's and prepared for its own cryo proof test campaign.
Something about seeing booster 10 and Ship 28.
Almost certainly the pair that will be used for I ft three meat for the first
time felt kind of special to me,
but maybe I just anthropomorphize these vehicles a bit too much. Unfortunately,
that meeting did not last long with Booster 10 returning to the production site
again late at night,
so SpaceX completely cryo tested and rolled this booster two times in under one
week while also rolling B nine to the pad and ship 29 to Massey's. I said this
week was action packed, did I not? Alright,
now let's talk about the deluge testing.
The first partial test of the new super heavy Del system was quite a show water
and nitrogen shot out of the Showerhead steel plate.
Hopefully this will be enough to protect the infrastructure around the launch
mount. At launch. It was truly a sight to behold.
Workers were audibly cheering and celebrating after the test,
which is unsurprising. Given the amount of blood, sweat,
and tears that went into getting it all installed.
Seeing this test really gave me confidence that damage and subsequent turnaround
time for the pad in the future will be greatly reduced.
You can see here another round of water pouring from the steel plate.
Look at the left side where it starts to flow first. Once again,
this system looks to be really robust and I'm excited to see in action when a
booster finally lights up on the mount. All right,
speaking of a booster on the mount,
now let's talk about the star of today's show, booster nine. Hi. Hi,
booster nine. Everybody say hi to Booster nine.
The chopsticks finally started to move down again after an extended vacation on
the upper level during installation of the W system,
it seems like they were parked higher so as to not be in the way while so much
infrastructure work was going on,
an indicator for what was about to come was the start of the chopsticks
inspections. At the beginning of the week,
the teams were inspecting the stabilizer pins,
which helped to hold boosters and ships during the lift operations.
We also saw some preparation on booster nine in the rocket garden,
which was moved ahead of its transport to the pad.
It wasn't there for long though,
and the SPMT didn't even move out from under it. Then in the early morning on
Thursday, Thursday, it's all starting to blur together.
We saw Booster nine roll to the pad. As you can see,
this booster features improved Raptor shielding,
improved thrust vector control with a changeover to electrical actuation instead
of hydraulics, and almost certainly a slew of additional upgrades we can't see.
One very obvious addition was to the flight termination system,
which had an additional charge added to ensure that when SpaceX wants the
booster to go from a booster to tons of steel confetti, it does.
Booster nine was first moved to the gate at the Sanchez lot before a rolling
closure gave it the opportunity to move down Highway four to the launch site.
But wait, there's more.
Booster nine was then moved over the chopsticks and prepared for lift.
We all thought it was going to be lifted relatively soon, but well,
it seems like SpaceX encountered some issues and it took a couple hours before
it happened,
but it finally did. Late in the evening after our live commentators had enjoyed
a nice long day of commentary.
Booster nine was lifted onto the orbital launch mount.
It was so cool to see the drone shining its lights on the booster during the
lift. It looked like something out of Blade Runner or maybe half-Life,
and more importantly, it gave me the opportunity to try and shoot a few photos.
Thanks Drone Operator. In this beautiful view of all 33 Raptor engines,
you can see SpaceX carefully lowering the booster onto the top of the orbital
launch mount.
You can also see the new and enhanced shielding between the engines and outside
the Raptors. However,
booster nine is still missing a critical component and that is of course the hot
staging ring.
This will need to go on top of the booster in between the booster and the ship,
so the ship fits once again with the newly ship qd. Now,
we don't know if this hot staging ring is actually a production version that
will be used in flight or if this is just a Pathfinder, but either way,
it was really cool to get eyes on it.
One thing to look out for in the coming days is how SpaceX intends to install
the hot staging ring on top of Booster nine.
Will it have to roll back to the production site?
Will to be able to do it at the launch site somehow? We're not sure,
but you better believe we'll keep watching. Speaking of finding out together,
there's a rare Sunday road closure plus additional closures scheduled for the
upcoming days,
which could very well be for a spin Prime and static fire test campaign with
Booster nine, so we could see booster nine testing as soon as this weekend,
which if you're watching us on Monday, would've been yesterday. All right,
that's it for this week. Thanks for watching and as always,
be excellent to each other.