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Today I’ll explain to you, what points towards SpaceX building a Starship Launchpad in Boca Chica and why?
My name is Felix and I am your Host for today’s Episode of What about it!?
We just reached 90000 subscribers on YouTube and 9000 followers on Twitter.
We’re counting down towards the 100k. absolutely
incredible and I want to quickly take the time to thank everyone who subscribed so far to make this happen!
You rock! And as always, there has been a lot going on in the space industry lately, so let’s dive right in!
Starship Updates
Exactly one week ago, I did an Episode titled “What is SpaceX actually building in Boca Chica”.
It was one of my “what if” episodes. In these episodes I
look at what’s known about a specific subject and formulate a theory on a possible outcome. Today, show the other side
of the argument, we’ll look at what’s pointing towards SpaceX actually building a Starship launch pad in Boca Chica and not a giant
over engineered Water Tower. This time focused on a possible launch pad though.
First of all,
let’s take a look at yet
another excellent fly by video from Mauricio from RGV Aerial Photography and see, what the overall progress on SpaceX’s Starship is.
Go, check out his Patreon Page to become a flight supporter yourself. Link is in the description!
So, for those who do not know and might tune in for the first time,
this is Boca Chica, Texas.
The place, where SpaceX right now is in full swing of constructing the first and second stage of a new and fully reusable rocket.
The first stage, called Super Heavy and the second stage, called Starship.
The system is so revolutionary though, that even these basic terms don’t fit
well.
In fact,
the whole system is more like two rockets stacked on top of each other.
Where on a traditional rocket, the Stages are just thrown away tanks and engines to reduce weight on ascend,
here Super Heavy and Starship are full rockets, in theory capable of flying on their own.
Both can take off alone and land. Super Heavy basically is the rocket, pushing the Starship into orbit.
And this is the place, where SpaceX is working to develop different prototypes to research needed technologies
and, in the end, have a fully functional system,
suited for mass production. Mass production, as SpaceX and Elon Musk are planning to use it to colonize Mars.
According to Musk roughly 1000 Starships will be needed for the task
and so they will need to be very cheap and quickly produced. Not an easy task, but nonetheless, SpaceX is making quick progress.
And the site is growing larger and larger every week.
There are already new developments everywhere around the perimeter again. Up along Highway 4,
there’s a large new area being prepared right now. This was once an old gas
well and remnants of its original purpose can still be spotted on site. SpaceX is turning it into something new though.
Terrain grading is almost done. We can spot two spots prepared for possible foundations.
A road towards the main construction site is being built. It’s quite large,
so there must be something important SpaceX wants to build here.
Musk spoke about producing their own Methane and liquid oxygen on site using solar energy to be more carbon neutral and self-sufficient.
As always, there is no official information,
but this would be a perfect fit. A few tanks and pipes have already been brought to the site as well.
Next to the large manufacturing tents there is another area where the SpaceX construction workers are preparing at least one new foundation.
Ditches are being made as well to retain at least some of the ground water.
Boca Chica has a very high water table,
so building here is not as easy as it might seem.
As much of the ground water as possible needs to be drained out of the soil to make the ground as dry as possible.
We can see the ditch continue on the other side of the road,
so there might be more buildings planned there too.
Or just a place to store more parts?
On the other side of the construction site towards Boca Chica Village, where Maria Pointers old house is located,
SpaceX is expanding as well.
At least two more spaces have been cleared and are waiting either for surface work or terrain grading.
Last year, I had many comments under my episodes here on YouTube from people telling us, that this would never work.
How could such a dirty and shabby place turn into the spaceport to Mars?
There are less and less of these comments nowadays. The SpaceX Starship construction site is large and it’s getting bigger every day.
The activity by the road is in full swing as well. A proper facade is being built right now. Remember, how I said on Episode
113, that a few trees in front would, look great. Someone down there seems to agree. Now,
the rest of the road side will probably be turned into a long parking space, which would once and for all get rid of the
parked cars along the road side… until SpaceX expands again of course. Down
the road SpaceX is almost done with another quality of life asset.
Mauricio asked Twitter for a name for this new facility and one of the replies was Lunch
Pad. I just love the name, and so I’ll adopt it from now on. The Lunch pad is taking shape quickly.
I don’t know, if it’s already in use, but there are already tables and chairs below the old Mark 1 fins.
The wooden deck is also progressing nicely. It still looks like a stage to me.
So, my guess is, that Elon will do his next Starship Presentation in September from here.
And finally, on our little aerial tour provided by Mauricio for all of us, we arrive at the launch site,
todays main focus. It’s not as shiny as the construction site yet.
No palm trees next to the road or designated parking spaces. No proper roads or larger buildings.
But that will change. According to SpaceX’s animation, the concrete foundation, on which Serial Number 6 is sitting right now
will be used for a large tent structure in the future. Possibly for maintenance or refurbishment of Starships.
SpaceX has finally stopped the erosion problem on one side of the dirt hill. And next to the foundation
there is a second test stand which SpaceX workers are working on right now to flesh it out.
Either a backup if one gets destroyed, which happened before, or to be able to test the two
prototypes at the same time. Next to that new test stand, SpaceX is working on a new small foundation.
This will become another concrete pad. Will SpaceX move the test stand from the large concrete foundation to here or is it for something else?
Maybe a water tower? There is rebar lying next to the site as already said on the last episode.
This could be an indicator for a heavier structure! SpaceX has also been preparing the whole area for a while now.
It’s likely that it will be turned into a large concrete foundation as well. For those, who are wondering, where the flare stack went,
just follow the pipes past the three black water tanks and… yep, right behind them.
SpaceX’s Launch Control Center is growing larger as well.
Two more rooms are being added and the fronts have been put on. If there hadn’t been a sign here
earlier this year, saying that this will be a launch control center,
I would have called it anything else but. It will be interesting to see, what this turns out to be in the end.
Right next to all of this, Starship Serial Number 6 had its static fire on Sunday.
It was a clean burn and in LabPadre’s brand new FLIR thermal vision we can see a whole new perspective.
This will be incredible for Starship flights!
Go, check out Louis’s live stream, subscribe and support him if you can. Without him so much would go unseen!
We have an official hop date as well.
If everything goes as planned, Starship Serial Number 6 will take flight on August 28th with backup dates on the 29th and 30th.
Only 20 days after we saw Serial Number 5 do its hop. Welcome to the flight phase!
The rest of 2020 will most likely feature many more flights out of Boca Chica, Texas.
Now, last but certainly not least for today’s Episode,
let’s try to work on the big question again,
shall we? What is SpaceX’s big plan for the launch site layout and what will become what. So, this is it.
Tank Farm for Starship fueling. This might actually stay here. Large concrete foundation. In a SpaceX animation,
this was a large tent like structure. A maintenance and refurbishment building in the future? The landing pad.
Large and largely finished. The X is still missing, but that’s about it.
And finally the mystery construction at the edge of the launch complex. On Episode
113 I speculated, that this could in theory be something else than a launch mount.
Nick Henning, Caspar Stanley and I have been working on this one together to give you a better understanding of what the options are
right now. Links to their channels Patreon and Twitter accounts are in the description. Go check them out and leave a subscription,
so they can earn more money with what they’re doing. Both of them deserve it very much.
Until Yesterday,
this was the official information from SpaceX.
Just to give you an idea on what this would have looked like, the Super Heavy Booster would have landed on the pad.
Then, a crane, integrated into the launch pad support structure would extend and pick up the booster.
It then lifts it up and puts it on the pad.
Then a Starship either lands or is being rolled out to the pad and the same process begins again.
The crane extends, lifts up the Starship and this time stacks it on top of the booster.
Then crew boards- the Starship or payload is integrated. And the stack lifts off.
Today we know more though. Elon Musk has finally confirmed, that what SpaceX is building there is indeed an orbital launch mount.
Let's get to the chase. Let's cut the chase. Let's cut the cheese.
This is the latest aerial footage from RGV showing the construction site.
And here again from a different angle.
This shows the tilted pillars very well. SpaceX is building this thing very strong. Huge
metal pipes will eventually be sleeved over the rebar and concrete will be poured in.
This is a tough structure. A middle support with 6 beams extending to each pillar has been built.
It might be temporary,
and in my opinion, it would have to be, if this thing is ever going to turn into a launch pad.
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Nick has left the water tower in for the show.
It’s not clear though, if it would be there or any other possible place.
It could even be integrated into the pad,
but then there’s quite a bit still missing on the current construction. Besides more foundation of equal strength,
it would also need a second construction.
There will also be a long connection between the tank farm and the new pad, running across the whole complex.
Again,
this is just to show the lines and it’s not where they will have to be or what they will look like in the end.
Regardless, the lines will be long. The size of the launch vehicle would certainly justify such a large foundation and beefy structure.
A few things are still missing though,
if this is to turn into what SpaceX showed in the animation. A crane to lift the vehicles. A sound suppression system diverting
72 mega newtons of thrust from 31 Raptor engines away from the complex. There are many gaps still to be filled here.
I’ve also asked Caspar Stanley to work with me again and possibly fill in the missing pieces.
This is a possible build including a flame diverter.
Bear with me, as it’s getting funky now. If SpaceX wants to avoid hitting the angled pillars with 72 mega newtons of thrust
each time, they launch a rocket here, they will need to divert the thrust around the pillars.
They could just hit the pillars of course,
but I am not sure, if they would withstand the force in the long run. Objects in the way are usually avoided if possible.
Caspar made a nice little animation too, showing how it would be built.
Rebar, Metal tubes, flame diverter and platform. Plus Elon for scale.
In this case, the six-armed support structure stays and acts as a part of the flame diverter. A
Starshaped Flame diverter in the middle to redirect the exhaust into every direction. This of course would mean, that there can’t be any
unprotected structure into any direction around the pad. Super Heavy on top with 31 Raptors pointing down. That’s it. Again,
these are just speculations to somehow make sense of what SpaceX is doing at the site.
Other possible solutions could be a massive lifting crane structure,
a pad with an integrated launch tower…
Or just a large sign to show everyone, where they can get the best rocket salad or a fresh Raptor double beef Burger.
What do you think? Heavy lift stacking crane or the largest SpaceX sign ever built? As always, tell me in the comments!
If there's one thing, all this development tells us is that maybe the most important part of it?
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Welcome to the Patreon and YouTube member shout out! Today, a huge thank you goes to Jiminwpt,
peprBeardo, GreenRun, Kirk Johnson,
Kevin Musyoka, Jono Miles and many others! You Rock!
We passed 800 supporters over both platforms, are going towards 100000 subscribers on YouTube and 10000 followers on Twitter.
You people are amazing and I can’t thank you enough for lending a hand in supporting what we do here!
Thank you so much! Last but not least as always,
we’re at the Team shout out! Last week I gave the special honor to Nick Henning and this week,
it’s time for Caspar Stanley.
Relentlessly working on his Rocket Explorer, making 3D renders for our show and being part of the core of the WAI community?
No problem for Caspar. You Rock!