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Booster 4 is ready! For what exactly?
SpaceX still can’t launch Starships, but does that mean halted progress?
How will Starbase change over the next few weeks and what’s happening at Cape Canaveral’s Pad 39A?
My name is Felix, and I am your host for today’s episode of What about it!?
And as always, there’s been a lot going on in the space industry lately, so let’s dive right in!
Starship Updates
Four days since the last Episode and no problem to find new and interesting things to explain?
That’s a sure sign for an interesting topic.
SpaceX is not standing still at Starbase, driving the project forward even if they’re temporarily not allowed to launch their prototypes.
One of the best indicators right now for more action being imminent is SpaceX’s progress on Booster 4. It’s been on site for a while now and
throughout all those weeks tests were conducted on it, it always looked very much unfinished.
This for example is from one month ago.
Covers were missing, unfinished plumbing and connectors and overall, it didn’t take an expert to see that as is,
this prototype wouldn’t do any major tests.
Looking back at the current state, it very much looks almost finished.
And a majority of this visible progress on the outside happened within the last week.
All the covers are installed over the Quad skids and the HPU’s on the engine section of Super Heavy Booster 4.
Just at the end of last week, all the engine covers got installed as well.
And don’t forget. Covers come last.
By now it’s obvious that SpaceX is finishing it up.
Booster 4 is being prepared. Something’s brewing.
But what? If SpaceX seemingly is finished with the work on Booster 4, what’s next?
What can we expect?
Frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if my next Thumbnail at the end of this week had a full stack Starship on it,
saying something on the lines of “Ready for action” as a title.
Of course, we can’t take a look at SpaceX’s actual to-do list for the next few weeks, but we can take an educated guess.
Rocket testing follows certain steps.
After building and pressure testing it and after some careful infrastructure testing comes the full out test phase.
Put simple it means that the rocket has matured so far that you trust it more.
Now you want to see, what it can do.
Can it fully be assembled, stacked, fueled?
Can it perform a full engine ignition?
That’s what’s next. An incredibly interesting phase for us bystanders, of course, as it means a lot of action.
Static fires will likely be done in steps and for the first time on the orbital launch mount and not a suborbital pad as here with booster 3.
Never has SpaceX lit all 28 Raptor engines under booster 4. So, they’ll have to be careful.
Center engines only, then half of all the Raptors and in the end likely a full static fire.
After all, it’s about testing and this will show SpaceX for the first time, if their current design can keep up.
That all the engines can be fed with propellant and oxidizer simultaneously.
That all the control circuits work properly and that the thrust puck can take the load without blowing itself to smithereens.
And as a final step after that, SpaceX will very likely do a so-called wet dress rehearsal.
Booster and Starship will be stacked.
Both Super Heavy and Starship will be fully fueled,
and every step will be performed up to the point where you’d actually let the rocket go if it were a real launch.
If everything pans out, this normally is the last step before an actual launch.
But then SpaceX is still held back by the FAA.
The decision on the environmental assessment has not been finalized and the new date for a decision currently is February 28th.
So, currently the earliest possible date for a launch would be March 1st.
This of course begs the question, what SpaceX will do with the extra time.
What does Starbase do, when it can’t launch a Starship?
This brings us straight to Mauricio from RGV Aerial Photography.
He was up and flying again in perfect weather conditions and since we closely work together with him,
we have the latest pictures in pristine quality.
And if you do like his work, consider becoming a flight supporter on his Patreon page to make that next flight even easier for him!
It’s very much worth it!
But for now, we’re going to stay above the Build site with Mauricio’s plane, because there’s something going on down there.
There’s one aspect about the heart of Starbase production that’s very outdated by now.
The tents.
I mean, who builds the most advanced rocket in human history in a tent?
Well… SpaceX, but is that going to work for what they have planned?
Ring Watchers,
another one of our close partnerships in Team Space and our right hand when it comes to getting the facts right on WAI+ is making the best diagrams
about the build site. With their help we can peak inside the tents.
The added sense for scale shows one thing very quickly.
There’s not that much space in there.
Roghly to produce 4 to 5 prototypes at the same time.
And that’s Starships and Super Heavy boosters combined.
So,
SpaceX’s production line currently is hard limited and very much constrained by… well… those iconic tents we so got used to over the past 3 years.
Switching back into Mauricio’s plane again, there’s something happening with one of the tents right now.
It’s tent number 4 and it’s being disassembled.
Oh no! This tent originally was a machine shop with hydraulic presses in it and currently or - until they started disassembling it -
was used as a mini bakery for everything related to SpaceX’s Starbricks.
Now, SpaceX will still need that bakery in the future, so what exactly is happening?
Chief, the WAI cam operator, got a good look as well and from the ground and in motion I am not too sure, if this really is a disassembly job.
It very much looks like SpaceX workers are trying to move it and reassemble it again in a different place.
Otherwise, they simply wouldn’t try to keep it in large pieces.
So… what… exactly are they doing here?
Speculation time! But let’s be honest.
That’s part of the fun, right?
By the way, these speculations normally are double the amount of work for team WAI compared to just showing you pictures.
Formulating a theory about what will happen next is incredibly research intensive as we don’t just want to blindly guess, of course.
If you enjoy this kind of work and you feel that WAI glimmer inside you, this is your moment to click the like button,
subscribe if you haven’t done so yet and maybe even become a member or buy some merch to keep the WAI machine running!
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On we go!
So, SpaceX still needs the bakery and keeps it in one piece, just scooting it over a bit.
One evidence for the bakery tent only being moved is a new spot already prepared for it slightly further north or down in this picture.
The concrete foundation fits about the size of the larger piece which was already hooked up to the crane.
It might already have moved there when you watch this episode.
The next question would now be, what SpaceX needs the extra space for and that’s where the info from earlier fits in.
Remember? SpaceX’s production capability is constrained.
Yes.
On the other hand, though, SpaceX is ramping up their stacking capacity considerably.
The new Mega Bay is being built as we speak.
It’s mega, pun intended, and it’s nearing completion with huge steps each week.
Level 3 is already stacked, and it very much looks like this won’t be the last level either.
It will easily give room for 6 to maybe even 8 Ship and booster stacks at the same time and it’s clearly intended for the phase in which Starships
enter business and start making money for SpaceX.
We shouldn’t be too far away from that anymore.
The best things you can normally base a speculation on are common sense and research.
So, we’ve just done our research.
Do you see it? If SpaceX can currently manufacture 4-5 prototypes at the same time in their tents and they ramp up their stacking capacity to
at least 8 including the current high bay and mid bay, then where will they produce those segments?
Right. Not in those tents.
So, what if tent 4 is scooting over to make room for bigger production buildings?
What, if these tents are about to vanish now.
As said in the beginning, it’s speculation and none of this is confirmed,
but I’ve been expecting SpaceX to replace them with a proper manufacturing building for a long time now.
Is this, what we’ll see being built here next?
What do you think? Are we on the right track?
As always, tell us in the comments!
Now, let’s take a look at what’s happening at the Cape, cause Starship is going KSC!
Race to orbit aka Alex Rex has supplied the WAI team with his latest overview of what’s happening at Kennedy Space Center right now
I am bringing this again due to popular demand.
Many comments on my Twitter posts and here on YouTube recently had one question.
What’s happening at Kennedy Space Center?
Will SpaceX launch Starships there?
What exactly are they planning?
Now, these pictures are from December 17th and from our own WAI cam above Kennedy Space Center.
They show Roberts Road. It’s located inside the Kennedy Space Center, it’s owned by SpaceX and it’s rapidly growing as you can see.
SpaceX is building production capability here.
Not confirmed, but maybe for Starships.
Musk has already confirmed just recently that SpaceX is indeed planning to at least launch Starships from Kennedy Space Center rather soon and
so any kind of assembly, refurbishment or integration capability will be needed here,
as current Falcon 9 infrastructure just isn’t large enough for a 119-meter tall and 9-meter-wide rocket.
That thing is huge! Even Falcon Heavy is small compared to the stainless-steel monster that is Starship.
And SpaceX’s intent of flying Starships out of Florida can already be seen.
There’s construction all over Pad 39A.
The question right now is just, what will go where.
What will the layout look like and what can we expect to see being built here?
Right there.
So, here it is. Race to orbit’s very accurate 3D model of what Pad 39A looks and will look like in the future.
Make sure to follow him on Twitter and YouTube.
It’ll help him out very much!
First, let’s take a look at what SpaceX had already started at Pad39A and what now got torn down again.
A very early concept of a Starship launch tower from before the time when SpaceX decided to catch their rockets with a Mechazilla.
A launch table with a flame diverter under it and support structure on top.
All gone now and part of it wasn’t even built as the project was halted early on.
Now, that’s gone, and the area currently looks like this.
And these are the current plans as published in the latest environmental assessment from Nasa, which is already green lit,
overlayed on Alex Rex’s 3D model.
There’s active work at the pervious water percolation pond.
The old Starship launch mount has been removed and according to the plans, the new one will be just where the old one was supposed to be.
Of course, plans can change. Anyone who follows my channel closely, knows that SpaceX’s projects and very much Starship are in constant flux.
But now you know, what the current plan and layout is.
I’ll of course keep you updated.
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The WAI cams never stand still!
Thanks for watching today's episode, and make sure to check in on Friday!
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