Starship transport to and from other SpaceX launch sites

[Jim]

They don't have to go to the turning basin.  They can offload in the port

[DanClemmensen]

They don't have to go to the turning basin.  They can offload in the port

OK. After it's offloaded at the port, how does it get to Roberts Road or to Pad 39A?

[EL_DIABLO]

They don't have to go to the turning basin.  They can offload in the port

OK. After it's offloaded at the port, how does it get to Roberts Road or to Pad 39A?

Through CCAFS but holy hell that would be a royal PITA

[Jim]

They don't have to go to the turning basin.  They can offload in the port

OK. After it's offloaded at the port, how does it get to Roberts Road or to Pad 39A?

Straight up Phillips Parkway.

[spacenut]

I thought all the large rockets transported by barge horizontal had their fuel and lox tanks pressurized so they wouldn't buckle under tie downs.  Vertical would be weird, harder to cover, and across the Gulf would have to be under very good weather. 

[DanClemmensen]

I thought all the large rockets transported by barge horizontal had their fuel and lox tanks pressurized so they wouldn't buckle under tie downs.  Vertical would be weird, harder to cover, and across the Gulf would have to be under very good weather.

SpaceX routinely transports F9 boosters vertically after they land downrange, after clamping them down in the open Atlantic, not under controlled conditions in port. They are not covered. They have done this more than 125 times.

[chopsticks]

SpaceX might not send fully assembled boosters and ships at first. They might ship completed sub-assemblies and finish them out in Florida.

[freddo411]

Great video on shipping from Boca Chica to Cape Canaveral



There are some challenges moving the booster/ship vertically either by land or by sea around the cape.

[seb21051]

This hovercraft has about a 200 ton payload. This particular one would probably not work, but to build a couple that would be suitable should be very doable. Slave two of them together and you may be able to carry the booster over virtually any surface, like the swamps around Brownsville, from BC to the port. No road or overhead wire or bridge problems. SX allready uses hovercraft to transport employees that stay further afield:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zubr-class_LCAC#:~:text=Article,4%20x%20NO10%20superchargers

[Nomadd]

This hovercraft has about a 200 ton payload. This particular one would probably not work, but to build a couple that would be suitable should be very doable. Slave two of them together and you may be able to carry the booster over virtually any surface, like the swamps around Brownsville, from BC to the port. No road or overhead wire or bridge problems. SX allready uses hovercraft to transport employees that stay further afield:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zubr-class_LCAC#:~:text=Article,4%20x%20NO10%20superchargers

There are already no bridge or overhead wire problems from the launch site to the Brownsville port. All over road wires were eliminated when they put in the new power lines.