Thar she goes...at least the roadside wall...
The Starbase High Bay has lost its first full wall, as crews get to the final stages of the clearing of the space to make way for the future Giga Bay. Multi angle views from @NASASpaceflight Starbase Live Cameras.http://nsf.live/starbase
The Starbase High Bay has lost its first full wall, as crews get to the final stages of the clearing of the space to make way for the future Giga Bay.
High Bay: THE END!and with one final tug, the last part of the High Bay has fallen, bringing and end of an era to Starbase.
Highbay - July 2020 to May 2025Helped assemble Sn9 all the way to S35Image credit: @BocaChicaGal
All the buildings in the first image are gone (or will be gone soon in the case of the High Bay)... except for the tiki bar!
Didn't even make it to a 5-year anniversary.
Starbase This Week (2025-05-25)Hey guys… they left me (Ring) in charge of Starbase This Week. So let's make it a fun one! Join me here for this week's update!Launch SiteStarting at the launch site literally nothing happened.(Ship 35 is now waiting to be stacked)OH WAIT, there is a booster on the OLM!Just last night Booster 14 was rolled back out to the launch site and was placed atop the OLM prior to flight no earlier than the 27th of this month!We also saw some chopstick testing on both pads. Pad B chopsticks finished load testing for the time being and Pad A chopsticks did catch testing in preparation for B14 to get cau- oh wait.Production SiteMoving swiftly along from that note, it has been busy at the production site! First we saw a CX:3 roll out of Starfactory and into Megabay 1. This is the common dome for the new generation boosters and is 1 ring shorter than the current design.Over on the ship side, we saw an A3:4 roll out of Starfactory and into Megabay 2, This is the last LOX tank section before the aft for Ship 38, almost making another completely stacked ship.Guys… do I really have to talk about this ship.Ship 35 once again made an appearance… on top of the static fire stand. Later it was rolled out to Massey’s, conducted its testing, then was rolled back. Throughout the day and night yesterday Ship 35 was removed from the static fire stand and was placed atop a transport stand where it would then receive 8 Starlink Simulators.Moving along Ship 35 QUICKLY rolled out to the launch site just 3 hours before posting this!Massey’sWhile Ship 35 did roll out to Massey’s, it did not conduct a static fire. Ship 35 was loaded with cryogenics then later detanked, but following this it was loaded again and completed a 6 engine spin prime. That was all she sang.On another note, there was a high explosive placard at Massey’s indicating that Ship 35 does have its FTS already installed!Flight 9Can this thing just launch already, what are we waiting for.WAIT, SPACEX POSTED!“The ninth flight test of Starship is preparing to launch as soon as Tuesday, May 27”WHOO HOO!“the Super Heavy booster will attempt these experiments while on a trajectory to an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America and will not return to the launch site for catch.”Oh…Alongside this tweet, a TFR was posted for flight the same day.But the next question, the FAA; They also signed off on a return to flight! Flight 9 is now targeting May 27th with the window opening at 6:30 PM Central Time!HighbayDo you really think I would forget it… Highbay, built many many many years ago, has been scrapped. Used to stack ships, a booster, and test tanks, this marks yet again another era for the production of Starship, making room for an even bigger bay.That marks the end of Starbase This Week, we’ll see you next time hopefully after Flight 9!For real-time updates, join us in the Discord: https://discord.gg/ZbrSYPzDAq
Starbase This Week (2025-06-01)I (Panda) finally get to write one of these yay! Not a whole lot happened this week beside y’know, Flight 9 so here is this week’s Starbase This Week.Production SiteWell not a lot happened at the production site this week.Ship 36 received one of its two AFT flaps this week bringing the next in line ship closer to its SF campaign.Ship 37 was the one ship that saw major action this week after it was lifted onto the Ship Thrust Sim looking very… bare.Ship 38 received its AX:4 section this week which will complete major stacking operations for the ship. Plenty of work still remains ahead of its flight which isn’t for several months still.B18 received its A4:4 bringing it to 15 rings of what we think will be 36 rings not including the actual new hotstaging part.Massey’sWell, Massey’s may have been a little busy this week. Two different articles underwent testing.Starting with Test Tank 17 (TT17) it underwent its first Cryo test around mid week and appeared to go well. We’re unsure on if it’ll do more so keep an eye on the various cameras facing Massey’s to see if more testing is done.Ship 37 rolled out to Masseys the following day ahead of its Cryo test campaign, missing its forward flaps and a lot of its heat shield. In some places it was only the bare steel. Not to speculate here but the ship might be doomed Or they’re just waiting to finish the ship until after its cryo testing. Of which, we saw two cryo tests this week.Launch SiteWORK CONTINUES ON THE OLM, no but seriously, work continued on Pad B’s OLM. More piping and a manifold were installed onto the mount. Additionally, the BQD structure for Pad B arrived.S35 was also stacked onto B14-2 but who cares about S35 and B14-2 right?Flight 9Guess it's time to address the elephant in the room, Flight 9 launched.At 18:36 local time on 2025-05-27, the Flight 9 stack of B14-2 and S35 lifted off from OLP-A.B14-2 lit all 33 engines and pushed the stack uphill. B14-2 went through MaxQ nominally before displaying a new roll program right towards the end of its ascent burn to debut the new HSR addition which would push the booster in a designated direction. Following MECO, B14-2 relit all 10 middle ring engines to begin its boostback burn. Following a nominal HSR jettison, B14-2 prepared for its higher angle of attack entry. B14-2 flew through entry before meeting its demise just after lighting 12 of 13 engines for landing burn startup.As for S35, it proceeded for the first ever SECO by a Block 2 starship. Although there maybe were some signs that it limped to SECO. S35 would rotate into an attitude for payload deploy but this is where things started to go downhill for the ship, both figuratively and literally. The door got stuck. They can build the world’s largest rocket but they can't build a working door.Shortly after, S35 began to spin. No thoughts, just spin. This spin was a result of a leak developing which caused the ship to lose its attitude control. The spin would become gradually worse which lost all hope for it to survive reentry. The ship was passivated and would survive its reentry down to around a reported 59.3 kilometers by SpaceX.The FAA would respond shortly after the flight requiring SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation for Flight 9 due to S35’s uncontrolled reentry. While B14-2 also experienced a RUD, it was all within parameters set by the launch license.Elon UpdateOh hey, there was also an Elon talk.You might’ve noticed our model of the Starfactory got updated by the Nosecone production. Thanks to a video posted on X by @Erdayastronaut we got a view that we haven’t had before.Also in that video we spotted what could be B18’s integrated HSR, but more on that.SpaceX posted after Flight 9 an update given by Elon. We learned a lot of details about the plan for the future of the program.Raptor 3 has had a lot of testing since its debut last August. Raptor 3 has undergone 300 tests accumulating 16,000 seconds of test fire which totals nearly 4.5 hours of testing (we estimate this info to be 3 months old). We also saw Raptor 3 SN 8, which was an RVac, potentially the first R3 RVac.Lots of interesting developments for the ship as well. As expected, the next generations of ships are expected to grow, being capable of lifting 200 tonnes to LEO when reused. Ship is also expected to gain another 3 RVacs bringing the total to 6 on the ships. An animation for ship to ship refueling featuring a probe and drogue style docking mechanism was also shown which should be expected NET 2026. Elon also gave us an update on when the highly anticipated ship catch would be, and that is… NET 2-3 months, which could be somewhere in the range of S37-S39.Booster also saw plenty of interesting developments. First off, the integrated HSR. We don’t know many details about it but it's great to see new hardware. Booster was also expected to grow just a tad more with the HSR. We will stay at 33 engines for the next generations of boosters but don’t expect it to look very symmetrical. In a render shown the center three are offset so that the two of the three are on the Booster’s centerline. Also shown, 3 grid fins which was kind of expected, what wasn’t expected was where they’re located. IN A “T” SHAPE. Why? We ourselves don’t know, physics or something like that. However, it does give similar manoeuvrability of the booster to something more akin to a plane.Lastly, Mars. SpaceX aims to send the first ships to Mars in the 2026 transfer window with more to follow in the 2028-29, 2030-31, and 2033. The first ships would carry Optimus robots to test landing on Mars in the Arcadia region, first targeted by SpaceX with Red Dragon, 9 years ago. Humans could fly as soon as the 2028 window but according to Elon, 2031 is also very likely. And don’t worry about not being connected, SpaceX announced that they would be deploying a Starlink constellation over Mars. You’ll still be 3-22 minutes from talking back to Earth but hey, you got internet.Anyways, that's it for this Starbase This Week, where ABSOLUTELY NOTHING happened. Join us next week!
From all the parts we have seen on TT17 with its new style QDs and the new hoods. I have combined everything we have seen so far in terms of the Quick disconnects for Lox and CH4. The parts in Sanchez they have now started work on appear to be the swing frames for these and mounting plates have been added to the top of the OLM still unsure how all that will work still but i think this is the direction we are seeing things move in will update this as these parts start coming close to being installedhttps://twitter.com/lifeatstagezero/status/1929699223093612865https://twitter.com/CeaserG33/status/1918443267433132535https://twitter.com/AshleyKillip/status/1929778211971555357
Steel Plates are now being installed to protect the concrete base of the flame trench
SpaceX has begun to drill piles for what should be the last large piece of the flame trench!
The 4th manifold for the top watercooling and main supply arrived on a truck. It has one inlet on the end likely the only supply from the deluge farm. And the other end is a reducer pipe this should speed up the flow of water entering the next manifold. Im wondering there is some way they can prime these before flight and just force more water in on take off then again for landing.
Starbase Weekly Commentators:Zack (@CSIStarbase )Alex (@a_high on discord)Questions Joe: @xSpacexJoe on X Stream Producer: MatsukawaZaraki
Looks like the pad b deluge system will be using methalox gas generator pumps to press the system. At Masseys they run Liquid Nitrogen through ambiant water in heat exchangers. At pad A they run Liquid Nitrogen through gas vaporizers and store the N2 in high pressure tanks. I'm guessing these are mounted on top of each water tank and directly injects highly compressed gas?
There is a decent chance we may have seen the last launch on Pad A. If Flight 10 takes place on Pad B, then roughly 15 seconds prior to ignition...an extremely loud noise will likely overpower the sound of everything else at the launch site as 9 "Baby Raptors" are used to generate gas at a rate that will enable them to force out nearly 450,000 gallons of water in less than 60 seconds.
You can see the gas generators on this manifold.
