SpaceX McGregor Testing Updates and Discussion Thread 3

[JimNtexas]

I did another light plane photo run near McGregor today.   It was really bumpy, I made myself a bit airsick taking these!   

The usual caveats apply:

1) At no time did I overfly the SpaceX facility.
2) At no time did I descend below 1500 above ground level, and was mostly above 2500 agl feet because of the turbulence.
3) If anyone at SpaceX management want me to cease these flights, all they need do is contact me and ask.
4) Observations:
    - This is the first time I noticed the permanent entrance gate on plant road.
    - Lots of construction going on around the big test stand.
    - Three big red cranes.
    -  Nothing interesting near the hover pad.

5)  Consider these images to be public domain.   I'd appreciate credit if you want to use my images.  I haven't had time to process or mark today's images in any way.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0NWW2tf69ZBWUlrb0gxclpvTGM&usp=sharing

[Sam Hassall]

Holy crap, the horizontal trench behind the F9 stand is humongous. Any ideas other than FH testing? Raptor testing is being conducted at Stennis, so I'm out of leads.

[Elmar Moelzer]

Holy crap, the horizontal trench behind the F9 stand is humongous. Any ideas other than FH testing? Raptor testing is being conducted at Stennis, so I'm out of leads.

I thought this was meant to be the FH test stand, but I might be wrong.

[dragon44]

I did another light plane photo run near McGregor today.
[...]
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0NWW2tf69ZBWUlrb0gxclpvTGM&usp=sharing

Awesome pictures.

Just to be clear, the first photo (DSC_0469.JPG) is not of SpaceX. It's this company just down the road http://www.transtechfabrication.com/about

[JimNtexas]

I did another light plane photo run near McGregor today.
[...]
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0NWW2tf69ZBWUlrb0gxclpvTGM&usp=sharing

Awesome pictures.

Just to be clear, the first photo (DSC_0469.JPG) is not of SpaceX. It's this company just down the road http://www.transtechfabrication.com/about

Good catch, I wasn't sure what that was.

[Lars-J]

Great pictures! The new in/under-ground test stand has progressed a lot since we last saw pictures of it.

Holy crap, the horizontal trench behind the F9 stand is humongous. Any ideas other than FH testing? Raptor testing is being conducted at Stennis, so I'm out of leads.

I thought this was meant to be the FH test stand, but I might be wrong.

That it indeed what it is for, it seems - But they will probably test regular/single F9 cores there as well, since it should reduce the sound impact for the surrounding community. The tripod might be phased out unless the schedule demands it to be used.

[meekGee]

I wonder:  How does an FH make it to the test stand?  Where is it stored before hand?

[Jdeshetler]

Cool, one of JimNtexas's photos of the Grasshopper pad show 4 new objects in red circles, any idea what it might be? It all lined up with take off position, not touch down position.  The yellow circle is the original fire nozzle and it doesn't even look alike...

[Razvan]

Cool, one of JimNtexas's photos of the Grasshopper pad show 4 new objects in red circles, any idea what it might be? It all lined up with take off position, not touch down position.  The yellow circle is the original fire nozzle and it doesn't even look alike...

I think, they are the foundations for the future launch pd lightning towers ...

[Lars-J]

Cool, one of JimNtexas's photos of the Grasshopper pad show 4 new objects in red circles, any idea what it might be? It all lined up with take off position, not touch down position.  The yellow circle is the original fire nozzle and it doesn't even look alike...

Interesting, but I'm not sure they are foundations for any kind of towers. One potential clue might be that they are aligned around the launching point, NOT the landing point.

The blue base for a crane - is that new? Is it part of a new folding crane that will replace the movable crane perhaps?

[Zardar]

Looks like the heavy test stand has movable concrete slab 'blast doors', that slide in and out on rails, depending if theres' a single core or a heavy on there. (best view in DSC-0494)
But, how will they get a transporter-erector up to the stand, with those 2 small square buildings there? Or will they just use a crane like usual?

[Roy_H]

Looks like the heavy test stand has movable concrete slab 'blast doors', that slide in and out on rails, depending if theres' a single core or a heavy on there. (best view in DSC-0494)
But, how will they get a transporter-erector up to the stand, with those 2 small square buildings there? Or will they just use a crane like usual?

I suspect those small building are temporary to assist construction.

[Ohsin]

Cool, one of JimNtexas's photos of the Grasshopper pad show 4 new objects in red circles, any idea what it might be? It all lined up with take off position, not touch down position.  The yellow circle is the original fire nozzle and it doesn't even look alike...

Those aren't new 12 July pics have them but that blue stand and tank is new and those safety cones around indicate fresh work.

[StuffOfInterest]

Seeing the new pictures of the pad left me with a few questions.

For some strange reason I had thought previously that the new test stand would actually test the rocket horizontally like the SRBs are.  From the new photo it is obvious that the stages will be vertical and then the flame deflected into the trench.  Has anyone seen how they plan to raise the stages onto the stand?  With three cores together I can't see them crane lifting them as a unit for FH testing so they will either have to lift them one at a time and vertically integrate them together or have some sort of transporter/erector on site to move the cores horizontally to the stand and then lift up.

Also, I wonder what happened to all the spoil from the flame trench.  It costs money to have dirt halled away.  I would have expected them to just re-purpose it for either a slightly raised burn around the trench or maybe have a slightly raised mount to provide a little more vertical distance before the flame deflects.  From the photos it doesn't appear anything was kept on site.

[rpapo]

They could simply have sold the dirt as fill for some other project, some other company, some other place.

[douglas100]

...Has anyone seen how they plan to raise the stages onto the stand?  With three cores together I can't see them crane lifting them as a unit for FH testing so they will either have to lift them one at a time and vertically integrate them together or have some sort of transporter/erector on site to move the cores horizontally to the stand and then lift up...

IMO cranes lifting each core individually with integration on the stand seems to be the simplest solution.

[GORDAP]

Cool, one of JimNtexas's photos of the Grasshopper pad show 4 new objects in red circles, any idea what it might be? It all lined up with take off position, not touch down position.  The yellow circle is the original fire nozzle and it doesn't even look alike...

Um, quite obviously hold down clamps for the upcoming RBFR XXXX Heavy.

[Prober]

Cool, one of JimNtexas's photos of the Grasshopper pad show 4 new objects in red circles, any idea what it might be? It all lined up with take off position, not touch down position.  The yellow circle is the original fire nozzle and it doesn't even look alike...

emulation of the barge?

[wannamoonbase]

Cool, one of JimNtexas's photos of the Grasshopper pad show 4 new objects in red circles, any idea what it might be? It all lined up with take off position, not touch down position.  The yellow circle is the original fire nozzle and it doesn't even look alike...

emulation of the barge?

I'm sure some one with skills in our community could drop a measurement between those four points and compare them to the ASDS.  (hint hint)

[wannamoonbase]

Holy crap, the horizontal trench behind the F9 stand is humongous. Any ideas other than FH testing? Raptor testing is being conducted at Stennis, so I'm out of leads.

I thought this was meant to be the FH test stand, but I might be wrong.

I recall the plan being to put the flame trench below ground and directing it away from the town to reduce the noise.   It's a solid plan and frankly more professional. 

I could see them moving the F9 testing to the new stand as well.