0:00 Sunrise Over the Launch Site 0:47 Wide Bay Section Lifted 1:44 Crews Secure the New Section 3:07 The Nosecone Test Rig Was Moved During the Lift 4:56 The Nosecone Test Rig is Placed Inside the Gates 5:17 Wide Bay Work Continues 6:36 Crews Work on SN15 7:01 B2.1 in the Structural Test Stand 7:19 B2.1 Structural Test Stand Cap 8:10 Booster 6 Test Tank 9:01 Ropes Attached to the Test Stand Cap 9:41 Tall Stand at the Production Site 10:19 Wide Bay Construction Continues 12:24 The Launch Site 12:43 Booster 4 Sits on the Orbital Launch Mount 13:04 The SpaceX LR 11000 Crane Lifts the Booster Load Spreader 13:47 Crews Work on Ship 20 14:23 Booster 4 is Attached to Its Quick Disconnect 14:42 Crews Work on a Cover Attached to Booster 4 15:00 The Quick Disconnect Arm 15:17 Booster Thrust Puck Accidentally Delivered to the Launch Site 15:35 The Booster Thrust Puck is Moved Back to the Production Site 16:34 A New Wide Bay Section is Lifted at Sunset
i used to think that the term "rocket science" referred to the complexity of designing a rocket engine. After watching the development of Tank Farm, the OLP, Mechzilla, etc., I finally realize that rocket science is much, much more than the development of high thrust engines and MaxQ capable airframes. Lots of leading edge science and engineering going on here that has nothing to do with the engines themselves. Thanks for your coverage of the whole effort!
It's material science, top tier engineering, etc. Really it's pushing the limits of what matter and chemistry can do, within the constraints of physics.
Wow! That was a great day of comprehensive construction footage. I really liked seeing the workers trying to get the support struts on the mega bay to mate using come-along and pry bars. I use the same equipment in building more mundane things in my life. :)
7:20 test stand cap: the purple rope is Plasma Rope. I believe that it is one of the strongest ropes by weight. It floats, is incredibly smooth, and very slippery. Great stuff.
Proper term for those units is " Slings". And yes on the strength. I'd love to read a tag on one to see what its rating is. 1" has a minimum rating of 122,000 lbs. 1.5" has a rating of 245,000 lbs. Yet 1" weighs under a 1/4lb/ft and 1.5" weighs just over 1/2 lb to the foot.
Thank you nic , Mary and the entire NSF team for sharing the video with SpaceX fans. It looked like the nose come jail was making a run for it when the workers were busy with the construction of the wider bay in the time lapse video. 🤣
Not even the fusion reactor projects (like ITER) that could give the world cheap electricity and stop coal and oil being wasted on power generation????
@@David-yo5ws It's funny that you think that they are going to give you cheaper electricity. Also when most cars are electric They'll charge more to charge. When gas cars do 100 mpg gas will be 10 dollars per gallon.
@@David-yo5ws let’s consider that in 30 years when, you know, it’s promised to finally deliver. This project on the other hand is promising next month.
@@A31415 The hope is, that the concept is 'proved' in a few years time and then as you say, in another 30 years, we will have to consider if it is indeed cheap. I will be 92 😱
@@David-yo5ws yes, third time could be the charm. It was promised in the 60s by the 90s. Then they reset and promised by 2020s. It’s now in the 2050s. Color me skeptical
I believe the cap on the test stand is for testing the tank to failure, and to retain the pieces so they don't fly around and damage or equipment, the black stand appears to be the base for a floor mounted jib crane
Seeing that booster thrust puck mounted diagonally on the 18-wheeler is a firm reminder that one of the biggest limitations to privatization of rocket manufacturing in the U.S. is what the Federal Transportation Administration will and will not allow to be carried along public roads. For example, Falcon 9 is such a long, slender rocket (leading to its under-sized fairing), because the re-used first stage booster is designed to be transported horizontally on public roads. Maybe, one day, SpaceX will figure out how to connect the production and launch sites at Boca Chica to eliminate these width and height constraints.
Yes they certainly could improve the F9 performance by increasing the diameter - probably going a bit wider than the present fairing say 5.4 meters would be the sweet spot if you ignore all the problems and additional costs that would cause. If they did not have Starship perhaps that would be a reasonable path.
have been thinking the same thing. Just sounds way better. Also, they should then put a burger joint there and call it Big Bay Burgers with a special Big Belly Burger (belly flop... get it?)
I wonder what they're doing with SN15? Maybe they're doing some modifications to strengthen it for a more permanent display piece? I'd love to see them display a starship in the bellyflop position - though, if they were to do that, they would have to reinforce the structure, as without having the tanks pressurized, it could only stand vertically (with the tank walls taking a compressive load); horizontally, where there's room for sagging and such, would need a reinforced skeleton.
Then you (and us) got a big treat to see the machined thrust puck. The delivery mistake meant Nic got real close up views and also Mary. Nice bit of milling out of that one piece. I can see it withstanding 7,500 tonnes of thrust.
@@David-yo5ws Do we know if the puck is machined out of steel, or aluminium? Steel would be a lot stronger, but some parts of that are pretty thick and would add more weight than aluminium.
@@WM3636-d1c Good question. I can't say, don't know. If you look at using aluminum with SS304L, it says that electrons flow from Al to the SS and makes it weaker over time. It's hard to see, just from the great pictures, if it's Al or SS. Both would look shiny. In terms of construction, I would 'think' it is SS304L.
I really wish NASASpaceflight had someone with construction or rigging experience on the production team. You keep editing out the important bits and come up with some very bizarre descriptions.
@@emmanotsostrong Sure, I'll have to find them one at a time and keep coming back to edit this... I'll just post title and time just incase UA-cam beats at links... Starhopper gets a new antenna 0:24 we see lots of the crew rigging it, then it cut before the lift. 12:04 "the cable have been removed from the chopsticks" those are slings, not cables, more significant than the slings is the ram that was suspended there (don't recall any mention of what they were and why they were there) and didn't get to see that part of the lift. Multistage pump delivered. 6:00 onwards the lift starts with a crane and a telehandler. Just when it gets to time to transfer the whole load to the crane they were in a situation that would have a rigger audience saying "ohh yeah buddy, just how are you going to get out of that one?" The top of the pump was about to hit the telehandler boom. The inexperienced might say "just let it swing by pulling it away with the crane" that is stunningly bad practice. But the video cut right at that moment to "ohh look its only on the crane"
@@dougaltolan3017 With this daily update of what is going at the Starbase we get to see fairly detailed work on Starship and all the associated ground support work. Plus once or sometimes twice a week we get live broadcasts from NSF crew on specific events and updates on progress and people can send in questions. All of this far exceeds any previous recording of rocket development so in my mind this is truly amazing to watch. It's good to question how things are done however. That's how this process evolves.
I wonder if that thrust puck is 3D printed. I can't imagine a CNC mill that could produce that. But I've been wrong before... Great stuff all around...
@@ronaldc.manning2617 It looks like they took a big thick sheet of aluminum and machined away what they didn't need. If they couldn't find a machine big enough to do it without moving the sheet around, they just repositioned the sheet, then proceeded with the machining. Trying to make something that big and thick by fusing together some metal powder with lasers, or some kind of energy beams, would take a long time and cost a small fortune. Powdered metal used in 3D printing is expensive. Aluminum in powdered form is quite reactive. It is used to make aluminum flash powder explosive, which is 3 parts by mass of very fine aluminum powder, mixed with 7 parts of potassium perchlorate oxidizer. To fuse together aluminum powder, you probably need to prevent oxygen from getting to the melting zone using some inert shielding gas. But I'm no 3D printing expert. Generally, the only time you want to use 3D printing is when nothing else will work, since it usually costs more than more common methods of making stuff like casting, forging, machining, stamping, or welding together smaller pieces. If you examine the biggest close up puck photo, (16 : 14 into the video) you can see the swirl marks where a rotating cutter removed metal to make the part lighter. The section of the puck which has a flat finish is probably the undisturbed surface of the aluminum plate they started with. It looks like the dull side of common aluminum foil from the grocery store. I think they make aluminum foil by crushing a thick aluminum ingot many times between huge steel rollers. Finally, aluminum sheets don't easily burn because the metal forms an oxide layer which is inert, and nearly the same size as the metal below it. That is why aluminum is rather corrosion resistant. Aluminum is very easy to machine because it is so soft. The only reason it hasn't replaced steel in many applications is due to the large amount of electricity needed to separate the metal from the oxygen atoms it is combined with in the aluminum ore. It takes 9 times more electricity to refine aluminum from the ore, than to melt aluminum scrap for recycling.
@@billsimpson604 I did notice the swirl marks. Maybe they put the disk on a rotating table that was programmed with the CNC mill. Thanks for your reply...
Any idea as to how many test ship/boosters they're planning on doing before they start making what will be the operational ships etc. I know they said the other day that b7 will be different from all the others with new features etc
SpaceX will try to get the prototypes they have now working, like 4/20, and 5/21 and everything else operational. The ships now may be operation, but I doubt that we'll see their final form for a long time.
To be honest, until they start trying orbital launches and start getting data from that and making changes as needed, the only answer is 'As many as they need' Just like with the suborbital flights, they don't even expect to get to orbit with 4/20, let alone trying to come back down. They're in this for the long haul, so they'll do as many as they need. Though I bet you anything they're gonna milk any data they get for all they can, and it wouldn't surprise me if they start skipping entire Booster/Ship numbers like they did for suborbital as they get better and better at this
@@MrGoesBoom very true I figured it would be the case but knowing Elon thought he'd have a ship number where testing ends he does like to push things sorta thing he'd do lol
I'm wondering if the "Test Stand Cap" is actually part of Mechazilla. This could be a Jig to align the Ship with the Booster while mating the two together. If so, it might be two C shaped sections that would attach to the QD Arm. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Ship 15 or 16 lifted on top...
At time stamp 16:00 it looks like this thrust puck is for the HLS Star Ship. It has provision for 13 engines which is what may be needed for the trip to the moon.
So with B4 on the launch mount and the chopsticks untested, could Space X risk a test lift with B4? They nearly have B5 ready to go so a damaged B4 should be no biggy as long as the launch mount didn't get damaged then it would be ok right? Space X doesn't have a crane tall enough that could stack S20 so surely they would have to use the chopsticks at some point for a lift? Personally I wouldn't risk it but then again I didn't think you could risk trying to land a 1st stage.
The Space X crane is big enough to lift S20 onto the booster. That LR 11,000 can be configured to the same height as the Frankencrane. It just can't lift quite as much. 1350 vs 1000 tonnes for the maximum lift which of course diminishes the higher the lift is. So lifting S20 should be easy. At any rate it is speculation at this point when the chop sticks will come into play. The vertical testing has yet to done, but hopefully that will happen soon.
@Michael Deierhoi oh sweet, thanks. Didn't realise the space crane could potentially do the lift. It's hard to think next year will top this 1 for space X 🤯
@@graemcnuggets488 but the crew couldn't get into the ship through the bottom once stacked, plus they would have to pass through the fuel tank lol. It's probably for plumbing and / or for wiring
They assembled them there on site. Interesting that they put the sidings on them as well. It's going to take about 4-5 months to get it finished if we go by the High Bay construction (started in July 2020 and used in October 2020 but was still being built till about February2021)
@@gravelydon7072 Correct. That's why I added "used in October 2020" and of course they added the roof crane, which backfired a bit, causing them to reduce the Booster height by 1 meter to 69 meters.
@@David-yo5ws Want to bet that they took that into account on the Wide Bay? Now the High Bay could be used just for Starships and the Wide Bay used for Boosters. Thus being able to turn them out even faster. Now they just need to ramp up engine builds. In one of the earlier videos someone was asking why two of the engine nozzles were red. That appears to be ones that have had a longer test session and it is the Copper that is showing thru. In another video, it was said that Copper and Inconel together made the best nozzle for one that was going to be reused.
@@gravelydon7072 Yes I am sure that's how they will use the Bay's in future. And the taller Wide Bay with 2 roof cranes, should be perfect for Booster stacking. It's hard to get any updates on the construction of the new Raptor Production Facility at McGregor, Texas test facility. Just one picture on nasaspaceflight page. Thanks for the info on the red nozzles. Love the gimbal test of 9 Raptors on Elons Twitter page! 🚀👍🏻
Starship and booster was/is being designed as the lightest possible vehicle that could handle orbital and eventually deep space flights. Thus it must be reusable. The weight of these vehicles is still well below the maximum lift of the LR 11,000.
@@michaeldeierhoi4096 I was thinking mainly of lift height. Even with extensions, the LR 11000 seemed to max out when placing SN20 on to of B4. Now that was either a coincidence, or SS/SH was designed with that height restriction in mind.
@@michaeldeierhoi4096 Yep. But that wasn't my question. I asked if the Starship/Super Heavy design was based on the biggest crane available to stack them.
@@franksolario1842 It's the other way around. Starship was designed and built and the cranes necessary to fill that job were found which of course required some of the biggest cranes in the world.
Thanks Marie! Boca chica Garl! You have the best possible position! Everything and everyone als have to follow you and make there's story on your time line! Next to the reel Star Elon Musk with al bigger and better Starship and BFR! Mars is so close I can smell the shoile!
As soon as the fully reusable Starship flies reliably ($2 million for 100 tons to LEO), the partially reusable Falcon 9 ($28 million/25 tons) will be retired.
No, it was originally going to be a site for falcons but not anymore. Basically nothing on site can support a falcon launch, the tower is not configured to hook up to one and there is not a drop of falcon food on site (its all methane, no RP1) BTW, a falcon 9 would only reach about half way up the tower lol, just a funny thought.
@@warrenwhite9085 Falcon 9 Booster, 2nd Stage and Dragon Capsule are NASA Human Certified, which takes a long time to achieve. So they will still have to use those Falcons for CRS and Cosmonaut and Astronaut missions to the ISS for quite some time. Correct about satellites and other things like DART missions. They will retire those.
Guys, I wanted to ask before but it's especially important with possible booster testing coming up. Could you please try to avoid spoilers? A good rule of thumb would be not to write anything on screen that will happen in the future. I personally would name the videos with the date as well, so this would be "Dec 17, 2021 | SpaceX Boca Chica" I think many people have stopped watching these videos because it's a bit like watching my favorite team on a sports channel where the commentator starts the broadcast by telling the end results. Pretty much everything is indicated in advance. This is especially bad with tests, where the orange text starts off by saying "the test was successful" or what Elon tweeted afterwards. I feel like this info should be at the end of the test.
Totally agree! The content is awesome and this would make the videos a whole lot better. I'm here to watch what happens on a daily bases and I'm torn because I'm interested in the info provided by the texts, but the timing on them often ruins my experience.
This is a testing program, not a sports game. If you wanted to not know what the results are, why would you force people who usually watch the livestreams to not know what happened if they missed the livestream?
If had +,-/+,- magnet in row and put electricity to all the + to the magnet to make stronger does it move right and if to - move left in fromat it stands or the outer ones ?
0:00 Sunrise Over the Launch Site
0:47 Wide Bay Section Lifted
1:44 Crews Secure the New Section
3:07 The Nosecone Test Rig Was Moved During the Lift
4:56 The Nosecone Test Rig is Placed Inside the Gates
5:17 Wide Bay Work Continues
6:36 Crews Work on SN15
7:01 B2.1 in the Structural Test Stand
7:19 B2.1 Structural Test Stand Cap
8:10 Booster 6 Test Tank
9:01 Ropes Attached to the Test Stand Cap
9:41 Tall Stand at the Production Site
10:19 Wide Bay Construction Continues
12:24 The Launch Site
12:43 Booster 4 Sits on the Orbital Launch Mount
13:04 The SpaceX LR 11000 Crane Lifts the Booster Load Spreader
13:47 Crews Work on Ship 20
14:23 Booster 4 is Attached to Its Quick Disconnect
14:42 Crews Work on a Cover Attached to Booster 4
15:00 The Quick Disconnect Arm
15:17 Booster Thrust Puck Accidentally Delivered to the Launch Site
15:35 The Booster Thrust Puck is Moved Back to the Production Site
16:34 A New Wide Bay Section is Lifted at Sunset
i used to think that the term "rocket science" referred to the complexity of designing a rocket engine. After watching the development of Tank Farm, the OLP, Mechzilla, etc., I finally realize that rocket science is much, much more than the development of high thrust engines and MaxQ capable airframes. Lots of leading edge science and engineering going on here that has nothing to do with the engines themselves. Thanks for your coverage of the whole effort!
Rocket Engineering is harder than rocket science. Rocket manufacturing requires both and much more.
It's material science, top tier engineering, etc. Really it's pushing the limits of what matter and chemistry can do, within the constraints of physics.
Rocket scientist therefore is an empty term, it's a multi disciplinary field.
But most of the development of the launch site is indirectly related to the engines themselves
As Elon has said building all of the manufacturing capability and infrastructure is the really hard part of all of this.
Wow! That was a great day of comprehensive construction footage. I really liked seeing the workers trying to get the support struts on the mega bay to mate using come-along and pry bars. I use the same equipment in building more mundane things in my life. :)
These construction teams are pretty efficient…since I worked in the construction area for over 40 years, it’s very impressive watching their progress.
Thank you for making these updates over the last two years I never miss them.
That thrust puck is a work of art!...Beautiful!
7:20 test stand cap: the purple rope is Plasma Rope. I believe that it is one of the strongest ropes by weight. It floats, is incredibly smooth, and very slippery. Great stuff.
Proper term for those units is " Slings". And yes on the strength. I'd love to read a tag on one to see what its rating is. 1" has a minimum rating of 122,000 lbs. 1.5" has a rating of 245,000 lbs. Yet 1" weighs under a 1/4lb/ft and 1.5" weighs just over 1/2 lb to the foot.
Thanks Mary and Nic 🥰
Thank you nic , Mary and the entire NSF team for sharing the video with SpaceX fans. It looked like the nose come jail was making a run for it when the workers were busy with the construction of the wider bay in the time lapse video. 🤣
Maybe someone had a bright idea and they will re-purpose it. Nice to keep some history on site.
"accidentally" haha the truck driver totally wanted to check out the launch site
Yeah he was down there for some time before he "noticed" and turned around lol
I'm sure the trucky knew it was the wrong place, he's just doing what the lead Pilot vehicle did and followed it 😉
@@David-yo5ws Needed to go there for hold time. As in, hold on till we can find space to fit you in for unloading.
@@gravelydon7072 Nice bonus for all concerned 👍🏻
That "Tall Stand" looks like the column for a Jib Crane (we had several like that at the company I worked for).
Thank you Mary! Gorgeous, just like you.
Respectfully and Humbly.
The modular construction of the wide bay is similar to the way sea-going ships are built.
Yeah, i enjoy watching it modular like this.
Now it's for space-going ships 😁
I'm amazed that two sections of a building can be constructed, tight and rigid, and then those two sections can be connected and everything lines up.
@@joestallings6993 With a little bit of percussive persuasion.
@@joestallings6993 That wouldn't work if I was doing the measuring!
This is the only project that gives me faith in humanity.
Not even the fusion reactor projects (like ITER) that could give the world cheap electricity and stop coal and oil being wasted on power generation????
@@David-yo5ws It's funny that you think that they are going to give you cheaper electricity. Also when most cars are electric They'll charge more to charge. When gas cars do 100 mpg gas will be 10 dollars per gallon.
@@David-yo5ws let’s consider that in 30 years when, you know, it’s promised to finally deliver. This project on the other hand is promising next month.
@@A31415 The hope is, that the concept is 'proved' in a few years time and then as you say, in another 30 years, we will have to consider if it is indeed cheap. I will be 92 😱
@@David-yo5ws yes, third time could be the charm. It was promised in the 60s by the 90s. Then they reset and promised by 2020s. It’s now in the 2050s. Color me skeptical
I believe the cap on the test stand is for testing the tank to failure, and to retain the pieces so they don't fly around and damage or equipment, the black stand appears to be the base for a floor mounted jib crane
Keep being surprised by how fast this all goes.
Love watching this
Hi Mary and NIC thanks 🙏 for your awesome videos David new high bay coming along just fine David ❤️🚀🇬🇧👍
10:55 We're going to need a bigger crowbar! 11:15
it's hard to pull crowbar, when you have unstable standing
Maybe put some lube in between those two steel plates?
It worked !
@@miroslavmilan Nah, you just need a bigger hammer.
Love those iron workers trying to get that beam in place. If at first you don't succeed, use a bigger hammer - or lever in this case!
Burke bar
Seeing that booster thrust puck mounted diagonally on the 18-wheeler is a firm reminder that one of the biggest limitations to privatization of rocket manufacturing in the U.S. is what the Federal Transportation Administration will and will not allow to be carried along public roads. For example, Falcon 9 is such a long, slender rocket (leading to its under-sized fairing), because the re-used first stage booster is designed to be transported horizontally on public roads. Maybe, one day, SpaceX will figure out how to connect the production and launch sites at Boca Chica to eliminate these width and height constraints.
Yes they certainly could improve the F9 performance by increasing the diameter - probably going a bit wider than the present fairing say 5.4 meters would be the sweet spot if you ignore all the problems and additional costs that would cause.
If they did not have Starship perhaps that would be a reasonable path.
Great job as usual! Really appreciate the coverage
The wide bay is growing upwards now and that just makes it more deserving to be called “big” instead of wide lol
have been thinking the same thing. Just sounds way better. Also, they should then put a burger joint there and call it Big Bay Burgers with a special Big Belly Burger (belly flop... get it?)
Needs to be called the h I g h bay
High bay… 420 bay?
Fat bay
I think of it as the Elongated Bay.
Wide bay is getting... wider? every day!!
I wonder what they're doing with SN15? Maybe they're doing some modifications to strengthen it for a more permanent display piece?
I'd love to see them display a starship in the bellyflop position - though, if they were to do that, they would have to reinforce the structure, as without having the tanks pressurized, it could only stand vertically (with the tank walls taking a compressive load); horizontally, where there's room for sagging and such, would need a reinforced skeleton.
To me it looks a bit like there scraping it which is pretty sad
I saw the thrust puck traveling down I70 in Missouri Monday
Pretty fascinating! Watched the entire video for a change 👍
Then you (and us) got a big treat to see the machined thrust puck. The delivery mistake meant Nic got real close up views and also Mary. Nice bit of milling out of that one piece. I can see it withstanding 7,500 tonnes of thrust.
@@David-yo5ws Do we know if the puck is machined out of steel, or aluminium? Steel would be a lot stronger, but some parts of that are pretty thick and would add more weight than aluminium.
@@WM3636-d1c Good question. I can't say, don't know.
If you look at using aluminum with SS304L, it says that electrons flow from Al to the SS and makes it weaker over time. It's hard to see, just from the great pictures, if it's Al or SS. Both would look shiny.
In terms of construction, I would 'think' it is SS304L.
Awesome sauce!
B2.1 looks like a compressive load test rig
I really wish NASASpaceflight had someone with construction or rigging experience on the production team. You keep editing out the important bits and come up with some very bizarre descriptions.
I disagree. Descriptions should be much wilder. Maybe hire a standup comedian instead of someone with construction experience.
Be careful, anything other than positive remarks will be hammered on by these devoted, cult like followers of the Musk Man.
Could you provide some specific examples?
@@emmanotsostrong Sure, I'll have to find them one at a time and keep coming back to edit this...
I'll just post title and time just incase UA-cam beats at links...
Starhopper gets a new antenna
0:24 we see lots of the crew rigging it, then it cut before the lift.
12:04 "the cable have been removed from the chopsticks" those are slings, not cables, more significant than the slings is the ram that was suspended there (don't recall any mention of what they were and why they were there) and didn't get to see that part of the lift.
Multistage pump delivered.
6:00 onwards the lift starts with a crane and a telehandler. Just when it gets to time to transfer the whole load to the crane they were in a situation that would have a rigger audience saying "ohh yeah buddy, just how are you going to get out of that one?" The top of the pump was about to hit the telehandler boom. The inexperienced might say "just let it swing by pulling it away with the crane" that is stunningly bad practice. But the video cut right at that moment to "ohh look its only on the crane"
@@dougaltolan3017 With this daily update of what is going at the Starbase we get to see fairly detailed work on Starship and all the associated ground support work. Plus once or sometimes twice a week we get live broadcasts from NSF crew on specific events and updates on progress and people can send in questions.
All of this far exceeds any previous recording of rocket development so in my mind this is truly amazing to watch. It's good to question how things are done however. That's how this process evolves.
watching at 2x speed it's very satisfying
9:42 I wish you'd titled this 'A Long Stand'...(because the idiom is so apt for this.)
Safety first! Take 2 and think it threw. I don't mean 2 beers. Lol I mean 2min.
It looks awesome this construction site.
glad to see professionals construction workers struggle the same as us normal people lol.
I understand things will be busy here between now and newyears.
8:45 looks like something out of a scifi movie
I wouldn't be surprised if all the accidental deliveries to the launch site were by drivers who are SpaceX fans and just wanted a closer look 😄
They are just following the Pilot Car 😉
This gives me ideas …
@@David-yo5ws Biggest holding area.
That's got to be a rough site to work on it looks like it always very windy there
12:17 Oof, wouldn't want to get a pinkie (or anything else!) pinched between those plates!
@ 11:30 That's one hell of a shoe horn!!
The booster thrust puck looks like the bottom on my gramma’s pressure cooker (from the 1930s). Maybe that’s where the design came from.
You know you didn‘t get the scales when you see Mechazilla dwarfing a booster.
At time stamp 14:16 I see what looks like a loose tile lower down on the hull of ship 20.
Birds 😉
Wonder what's up with SN15...just some maintenance or they putting thought into getting some more test data of some sort or another outta her?
Unfortunately, it is hard to say without some word from Space X which usually doesn't explain these things.
Those ultra Bungie type ropes look like they could launch that test can into space on their own
That thrust puck component is made of some really heavy plate - i guess at this time they are not overly concerned about mass.
Yes, because one can distribute 100 millions Newton of force with a thin piece of plastics. :-)
Lucky they have wide roads in Texas to move the thrust pucks on trucks.
I wonder if that thrust puck is 3D printed. I can't imagine a CNC mill that could produce that. But I've been wrong before...
Great stuff all around...
@@ronaldc.manning2617 It looks like they took a big thick sheet of aluminum and machined away what they didn't need. If they couldn't find a machine big enough to do it without moving the sheet around, they just repositioned the sheet, then proceeded with the machining. Trying to make something that big and thick by fusing together some metal powder with lasers, or some kind of energy beams, would take a long time and cost a small fortune. Powdered metal used in 3D printing is expensive. Aluminum in powdered form is quite reactive. It is used to make aluminum flash powder explosive, which is 3 parts by mass of very fine aluminum powder, mixed with 7 parts of potassium perchlorate oxidizer. To fuse together aluminum powder, you probably need to prevent oxygen from getting to the melting zone using some inert shielding gas. But I'm no 3D printing expert.
Generally, the only time you want to use 3D printing is when nothing else will work, since it usually costs more than more common methods of making stuff like casting, forging, machining, stamping, or welding together smaller pieces.
If you examine the biggest close up puck photo, (16 : 14 into the video) you can see the swirl marks where a rotating cutter removed metal to make the part lighter. The section of the puck which has a flat finish is probably the undisturbed surface of the aluminum plate they started with. It looks like the dull side of common aluminum foil from the grocery store. I think they make aluminum foil by crushing a thick aluminum ingot many times between huge steel rollers.
Finally, aluminum sheets don't easily burn because the metal forms an oxide layer which is inert, and nearly the same size as the metal below it. That is why aluminum is rather corrosion resistant. Aluminum is very easy to machine because it is so soft. The only reason it hasn't replaced steel in many applications is due to the large amount of electricity needed to separate the metal from the oxygen atoms it is combined with in the aluminum ore. It takes 9 times more electricity to refine aluminum from the ore, than to melt aluminum scrap for recycling.
That might be a weld seam down the center of the disk. They might have had to weld 2 aluminum sheets together in order to make a disk that big.
@@billsimpson604
I did notice the swirl marks. Maybe they put the disk on a rotating table that was programmed with the CNC mill. Thanks for your reply...
Any idea as to how many test ship/boosters they're planning on doing before they start making what will be the operational ships etc. I know they said the other day that b7 will be different from all the others with new features etc
SpaceX will try to get the prototypes they have now working, like 4/20, and 5/21 and everything else operational. The ships now may be operation, but I doubt that we'll see their final form for a long time.
To be honest, until they start trying orbital launches and start getting data from that and making changes as needed, the only answer is 'As many as they need'
Just like with the suborbital flights, they don't even expect to get to orbit with 4/20, let alone trying to come back down. They're in this for the long haul, so they'll do as many as they need. Though I bet you anything they're gonna milk any data they get for all they can, and it wouldn't surprise me if they start skipping entire Booster/Ship numbers like they did for suborbital as they get better and better at this
@@MrGoesBoom very true I figured it would be the case but knowing Elon thought he'd have a ship number where testing ends he does like to push things sorta thing he'd do lol
@@WM3636-d1c well 5 ain't flying now and a lot of people have said they think that s21 might end up joining it
I'm wondering if the "Test Stand Cap" is actually part of Mechazilla. This could be a Jig to align the Ship with the Booster while mating the two together. If so, it might be two C shaped sections that would attach to the QD Arm. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Ship 15 or 16 lifted on top...
Urgent news! Taco truck operators back from strike at Boca Chica.
15:17 Mind blowed up, sir!
What do they want from the venerable SN15? Leave it alone!
who knows maybe they'll test it again with better technologies on board
Think the driver delivering the thrust puck was getting a little bit too eager to see starship fly
Test tank ropes look like bungee cord to simulate mass of missing rocket parts as well as to help hold it down.
What are they doing with sn15?
Man....that has got to cost a Gillion five billion three million seven thousands $
If they keep moving the nose cone test stand around so much, it will have more travel time than SN16.
That's some SKETCHY work 10:53 onwards
Not really, it's exactly what you expect with assembling steel frame buildings from large prefabricated sections.
the Yellow stick = "I'm done asking nicely"
@@dougaltolan3017 No I know, was mainly referring to how close his fingers were to the plates when they were lurching together 😅
Wide Bay -> Mega Bay
I propose we call it: Thicc Bae
That is wide bay! Thanks wait fore super bay! That would be Star ship 2.0 or 3.0
Next in progression, Handsome Bay. We already have High and Wide.
15:17 LOL
Texas Space Force base Boca Chica
Wide Bay's wide
I think ,as tank 2.1 n 3 are still a test artical that B4 and 5 are vapour ..,..question is why so long to prove the maths?
At time stamp 16:00 it looks like this thrust puck is for the HLS Star Ship. It has provision for 13 engines which is what may be needed for the trip to the moon.
It’s a booster thrust puck. It makes for a total of 33 engines. 13 on the inner, 20 on the outer ring
Blake is indeed correct. Its a booster puck.
13 engines aren’t needed for the moon. Just normal configuration as per official renders
it might be for the center of a 33 Raptor Booster. For the Moon you will need Vacuum Raptors
No spaces for vacuum Raptors
👍
So with B4 on the launch mount and the chopsticks untested, could Space X risk a test lift with B4? They nearly have B5 ready to go so a damaged B4 should be no biggy as long as the launch mount didn't get damaged then it would be ok right? Space X doesn't have a crane tall enough that could stack S20 so surely they would have to use the chopsticks at some point for a lift?
Personally I wouldn't risk it but then again I didn't think you could risk trying to land a 1st stage.
The Space X crane is big enough to lift S20 onto the booster. That LR 11,000 can be configured to the same height as the Frankencrane. It just can't lift quite as much. 1350 vs 1000 tonnes for the maximum lift which of course diminishes the higher the lift is. So lifting S20 should be easy.
At any rate it is speculation at this point when the chop sticks will come into play. The vertical testing has yet to done, but hopefully that will happen soon.
@Michael Deierhoi oh sweet, thanks. Didn't realise the space crane could potentially do the lift.
It's hard to think next year will top this 1 for space X 🤯
I still have no idea what the two large extra holes are in the thrust pucks, does anyone know yet?
I guess they're crew access hatches??
@@graemcnuggets488 but the crew couldn't get into the ship through the bottom once stacked, plus they would have to pass through the fuel tank lol. It's probably for plumbing and / or for wiring
10:53 is what happens when you take g=10 and pi=3
That was actually hilarious.
Are they going to put a whole amusement park on the roof of the wide Bay 🎢 ??
Hopefully a decent pair of roof cranes that will handle over 70 meters of Booster with a few meters to spare for future possibilities.
Did they assemble the each wide bay panels there or just delivered?
They assembled them there on site. Interesting that they put the sidings on them as well. It's going to take about 4-5 months to get it finished if we go by the High Bay construction (started in July 2020 and used in October 2020 but was still being built till about February2021)
@@David-yo5ws High Bay was still being built last month. Remember they put the stairs in. And we have no idea how far along till the bar is finished.
@@gravelydon7072 Correct.
That's why I added "used in October 2020" and of course they added the roof crane, which backfired a bit, causing them to reduce the Booster height by 1 meter to 69 meters.
@@David-yo5ws Want to bet that they took that into account on the Wide Bay? Now the High Bay could be used just for Starships and the Wide Bay used for Boosters. Thus being able to turn them out even faster.
Now they just need to ramp up engine builds. In one of the earlier videos someone was asking why two of the engine nozzles were red. That appears to be ones that have had a longer test session and it is the Copper that is showing thru. In another video, it was said that Copper and Inconel together made the best nozzle for one that was going to be reused.
@@gravelydon7072 Yes I am sure that's how they will use the Bay's in future. And the taller Wide Bay with 2 roof cranes, should be perfect for Booster stacking.
It's hard to get any updates on the construction of the new Raptor Production Facility at McGregor, Texas test facility.
Just one picture on nasaspaceflight page.
Thanks for the info on the red nozzles.
Love the gimbal test of 9 Raptors on Elons Twitter page! 🚀👍🏻
What is wrong with the elevator inside launch tower?
Not sure.
what happened
@@MikeNapoli1989 good answer!
@@techriot5723 my point exactly!
Why are they messing with SN15? Can't be thinking of flying it again can they? Surely they won't scrap it either.
Wait a few months. Then we'll 'probably' have a better idea.
Hmmm. Was the Starship/Super Heavy design based on the biggest crane available to stack them?
Starship and booster was/is being designed as the lightest possible vehicle that could handle orbital and eventually deep space flights. Thus it must be reusable. The weight of these vehicles is still well below the maximum lift of the LR 11,000.
@@michaeldeierhoi4096 I was thinking mainly of lift height. Even with extensions, the LR 11000 seemed to max out when placing SN20 on to of B4.
Now that was either a coincidence, or SS/SH was designed with that height restriction in mind.
@@franksolario1842 The Space X crane is able to lift to the same height as Frankencrane with the proper configuration.
@@michaeldeierhoi4096 Yep. But that wasn't my question.
I asked if the Starship/Super Heavy design was based on the biggest crane available to stack them.
@@franksolario1842 It's the other way around. Starship was designed and built and the cranes necessary to fill that job were found which of course required some of the biggest cranes in the world.
Thanks Marie! Boca chica Garl! You have the best possible position! Everything and everyone als have to follow you and make there's story on your time line! Next to the reel Star Elon Musk with al bigger and better Starship and BFR! Mars is so close I can smell the shoile!
Smell what ?
Morning
Mornin
Morning
@@aWreckedIsleDisfunction for some is good afternoon
Question, could Boca Chica support a launch of falcon 9 rockets or only Starship?
As soon as the fully reusable Starship flies reliably ($2 million for 100 tons to LEO), the partially reusable Falcon 9 ($28 million/25 tons) will be retired.
@@warrenwhite9085 Not for a while.
@@warrenwhite9085 For the near future there won't be that much commercial demand for such big loads, even if bundled.
No, it was originally going to be a site for falcons but not anymore.
Basically nothing on site can support a falcon launch, the tower is not configured to hook up to one and there is not a drop of falcon food on site (its all methane, no RP1)
BTW, a falcon 9 would only reach about half way up the tower lol, just a funny thought.
@@warrenwhite9085 Falcon 9 Booster, 2nd Stage and Dragon Capsule are NASA Human Certified, which takes a long time to achieve.
So they will still have to use those Falcons for CRS and Cosmonaut and Astronaut missions to the ISS for quite some time.
Correct about satellites and other things like DART missions. They will retire those.
When I watch those Riggers, I just want to shout out “Go you Good Thing ! “
i though wide bay would be bigger
It is bigger. Wider and taller then the High Bay. Bigger!
@@michaeldeierhoi4096 moooore big
@@xgusart 😅😂🤣
Well… let’s be fair… the booster thrust puck is going to be at the launch sight… anyway… eventually… so…
Guys, I wanted to ask before but it's especially important with possible booster testing coming up. Could you please try to avoid spoilers?
A good rule of thumb would be not to write anything on screen that will happen in the future. I personally would name the videos with the date as well, so this would be "Dec 17, 2021 | SpaceX Boca Chica"
I think many people have stopped watching these videos because it's a bit like watching my favorite team on a sports channel where the commentator starts the broadcast by telling the end results. Pretty much everything is indicated in advance. This is especially bad with tests, where the orange text starts off by saying "the test was successful" or what Elon tweeted afterwards. I feel like this info should be at the end of the test.
Totally agree! The content is awesome and this would make the videos a whole lot better. I'm here to watch what happens on a daily bases and I'm torn because I'm interested in the info provided by the texts, but the timing on them often ruins my experience.
This is a testing program, not a sports game. If you wanted to not know what the results are, why would you force people who usually watch the livestreams to not know what happened if they missed the livestream?
@@topsecret1837 ☝
If had +,-/+,- magnet in row and put electricity to all the + to the magnet to make stronger does it move right and if to - move left in fromat it stands or the outer ones ?
And the speed of it is light but the force is the amount of extra magnetic for applied by the additional electric so could it move in vaccume of space
So could move with no fuel just energy in space