Starbase Sunday #2
Welcome to the second edition of our upgraded Starbase Sunday series, coming out every Sunday at 13:00 UTC! Even if this week wasn’t as busy as the past one, it was still full of interesting events!
June 8th - Sunday
The night started with the return of Booster 16 to the production site, where it was parked outside of Megabay 1 to allow for initial inspections and grid fin rotation, where the grid fins are slightly rotated to allow them to enter the building without colliding with it; once inside, the grid fins returned to their original inclination, and Booster 16 was lifted off the BTS to the workstation inside MB1… here, the Booster will undergo preflight preparations ahead of Flight 10.
The BTS was then rolled out to the Rocket Garden ahead of the next vehicle move.
At Pad A, refurbishment work on the OLM and BQD resumed with the installation of scaffolding; these components still need to undergo some work before they can be deemed ready for launch.
June 9th - Monday
We start at Massey’s, where we have had some work conducted on B18.1, the first Block 3 Booster test article. This article was installed in the can crusher in May, undergoing 2 cryogenic and pressure tests between late May and early June; now it’s likely being prepared for a third test! Today, we observed workers installing a valve assembly at the top of the test article and performing actuator maintenance, so we should closely monitor this progress!
At the production site, there was quite some activity since Gigabay work really kicked off! Sheet piles, long and vertical steel/concrete sections, were driven into the ground using vibration hammers… sheet piles are driven into the ground and temporarily left there to support excavation for future installation of foundations; following each sheet piling operation, excavators swooped in and did their work!
Inside Starfactory, a nosecone was seen undergoing pin welding for heat shield tiles: SpaceX uses an automated robot to weld the 18.000+ pins that will be used to attach the tiles that compose the heatshield… but why is this important? Well, with S38 having completed stacking in MB2, next up would be S39, which is allegedly the first Block 3 Ship! So if SpaceX followed their schedules right, then we are seeing pin installation on the first Block 3 Ship, and that is certainly cool!
Going out at Pad B, crews are working NON-STOP to finish work on the OLM and tower; specifically, they were seen working on the drawworks that hold the cable and winch for the chopsticks’ movement at the base of the tower.
June 10th - Tuesday
At the production site, sheet piles were driven into the ground all day long, with the same process as previously: clear the area, drive the sheet piles into the ground, and excavate. The area is swarming with machines to get Gigabay up as quickly as possible!
At Pad B, specifically at the so-called “pump farm,” the 8th LOX pump motor was installed in the morning: these electrical motors are used to power the pumps, which spin up the cryogenic propellants (in this case LOX) and push them at high flow rates (tens of thousands of liters per pump per minute) from the ground tanks to the rocket tanks!
In the afternoon, the last piece of the water manifold for Pad B’s OLM “pancake deck” was delivered and lifted off a truck: this manifold will be responsible for water-cooling the OLM deck during launches and catches, preventing damage from the exhaust plume and lowering the refurbishment time after the flights.
June 11th - Wednesday
At the production site, guess what? Yep, work continued with sheet pile driving! This operation, though repetitive, is essential to ensure safety during excavation, and foundations couldn’t be placed without it!
But in the background, hiding behind the vibration hammers, something went from Starfactory to MB1: it was a tube, but it likely is part of the internal plumbing of Booster 18, the first Booster of the next version! That suggests that work is progressing nicely ahead of a launch late this year or early next year.
A few hours later, the long-awaited A6:4 4-ring barrel was spotted going from Starfactory to MB1 for stacking atop B18, which is now 23 rings tall.
At the launch site, the 8th LOX pump was installed at Pad B’s pump farm following the installation of the motor the prior day. This pump will be used to spin and push cryogenic propellants from the ground tanks to the rocket tanks and is the 8th out of the 9 planned LOX pumps for Pad B. This means that they’re close to completing the LOX side of the pump farm, with the last pump expected to be installed by the end of June.
June 12th - Thursday
After some more final work during the night and the morning, the sheet pile driver rig left the production site, having completed its work on putting the sheet piles into the ground. Following this, excavators started their work, moving dirt aside and preparing for the installation of the foundations, as trucks loaded it and brought it away.
Meanwhile, work continued on both pads in order to prepare them for operations.
June 13th - Friday
The biggest and most interesting item of the day was the possibility of a rollout thanks to a road delay that popped up on the Starbase website; it was unclear whether it would be a Ship or a Booster that would roll, since both stands showed some activity during the day. SPMTs were put under the Ship’s static fire stand (also known as SFS or crab stand), suggesting a possible move of a Ship; but at the same time, the BTS (Booster Transport Stand) moved from the Rocket Garden to the Ringyard, suggesting a Booster move too… what will happen?
At the production site, many excavators dug following sheet pile installation, as they leveled the ground ahead of future foundations’ installation.
June 14th - Saturday
Most of the activity was conducted at the production site today, where groundwork is continuing ahead of foundations for the Gigabay. But something else caught our eye in the morning: the Ship’s crab stand (used for static fires) was moved in front of MB2, suggesting a Ship move. A road delay of an unspecified nature was posted on the Starbase website for early that night, but it was eventually rescheduled for early afternoon, and then it was rescheduled for the night between the 14th and the 15th. Our guess is that S36 will roll to Massey’s to perform a static fire, confirming the modifications that were installed on it are working. As a reminder, there are still some minor issues during ascent and prior to SECO (including burn-through of some parts of the skirt and nozzles), but the biggest challenge S36 will have to overcome is battling the loss of attitude control experienced by S35 during Flight 9, which prevented it from relighting the engine and surviving reentry; additionally, S36 will also have to verify the payload door’s functioning in space, something S35 couldn’t do.
Unfortunately, the road delay was once again rescheduled for early Sunday morning, which means we will cover it on next week’s Starbase Sunday.
At Pad A instead, workers conducted some kind of extensive work on the chopsticks, possibly preparing for a lift or an incoming round of catch simulations.
Raptor testing
June 8th
No Raptor tests were conducted today
June 9th
- Raptor South - 11:31:54 - 30s
- Raptor South - 11:32:35 - 2s
- Raptor South - 17:07:28 - 30s
- Raptor South - 17:08:12 - 2s
Total tests: 4
Total fire time: 64s / 1m4s
-Raptor South: 64s / 1m4s - 4 tests
June 10th
- Raptor horizontal - 14:33:24 - 1s
- Raptor south - 16:30:57 - 30s
- Raptor south - 16:31:41 - 1s
- Raptor vertical - 18:08:48 - 100s / 1m40s
Total tests: 4
Total fire time: 132s / 2m12s
-Raptor vertical: 100s / 1m40s - 1 test
-Raptor south: 31s - 2 tests
-Raptor horizontal: 1s - 1 test
June 11th
- Raptor south - 12:05:32 - 30s
- Raptor south - 12:06:14 - 20s
- Raptor south - 12:14:59 - 20s
- Raptor south - 12:15:30 - 1s
- Raptor vertical - 15:31:38 - 212s / 3m32s
- Raptor horizontal - 16:12:34 - 1s
Total tests: 6
Total fire time: 284s
-Raptor vertical: 212s / 3m32s - 1 test
-Raptor south: 71s / 1m11s - 4 tests
-Raptor horizontal: 1s - 1 test
June 12th
- Raptor south - 09:37:06 - 30s
- Raptor south - 09:37:46 - 20s
- Raptor south - 09:46:31 - 20s
- Raptor south - 09:47:02 - 2s
- Raptor horizontal - 11:56:17 - 84s / 1m24s
- Raptor south - 13:37:12 - 30s
- Raptor south - 13:37:53 - 20s
- Raptor south - 13:46:37 - 20s
- Raptor south - 13:47:09 - 1s
- Raptor vertical - 16:56:44 - 367s / 6m7s
- Raptor horizontal - 20:46:01 - 180s / 3m
Total tests: 11
Total fire time: 774s / 12m54s
-Raptor vertical: 367s / 6m7s - 1 test
-Raptor horizontal: 264s / 4m24s
-Raptor south: 143s / 2m23s - 8 tests
June 13th
- Raptor south - 09:31:19 - 30s
- Raptor south - 09:32:01 - 20s
- Raptor horizontal - 14:17:05 - 281s / 4m41s
- Raptor horizontal - 20:25:49 - 30s
- Raptor horizontal - 20:58:28 - 47s
Total tests: 5
Total fire time: 408s / 6m48s
-Raptor horizontal: 358s / 5m58s - 3 tests
-Raptor south: 50s - 2 tests
June 14th
- Raptor vertical - 10:05:21 - 99s / 1m39s
Total tests: 1
Total fire time: 99s / 1m39s
-Raptor vertical: 99s / 1m39s - 1 test
References
Starbase Live: 24/7 Starship & Super Heavy Development From SpaceX's Boca Chica Facility
McGregor Live: 24/7 SpaceX Engine Testing & Development for Starship and Falcon 9 Rockets
Starship Gazer (@StarshipGazer) / X
