SpaceX

I didn't know we had these threads on here!

There's a new (lord I hate the new name) thread from The Ringwatchers @Ringwatchers about the Hot Stage Load Head et al. Someone did an unroll and it's here. I haven't time at the moment to go over it in detail. It looks like two ring sections will be above and below, and they will be reinforced because they are irrelevant to the hot stage sieve. The Hot Stage Load Head has been reinforced in several ways; there are pictures. The assembly will go into the can crusher.

Have we seen any sign that B9 has been/is being modified with the additional hot-stage ring and the new FTS ? Right now, to me this seems to be the long pole, more than the OLM.

Starship Gazer @StarshipGazer 5:21 PM - Jul 20, 2023

New Booster Hot Staging section spotted earlier today. - 7/20/23 - https://starshipgazer.com

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

SpaceX made a prototype like this, with lots of vertical slits, and then scrapped it. It was suggested at the time that it might have been for hot staging. Well, that's looking more likely. The current article has the outlines of the vertical slits but they haven't been snipped out.

Static fire!

Announcements on the webcast:

• Test duration 2.74 seconds, with 4 engines shutting down prematurely.
• Vehicle and pad look good. Preparing for propellant offload.

SpaceTwitter 5:02 PM - Jul 27, 2023:

After initial activation, a full-pressure test of the new Starship flame deflector is planned for Friday

With it is a great picture, taken from a height, of the recent test.

So B9 is at the OLM ready to be lifted. Wonder if they’ll do so today or just let it stand there.

Tweets from Elon Musk @elonmusk.

7:51 PM - Jul 9, 2023: "3 more engines for the meaning of life." Meaning 42 Raptor engines total for Super Heavy and Starship together. It's with an upskirt photo of a Starship, though with 6 engines. I can't quickly find an authoritative statement of the configuration, but since 2021, it seems that people have been stating 3 sea-level gimballing engines in the center, and 6 Rvacs (vacuum Raptors) inside the circumference (so one added between each existing pair of RVacs for a hex array). Everyday Astronaut tweeted a reply at 8:57 PM - Jul 9, 2023, "So 33 on booster, 9 on ship. Which will be the first 6 X Vac ship?", so he seems to be thinking 6 RVacs.

The Ringwatchers @Ringwatchers have a 10-tweet thread (via threadreaderapp) analyzing it. They see a Hydraulic Power Unit: they say that, since S26 on and B9 on have the electric Thrust Vector Control system, this has to be a picture of S25. The engine shielding has been removed -- for inspections? for redesign? The COPVs have been removed too. There are other details, like the interior camera, the static firing stiffeners on the RVac (vacuum Raptor) engine bells to prevent damage from sea-level flow separation, et cetera.

Two Elon tweets in sequence:

• 12:35 AM - Jul 10, 2023 "Looks like we can increase Raptor thrust by ~20% to reach 9000 tons (20 million lbs) of force at sea level"
• 12:43 AM - Jul 10, 2023 "And deliver over 200 tons of payload to a useful orbit with full & rapid reusability. 50 rockets flying every 3 days on average enables over a megaton of payload to orbit per year – enough to build a self-sustaining city on Mars."

Edit for the record: Zack Golden @CSI_Starbase tweet on Jul 9 this picture. It showed Starship's config as mentioned above. But the 3 center gimballing sea-level engines are lined up with 3 of the 6 RVacs on the rim, which I think would slightly reduce their range of motion.

Musk replied 10:29 PM - Jul 9, 2023

Inner engine gimbal angle is limited in some directions, due to impacting outer engine nozzle, but probably ok

Booster 9 completed a successful spin prime: https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1687551185509888000

I hope we see a static fire and test of the deluge system soon!

NSF is live for today's static fire test: https://www.youtube.com/live/UFKKFt1CQW0

Not sure what to make of this crazy contraption: https://twitter.com/nasaspaceflight/status/1678949709661065217?s=46&t=Mj914Aam14loAYQOISZ9zQ

NASASpaceflight video of OLM Deluge plate installation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6PXHqOErvs

Chris Bergin - NSF @NASASpaceflight 1:24 PM - Jul 17, 2023

WOW! OLM Water Deluge System conducts its first full test! That was super impressive. No more rock tornados, I'd say!

http://nsf.live/starbase

I wonder whether the MP4 will attach here? ... edit: Nope, it seems not. See https://imgur.com/a/CQwvvl0 . Audio, but don't turn it up.

Edit 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgTqqGaU-Bg is a closer view from Starship Gazer @StarshipGazer, but with some unrelated chopstick stuff at the end apparently.

Edit 3: DRAT! I hang out in this thread, not the main group, and didn't see that @llamacoffee had posted "[Chris Bergin - NSF] WOW! OLM Water Deluge System conducts its first full test! That was super impressive. No more rock tornados, I’d say!" here.

Jack Beyer @thejackbeyer with NASA SpaceFlight on The Bad Place posted an image with << Looks like we have a hot staging test article on our hands! Label reads "B-11 FWD RETAIN / HOT STAGE LOAD HEAD". @NASASpaceflight >>

Tweet

Image of the lattice-work ring atop a couple of other rings

Image primarily of that label

Overpressure notice has been posted: https://twitter.com/bocachicagal/status/1688009513645821952?s=46&amp;t=Mj914Aam14loAYQOISZ9zQ

And they’re clearing the launch area quickly. I wouldn’t be surprised if static fire prop loading starts at beginning of the window (~7 hours from now?)

Checking The Other Place: chatter there about the massive cryogenic release yesterday.

"the PA mentioned a valve issue"

It’s LOX according to the guys who were sent in to try and close the valve and just happened to stop in front of Rover 2 to make their plan....

They were talking about whether to go in from the front (Hwy 4) or go around through the back.

It was Lox tank 1820. The big boy and they’d have to Spin That Valve

Then at the end it was, we’re going to punch thru, stay together, and if the monitor goes off, get out....

with someone's long explanation:

Short periods of around an hour in highly elevated oxygen levels at atmospheric pressure is not particularly toxic. You may feel slightly dizzy, and feel dryness in your throat making you cough. You don't want to stay too many sustained hours in it, as basically the natural antioxidants in your body will deplete and the oxygen will oxidise you, possibly leading to long term tissue damage. Especially the eyes, namely lens and retina.

What you don't want to be anywhere near whilst working in this environment is an ignition source. If something sparks up or becomes hot, such as an insecure light connection, or grease in a valve spindle, Everything instantly ignites. Living tissue, Everything, including most metals will burn intensely once the heat gets going.

The Apollo 1 deaths of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, who perished during a flash fire caused by an electrical spark in pure oxygen levels inside the crew capsule during a launch rehearsal made NASA redesign the whole system.

So several gather that there was only one big valve whose failure caused a complete dump, and they find a bit surprising to have a single point of failure.

SpaceX is live, with John Insprucker hosting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHxKhpFUOuo

So that looks like a successful cryo test. Think they still have closures for the next few days. They just finished pouring the last big plate so they might have to wait a few days before doing a static fire, but a spin prime test could be soon.

This whole campaign is going really quickly. Outstanding items are the hot staging ring and FAA approval though, who knows how long that takes.

Didn’t expect to see them ready this quickly; without the hot staging change they could have been ready end of the month.

New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

Starbase live-

1:54am- LR11000 disconnected from the y pipe

2:51am- Little crane lifts what appears to be a stand out of the pit

2:57am- What looks like a short piece of pipe is lifted into the pit

3:51am- Stand lowered into the pit

4:00am- LR11000 swings over and lowers it’s hook into the pit

4:39am- Grover lifts more rebar over for the cryo pit lid

4:50am- Another load of rebar is moved over

4:58am- 3rd load of rebar moved. That’s going to be one beefy lid

9:42am- Grover lifts what may be one of the extra deluge plate extensions over to the gap by the new stairs

9:59am- Swung back over to the side and sat down

10:07am- Grover lowers

11:14am- Concrete being cut

11:15am- Grover shows off and swings the extension plate back over to the OLM while lowered.

11:38am- Plate lowered. Lines go slack.

11:40am- Raised back up

11:47am- Lowered back down

11:57am- Picked back up and swung off to the side again

12:53pm- Generator removed from the pit

1:24pm- Basket goes up

1:31pm- LR11000 unhooks from whatever it was attached to (Most likely the Y pipe)

1:33pm- Basket goes down

2:07pm- Grover starts to remove it’s counter weights to move (Maybe to Masseys to lift B10?)

2:13pm- Grover removes more weights

2:18pm- More weights moved over to an SPMT

2:23pm- There goes another

2:24pm- LR11000 takes tension on its lifting straps

2:38pm- LR11000 lifts another deluge pipe. Grover removed 4 more weights

2:41pm- Pipe is raised higher and swung over OLM

2:48pm- Pipe starts lowering

2:58pm- Pipe is sat on the ground and the LR11000 is unhooked

2:59pm- Small crane hooks to the pipe

3:05pm- Pipe is swung over towards the left most manifold. So looks like it’s the left side of the Y. If the piece lifted early this morning was the right side, this should be the last piece to go around the OLM. Now we need the 2 feed pipes from the concrete bunker over.

3:05pm- At the same time, Grover lowers.

3:38pm- Grover drives away

4:43pm- The LR11000 drives away from the OLM

5:35pm- Small crane moves into the area that the LR11000 was sitting

7:34pm- Chopsticks lowered. Indicating all of the big lifts on the right side and behind the OLM are finished

8:04pm- Extension piece (?) lifted back over towards the OLM.

11:00pm- Pretty quiet evening from what we can see. I’m sure the welders are hard at work. I’ll be watching for more rebar to go in the pit to signify that they are done and the pipes are ready to be buried.

(This gets synced)

A tweet from Jack Beyer @thejackbeyer with a close-in picture (from the state park?) of the Orbital launch mount.

4:13 PM - Jul 14, 2023 'Just got shooed out of the dunes by a drone with a speaker on it because im “in the blast danger area for today’s test”. That’s a first. [emojus] @NASASpaceflight'

Edit: video here, visible to me even in incognito mode.

I think this was what was mentioned in the "New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:" thread just a bit ago, around "7:00pm".

Zack Golden @CSI_Starbase tweeted at 7:54 PM - Jul 15, 2023:

Pretty massive liquid nitrogen or liquid oxygen dump going on. Tough to tell which it is.

I can't remember ever seeing this occur before outside of a testing event.

Initially thought this was some sort of clean out process but the volume appears to be a bit excessive for that.

Bigger deluge test. WARNING: LOUD!

NASASpaceflight: SpaceX Starship Full-Pressure Deluge Test (YouTube). That has &t=2425s in there to start just before the test. That's video timestamp 40:25, wall clock at upper left 1:09:50. (Tweet)

RGV Aerial Photography (but at ground level) (YouTube). I like this because it's 3 different views, some zoomed in, some distant. (Tweet)

Andrew C - Rocket Future @TheRocketFuture tweet. A lot like the first. I tried to attach the video but Lemmy wouldn't take it.

SpaceX tweeted a couple of things. Picture from ground level and close: Full-pressure test of Starship flame deflector (Twitter). Video, up a bit, just outside the legs, slow motion (Twitter). You can see right down the bidet's butthole. This is the clearest shot showing that the intent is not to spray cold water on hot metal, but that it all looks angled to the sides.

(((Geoff))) @DeffGeff (Twitter) sped up the video to normal speed.

Video posted by He Who Musk Not Be Named, up and further away.

Marcus House @MarcusHouse 7:02 PM - Jul 28, 2023 (tweet) noted about the SpaceX image, "If you look closely, you can see that much of the water is shooting out in the exact pattern needed for the 33 engines. It is a real thing of beauty."

Oh, and Zack Golden @CSI_Starbase tweeted 1:26 PM CDT - Jul 28, 2023,

Wow! This full pressure test of the flame diverter system was pretty incredible! Crazy there is still an additional water tank missing from this.

I can't wait to see this during the first Static Fire test. Would not be surprised to see that as early as next week!

New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

Starbase live-

12:57am- Short piece of pipe lifted into the pit

7:27am- Rebar lifted over by the deluge area. No idea where this is going. Maybe just staging it for the OLM pit?

7:33am- More rebar lifted

7:40am- Possible metal imbed lifted

7:43am- Another imbed. Square piece of metal

7:49am- Another imbed. 90 degree angle piece

7:52am- Crane moving the rebar lowers

9:15am- Large straight rebar lifted over to the pit

9:22am- More rebar

10:26am- Crane on left side disconnects from whatever it was supporting. (Most likely the small section of pipe that was lifted in last night)

11:00am- Left crane lifts something into the pit. Can’t tell what it is

11:09am- Deluge pipe lifted over. Has to be one of the feed pipes coming in from the bunker.

11:47am- LR11000 lifts large metal frame to the ship QD. Looks like it went to the little side wing

1:09pm- More rebar lifted over

1:15pm- More rebar

1:26pm- More rebar

2:03pm- LR11000 goes for a walk

2:15pm- More rebar

2:24pm- Long reach excavator tamps down bottom of pit

2:54pm- More rebar

3:08pm- LR 11000 arrives next to S25

3:14pm- Load of scaffolding pieces lowered to the top of the OLM

3:31pm- More rebar moved

3:34pm- LR11000 picks up the squid

3:39pm- More rebar swung over

3:48pm- Squid swung over to S25

3:55pm- Lift goes up at S25

4:01pm- Workers start connecting the squid

4:22pm- Squid connected

4:23pm- Crane lowers something between OLM and OLT. Can’t see what though

4:43pm- Grover goes up in the background and moves 3 loads. Looks like the counterweight tray and 2 more counterweights

5:05pm- More rebar

5:45pm- Crane on the left side lifts deluge feed pipe and repositions it

6:20- Lift goes up at S25

6:29pm- Deluge pipe lifted out and sat by side of pit. Workers gather around the end

6:36pm- Lift at S25 goes down

6:37pm- Lift goes up to Chopsticks, near pivot point by the tower

6:43pm- Deluge pipe lifted back into the pit

6:49pm- Forklift drives under OLM

7:06pm- Appears to have another one of the plate extensions. Goes between cryo pipe leg and new stairs leg

7:39pm- Disconnected from the forklift

8:45pm- Scaffolding and tarps being set up under the OLM. The great weldathon continues.

9:15pm- Grover moves back closer to the deluge tank farm and starts lifting counterweights back on

10:02pm- Grover finishes stacking counterweights and turns towards the water deluge tank farm

(This gets synced)

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

[Thread #3 for this sub, first seen 10th Jul 2023, 13:20] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

More stuff relating to the hot staging system.

TheSpaceEngineer @mcrs987 provided a ~~tweet~~ Xpulsion:

Quick rendition of this new ring, it evidently has less material but has more space that could be used to incorporate stringers with the forward section of the booster

they could also do internal stringers and ribs inside the ring, similar to the ship aft skirt

Image 1

Image 2

They also provided an Xuding. I gather that the piece had been marked that:

so...that 'B12 Hot Stage Load Head' piece came back out of tent 2

THATS A LOT OF STRINGERS

Image

Someone asked, "why are they different from the stringers above? did they put stringers on stringers?". TheSpaceEngineer replied, "yes", with a zoom in on the middle, where they really did put larger stringers on top of existing stringers.

Booster 9 has been moved to the rocket garden.

https://twitter.com/nasaspaceflight/status/1681282819014705152

I wonder what that means for the next launch. Booster readiness seems like one of the top remaining items now, with the booster needing the hot stage ring for the ship to fit now. Will they do fit tests / static fires first? Or maybe prepare a different booster with the extra ring?

One other approach could be that the extra ring “clips on” the existing staging hardware. Would mean that no changes to the booster are necessary, and if they later decide not to risk hot staging they could possibly do a traditional staging approach, leaving the ring attached to the ship instead? Sounds pretty crazy but you never know.

The Booster Bidet got its first test. Looks like a lot of pressurized gas spewed out for about 40 seconds. The video can be seen on Twitter even without being logged in (currently) here. The video is from LabPadre, shown in a tweet by Zack Golden @CSI_Starbase 7:40 PM - Jul 12, 2023:

Much better angle of the purge test. This is a pretty intense amount of force that will be pushing out the water through steel blast surface!

Audio has been synced with @LabPadre Rover 2.0 camera.

Later,

This was no accident. Its a purging of the high pressure gas system

New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

Starbase live-

11:50pm- Lift that had been up at the chopsticks goes down

11:56pm- Lift goes back up to the chopsticks

12:00am- Lift goes back down

1:48am- Lift goes back up to the chopsticks

4:11am- Lift goes back down

6:29am- Basket up top of OLM

6:45am- 2nd segment of the 4th level of the new high bay lifted

7:01am- Basket down

7:30am- Basket up to the door at the top of the new stairs

7:31am- Large L shaped metal object (I think it’s a small diameter pipe) lowered into the pit

7:40am- Basket down

7:50am- Basket up top of OLM

8:19am- 2 lifts go up to the side of S25

8:33am- Basket down

8:53am- Basket up to the door

9:26am- Basket goes down

11:03am- Large L shape pipe that was lowered earlier is repositioned

11:55am- Lift goes back up to the chopsticks

12:21pm- Zoom in on the crew working on the chopsticks. Seem to be working on the hydraulics for the stabilizer arm

12:34pm- Looks like they removed the hydraulic ram

12:44pm- Lift moves over to the other side of the stabilizer arm

1:05pm- Lifts go down at S25. Access hatch is open and vent tube installed

2:25pm- Lift back up at S25

3:38pm- Square piece of metal lifted to the top of the OLM

4:35pm- Concrete pump truck seen in background. Checked Nerdle cam and it looks like it was pouring around the high pressure tanks for the deluge earlier and now it’s over by the old landing pad.

4:40pm- Another piece of metal lifted to the top of the OLM

5:33pm- Pumper truck folds up to leave

6:12pm- Lift goes up to top of chopsticks

6:33pm- 2nd lift goes up to the stabilizer arm

6:46pm- First lift goes down

7:03pm- 1 of the lifts at S25 goes down

7:07pm- Lift at the stabilizer arm goes down. No sign of a new hydraulic piston

7:16pm- Both lifts go back up

7:25pm- Top lift goes back down. Looks like they are just inspecting

7:51pm- Lift at the stabilizer arm goes down. Was working in the piston area but SBL zoomed out and went on a tour

9:18pm- Lift goes up to the side of the drawworks shed. Whoever was hoping that they would replace the shielding soon might be in luck.

10:03pm- Lift at the drawworks goes down. There was definitely sparks flying like they were starting to cut something.

10:46pm- Lift was back at the drawworks shed. Looks like they tried a different method of cutting and then went back down

11:00pm- Concrete pump truck arrives at the right side of the cryo pipe pit. Time to finally pour it’s lid?

11:05pm- Pump unfolds

12:07pm- First concrete truck is at the pump and the arm folds out towards the far side of the cryo pipe trench. The lid it is.

(This gets synced)

NSF is live for today's testing: https://www.youtube.com/live/KkZAWzFE5Wg

New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

Starbase Live-

1:12am- S25 starts rolling

1:20am- Turns on to Hwy 4

2:08am- Turns on to to Remidos

2:19am- Arrives at the rocket garden

7:32am- Sheriff at road block

7:52am- FireX test

8:07:20- Deluge test/system prime

8:09am- Pope stack starts venting

8:15:33- Igniter test

8:29am- Grid fin tests

8:50am- NSF going live

9:42am- Booster venting it’s ambient pressure

10:35am- Sub coolers are off. Working a problem in the OTF?

10:39am- Workers head to pad/ Roadblock still in place

10:42am- Ship puck shucker headed back to Masseys

11:00am- Workers at the generator by the Lox sub coolers

11:04am- Pope stack firing back up

11:32am- Workers starting to leave pad

11:35am- All 3 vehicles leave. Pad clear again

11:44am- Lox subcoolers going again

12:15pm- OLM vent

12:53pm- Frost forming on the methane sub coolers

1:01pm- Waterfall mode on the OLM vent. We’re getting close to fueling

1:03pm- OLM vent stopped. Prop load should be underway. Around 90 minutes to test possibly

1:06pm- Engine chill underway

1:08pm- New engine cavity purge vents going

1:09pm- Frost forming quickly

1:10pm- Lox chill pit active

1:18pm- Methane frost line forming

2:02pm- Drone

2:05pm- OLM vent. Loading complete

2:08pm- FireX / Deluge / Fire (Lots of steam)

2:10:30- Deluge stops

2:12pm- Depress vent

2:41pm- Pad looks good but they are going to need some new fencing

3:17pm- Engine compartment and Deluge plate purge

3:47pm- Another purge from the new engine compartment vents

3:53pm- Big depress vent (That should be it)

4:55pm- OLM vent

5:00pm- Road open

6:16pm- OLM vent finally ends

7:59pm- 3 SPMT’s headed to launch site with counterweights and connectors. B9 coming back?

8:04:32pm- SPMT down! Looked like a hydraulic failure? Front went up, back all the way down and to the left where the weight was. They got it leveled back out and going pretty quick though.

9:22pm- Workers return to pad

9:28pm- 3 workers kneel down to look at one spot on the plate

9:48pm- After checking the rest of the pad, they came back for a second look at the one spot

10:15pm- Workers headed up the stairs to check the inside of the OLM

10:21pm- Exit the OLM and drive away

10:52pm- Lift goes back up at OLM (New door)

(This gets synced)

New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

Starbase live-

12:36am- Lift goes up to the stabilizer arm again

12:47am- Lift goes down

1:26am- Lift back up at the draw works shed. Sparks flying

2:02am- Lift go up to S25

2:43am- Lift at S25 goes down

3:47am- Lift at the draw works goes down. About half done.

5:20am- Pump truck folds up. Pour done

6:54am- Lift back up at the draw works shed

8:08am- Lift goes back down. About 3/4 done.

8:11am- New medium lift crane arrives at the right side of OLM

8:18am- Lift back up at S25 and right back down after a few minutes

8:53am- Piece of equipment lifted to the top of the OLM. (Blue, boxed shape, not quite sure what it was)

9:06am- Lift goes back up to the draw works

9:13am- Another piece of equipment is lifted to the bottom of the Cryo pipe leg.

9:47am- 2 lifts go up to S25

9:55am- Small rectangular piece of metal lifted to the top of the OLM

10:14am- Piece of metal that was just lifted is removed

10:21am- Lift at the draw works goes down

10:31am- Lift goes back up

10:32am- Piece of metal goes back up. Needed some fine tuning?

10:41am- Similar shaped piece gets lifted up

10:55am- 3rd piece of metal goes up

11:15am- Piece of pipe lifted up to the new door

11:34am- Another piece of pipe goes up

11:42am- Lifts go down at S25

11:58am- Lift at the draw works goes down

12:16pm- Lift goes back up at S25

1:16pm- Lift goes back up to the draw works shed

3:30pm- Short piece of metal beam lifted to the top of the OLM.

3:57pm- Basket goes up to the new door

4:05pm- Basket goes down

4:41pm- Lift at the draw works shed goes down. Looks like all of the damaged siding is now removed. (Took a total of 9 hours and 44 minutes to remove it)

5:26pm- Forklift lowers sheet of metal into the deluge feed pipe pit

7:24pm- Purge of the deluge pressure system

8:03pm- Lifts at S25 have gone down

8:04pm- Next mega bay section and booster stand are on the move

8:19pm- Cop at the roadblock? Stopped traffic long enough for the booster stand to move down Hwy 4 and turn on Eichorn

8:37pm- Booster stand went over for storage by the raptor install stand

8:47pm- Lifts go back up to S25

(This gets synced)

New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

Starbase live-

5:59am- Sheriff at road block

6:05:45- FireX tested

6:27am- Chopsticks rising

7:25am- Extremely loud vent

8:28am- OLM vent

9:43am- OLM vent stops. Loading should be starting

9:49am- Engine chill pipe frosty and condensation under booster

9:53am- Frost line on lox tank

10:02am- OLM vent back. Propellant load could be finished

10:09am- FireX seems to start but just trickles.

10:12am- FireX

10:13am- Spin prime. Video

10:16am- Depress vent

11:00am- Frost free

12:25pm- OLM vent starting up again

12:46pm- Frost line on the lox tank. Looks they are going for it again

1:07pm- Big OLM vent

1:13pm- Vent stopped again

1:32pm- Depress vent?

1:47pm- Frost receding

2:12pm- Cables being attached on the can crusher.

2:14pm- New vents around the aft skirt tested

2:35pm- Another long depress vent

3:47pm- Road opened

4:45pm- SQD extends

5:20pm- OLM vents

5:30:20pm- Another test of the new vents

5:43pm- OLM vent ends

10:26pm- S28 starts rolling at Masseys

10:58pm- Turns on to Hwy 4

(This gets synced)

Goodnight, sweet ~~prince~~ SN15. LabPadre videoed it being taken apart in a twxt here.

YouTube: Starship | SN15 | Flight Test Recap

o7

Not a lot reported today. Cute picture from RGV Aerial Photography @RGVaerialphotos 12:37 PM - Aug 1, 2023. "Highway to Mars"!

New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

Starbase Live-

(Tornado= Raptor QD Spin up test)

11:21:21pm- Tornado

11:35pm- Small (No tornado)

11:40:45pm- Tornado

11:55:13pm- Small (No tornado)

12:08:19am- Tornado

12:31:14am- Tornado

1:01:04am- Tornado

1:16:54am- Small (No tornado)

1:19:37am- Tornado

1:52:47am- Tornado

1:55am- Depress vent?

3:56am- Workers back at pad

8:50am- Crane lifts a bunch of boards out from beside the OLM

9:15am- Basket goes up. Center

9:33am- Crane lifts something with a lot of cables hanging off of it

5:25pm- Lots of people working on top of the OLM but the cranes and lifts have been silent today

6:00pm- Intermittent closure starts. NSF in SBL chat says that Jack is reporting sheriffs at the launch site. So maybe more testing instead of something moving?

6:20pm- Pope stack is venting (Going back and looking, I’m pretty sure it was just the pope stack and not the OLM like people were saying)

7:00pm- Seems like a full test/purge of the cryo lines

7:08pm- Can’t tell if that’s the new purge line or if there is just a massive leak

7:20pm- Launch site cloaking device engaged

7:29:10- People were reporting a bang. I can hear a slight pop but NSF’s mic is so far away that I don’t know if I’d put much faith in it being anything.

7:30pm- Venting seems to be letting up some

7:34pm- Pope stack is going again

8:00pm- Still venting. Seems to die off some and then pick back up

8:30:42- Sounds like a cell phone ringing. So I think you have to discount all of the bangs and pops

9:28:53- Drone comes out of lox cloud

10:36pm- Really starting to die off. Tank finally getting empty?

10:53pm- Down to a trickle at the beach but still a significant cloud by the actual tanks

11:16pm- Vent still going but small enough for people to return to the pad and people to leave the beach

Rover 2-

20:43:40- Something is definitely wrong. 4 person red team shows up in 2 carts and makes their plans on how they are going to punch thru and get to the big lox tank and spin the shutoff valve. Stick together and get out if the monitor goes off. The banging and popping sounds like a warning klaxon on here.

21:08- One guy walks out and a pick up shows up

21:10- Pick up leaves the pad

21:12- 2 more guys walk out on their cell phones

21:32- 47 minutes later, I’m going to guess they couldn’t get the valve to shut.

21:51- Lots of honking. It seems people are trapped on the beach.

21:54- Lab switches R2’s feed to R3 and we lose the microphone

(This gets synced)

New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

Starbase Live-

12:33am- S28 arrives at rocket garden

1:05am- Lift goes up to hook the crane to S28

1:06am- Workers return to the OLM

6:55am- 2 Concrete trucks pull in at the OLM

7:06am- 3rd concrete truck

7:09am- S25 lifted off of the suborbital pad

7:15am- Set down on the transport stand

7:19am- 4th concrete truck. Pouring somewhere behind the doghouse by the OLT

8:12am- S28 lifted on to the raptor install stand

11:09am- B9’s transport stand is moved over to the sub orbital pad area

11:56am- Last segment of the 5th level of the new mega bay lifted

2:12pm- Workers disconnecting S25 from the crane

2:21pm- Worker cleaning off the top of the raptor install stand

2:42pm- Workers cleaning under the OLM and pressure washing the deluge plate

5:55pm- Squid finally disconnected from S25

8:25pm- Raptor install stand moves from behind S25 to in front of it. Looks like it might roll back tonight as well

(This gets synced)

New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

Starbase live-

9:45am- Work continues on the OLM and B9. The squid was disconnected from S25 and reinstalled again overnight. Workers are working on one of the tracking dishes. No signs of anything ready to roll 45 minutes into the current closure.

2:06pm- 26.1 aft skirt being lifted onto the hot stage test article at Massey’s.

3:47pm- Top of can crusher lifted on to the hot stage test article

4:28pm- Vent hose removed from B9

5:16pm- Lox hatch being reinstalled on B9

10:00pm- Work continues on the OLM, Chopsticks, and the SQD. 2 more inspection plates were reinstalled on the cryo leg while the cameras were focused on Massey’s. That leaves 3 to go but the top 2 look like the scaffolding will have to be removed before they can go back on.

(This gets synced)

An unusual test object (?) has caused some discussion, it seems, like in https://lemmy.world/comment/1154582 from @[email protected]

The Ringwatchers @Ringwatchers had a long thread today analyzing the situation. threadreaderapp unroll here.. Their TL;DR: "Ship 24.2 will be a 7-ring tall article composed of 3 main sections: a top ring with a dome and 24 external attachment points, a Ship Payload Bay that features a PEZ dispenser rack, and a bottom ring with a hatch in the side.", designed nicely to fit into the nosecone cage / can crusher, and the nosecone cage structure has been modified to fit it.

New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

Starbase live-

8:08am- 2 SPMT’s with counterweights headed to Massey’s. It was a slow night at the OLM as far as lifts going up.

11:59am- Dance floor lowered on to its carrier

12:28pm- Rolling out from under the OLM

2:23pm- 3rd section of the 5th floor of the new mega bay is lifted

3:09pm- Clear pad announcement

4:56pm- Pope stack venting

5:30pm- Venting can be heard and lifts are up at S25

5:54pm- S28 getting frosty at Masseys

6:02:32pm- Something went bang on both SBL and Rover 2. (18:02:28 on Rover 2. Not quite as loud as on SBL)(One of the mods on SBL said it was just a dumpster lid. Which Jack was out there according to his Instagram. On Rover 2 though, 2 people look up towards the OLM and back away.)

7:09:13pm- B9 igniter test

7:20pm- S28 full frosty

9:15pm- S28 still holding at full frost

11:10pm- Frost on S28’s methane tank decreasing

(This gets synced)

New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

Starbase Live-

11:50pm- Lift goes up to chopsticks. Work continues on the stabilizer arms

1:23am- Blue box looking piece of equipment that was lifted to the top of OLM yesterday is brought back down

2:33am- Concrete pump truck goes up and extends between OLM and OLT

3:28am- Tarp goes up at the draw works shed. Sparks fly. It looks like some of the cross beams are being removed

8:15am- The boom on the concrete pumper has not moved since it was set up

8:36am- Big section of black tarp set up at the base of the OLM

9:01am-Boom on the concrete pumper retracts some

9:36am- Zoom in on the end of the pump truck boom shows it in the deluge pipe pit

10:10am- Pumper truck retracts

10:16am- Workers back up at the damaged water tank shell. Yeah the tank doesn’t exactly sit flush with the straight edge they hold up

10:28am- Pumper truck extends back out

10:35am- Basket goes up too top left side

12:34pm- Pump boom is all the way over by the 3rd manifold. They may be finishing up the concrete under the OLM.

12:50pm- Back up working on the stabilizer arms

1:50pm- Pump truck folds up

2:10pm- New crossbeam is being risen to the draw works shed

3:02pm- You can see all 3 access hatches on S25 have been opened

4:09pm-Zoomed in shot shows that the concrete is up to the top of the wooden forms around the OLM

4:25pm- It looks like they may have back filled over the deluge feed pipes and now they’re just trying to work on the correct grade

4:57pm- Forklift brings in what looks like a giant toy top to a work station set up by the OLT

5:32pm- Forklift removes some large hoses from same work station

6:11pm- Forklift lifts a circular hatch. Moves it to the other side of the OLT

6:35pm- 3 lifts up at the access hatch to S25’s methane tank

7:30pm- Upper cross brace removed from the draw works shed

7:53pm- Cutting torch comes out at the shed

8:58pm- Sparks flying, welders welding. Slow day for cranes and lifts but no doubt lots of work is still getting done.

(This gets synced)

New road closures for August 4th, 6th, and 7th!

"No Starship launch soon, FAA says, as investigations — including SpaceX's own — are still incomplete", bylined Eric Killelea, Staff Writer for the San Antonio Express-News.

The FAA, which is overseeing an investigation into the April 20 launch, said Wednesday it was still awaiting the report it needs to identify corrective actions SpaceX must take to get the OK to launch again from Boca Chica.

An FAA spokesperson declined to speculate when the agency’s investigation might be completed, saying that “public safety and actions yet to be taken by SpaceX will dictate the timeline.”

“The FAA will not allow a return to flight operations until it determines that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety or any other aspect of the operator’s license,” the spokesperson said. “The mishap investigation is ongoing.”

Speculation in The Other Place is that the FAA is not worried about the rock tornado, but likely most worried about the Flight Termination System (specifically the long time lag between firing and actual destruction), and the steering failing.

The article also mentioned about the environmental lawsuit, but it has no new information on that.

I wasn't sure whether to put this at top level or in here. At the moment it's unclear what the impact might be, so I'll squirrel it away in here.

"SpaceX hasn't obtained environmental permits for 'flame deflector' system it's testing in Texas"

But they don't provide evidence that the bidet's output is a regulated chemical, whether "industrial process water" or "stormwater".

In an email to CNBC, a spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the state's environmental regulator, confirmed that as of July 28, SpaceX had not applied for what is called a Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (TPDES) permit at its Starbase facility. The regulator said the SpaceX site has previously attained three stormwater permit authorizations....

The representative for TCEQ told CNBC that the regulator "recommends applications be submitted at least 330 days before the proposed construction of a wastewater treatment facility." Stormwater permits take far less time to process.

The people quoted are that spokesperson, but also ESGHound, who is notorious for anti-SpaceX hit pieces, and the lead counsel for the recent environmental lawsuit against the FAA.