Tag: super heavy

In the latest twist in the saga of SpaceX’s custom-built Starship launch pad propellant storage tanks, the company appears to have retroactively decided to build small prototype meant solely for testing. Known as a ‘test tank,’ the relatively small steel structure was fairly rapidly assembled from parts of an older Ground Support Equipment (GSE) tank…

Highlighted by a Wednesday jam-packed with important milestones, SpaceX appears to be shifting its focus in South Texas to the completion of Starship’s first orbital launch pad. Boca Chica will be the first time in its history that SpaceX has faced the challenge of (or had the opportunity to) build an orbital launch complex from…

Hours after SpaceX outfitted the first orbital Starship prototype with all six of its Raptor engines, the company has installed the vehicle’s nose section, effectively completing its basic structure. At the same time as teams are now working around the clock to weld Starship S20’s nose and tank sections together, SpaceX attached the first orbital-class…

A recorded address from SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell to a graduating class of college seniors unexpectedly teased progress building the 35 Raptor engines that will power Starship’s imminent orbital launch attempt. In a seemingly calculated move, the famous SpaceX executive’s prerecorded address included a glimpse of a screen on the factory floor tasked…

SpaceX has installed another prefabricated segment of a new Starship ‘launch tower,’ raising the skyscraper-sized framework to more than half its full height. Measuring some 86 meters (~280 ft) tall after the latest segment was craned on top, the growing launch tower is now the tallest structure SpaceX has ever built (or had built) –…

A local resident and unofficial SpaceX observer has reported hearing a test of one of Starship’s Raptor engines that lasted more than five minutes at the company’s McGregor, Texas development facilities. If accurate, it could be the longest static fire of a Starship engine that SpaceX has ever completed in the two years since full-scale…

For the very first time ever, SpaceX has stacked a Super Heavy tank segment to its entire height, effectively finishing assembly of the biggest rocket booster ever built. While a fantastic amount of work remains to weld both halves together and connect their preinstalled pipes and avionics runs, both these jobs are largely marginal and…

SpaceX has begun stacking a new section of the first Super Heavy prototype in the latest sign that work is accelerating on the boosters that will soon be tasked with boosting Starships out of Earth’s atmosphere. Local photographer and NASASpaceflight.com affiliate Mary (aka BocaChicaGal) posted the latest photo of Super Heavy production activity on January…

In a rare burst of visible activity, SpaceX’s South Texas Starship factory has begun fabricating a second Super Heavy booster and taken a significant step forward on the first prototype. Set to be the largest operational rocket stage ever built by more than a factor of two, Super Heavy is the booster tasked with launching…