Tesla Energy backup helps SpaceX Starship Mk1 face down tornadoes, power outages

SpaceX’so called South Texas Starship centers and Mk1 prototype fell under danger of damage once weather – comprising tornadoes and heavy rain – affected the area in the wee hours of October 21st.

Having a healthy serving of fortune, SpaceX’s Boca Chica campus was able to escape unscathed, but much of the surrounding area lost electricity after high winds knocked down utility poles. Happily, one of the very first things SpaceX found in Boca Chica, Texas has been a Tesla solar selection and several Tesla Powerpacks.

The employees are busy working on Starship Mk1 in Boca Chica this morning. @NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/9MAAcArJSN

— Mary (@BocaChicaGal) October 21, 2019

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Sometime around 3am local time on October 21st, South Padre Island and Boca Chica, Texas were struck by a substantial thunderstorm, providing high winds and heavy rain across the region. That is far from unusual for all of the coastal areas lining the Gulf of Mexico, but it’s the primary (relatively) severe weather to reach SpaceX’s Starship build website in no less than a month or two.

We 're in trouble down here on #SouthPadreIsland #Texas @BocachicaMaria1 pic.twitter.com/KPd5YYLDaE

— LabPadre (@LabPadre) October 21, 2019

LabPadre and SPadre livestreams of SpaceX’s assemble website went after the storm kicked up and neighborhood commenters indicated that conditions had soured, raising some concerns about the wellbeing of locals in Boca Chica Village, as well as Starship Mk1 itself. As a result of power outages caused by wind damage to powerlines in the area the streams went down, but it seems that the majority of those outages were rectified within a day or so. LabPadre’s stream remains down but SPadre’therefore comes up and serving excellent live perspectives of thunderclaps and stormy weather.

Perhaps most importantly, neighborhood weather radar readings indicated two tornadoes touched down perhaps only a mile or less away from Starship Mk1 shortly after the storm kicked off, raising concerns which SpaceX’s assemble website might have endured a direct impact (or two). By all appearances, SpaceX’s Starship centre made it. Flooding was experienced by Regions of the website but matters had been otherwise unharmed and SpaceX promptly resumed work on Starship Mk1 after the storm died down. Just a couple hours so arrival, technicians installed the first heavy duty leg mounts onto Starship Mk1 and that work continued.

A stream of rainwater can be seen exiting the very top of Starship Mk1’s tank section after a mildly torrential downpour hours earlier. (10/21/19, NASASpaceflight – bocachicagal)

Weathered inhabitants of Boca Chica Village – found a stone’s throw away from SpaceX’s assemble website – were mostly unphased by the mild storm and the Village itself (and consequently SpaceX, too) could have only temporarily lost electricity. However, an unstable energy source is utterly unacceptable and dysfunctional for a large scale industrial manufacturing website such as SpaceX’s Starship facilities.Thankfully, SpaceX’s South Texas existence includes a substantial solar array and Tesla Powerpack installation, probably effective at ridding the firm ’s Starship construct website and communications antennas for hours in the event of a critical power outage. More likely than not, that neighborhood grid backup came from the grid at some point in handy last night, either completely supplanting or augmenting electricity.

SpaceX’therefore Boca Chica facilities incorporate a substantial solar array and many Tesla Powerpacks, used both to augment and completely back up neighborhood (and frequently iffy) grid electricity. (January 2018, NASASpaceflight – Nomadd)

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