Name: SpaceX Huge Hardware Upgrade! Shift To Starship Block 2 Way Quicker Than Expected?
Uploaded: 2024-09-18T08:39:49.000Z
Duration: 20 min 54 s
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SpaceX's first Block 2 ship is nearing completion.

Pad A finishes its latest round of catch testing.

My name is Felix, welcome to What about it!?

Starship Updates It has been a pretty big week for Starship Updates.

After the recent bombshell announcement that Flight 5 will be delayed until November at the earliest by the FAA, it's easy to think that things at Starbase may slow down.

Looking at the launch site, SpaceX has once again brought out its army of man lifts to Tower A following what was hopefully a successful testing regime.

All of this work is likely to make sure the upgrades and structural reinforcements made before these arms performed their most recent tests worked.

They also need to check, if they need to perform more work on the catch arms.

With the extra time SpaceX has now, they may decide it's a good idea to bring the punching bag, boost of 14.1 back out to the launch complex for a third round of testing.

While the FAA and EPA delay is an annoying thing for SpaceX, it also opens up larger changes made possible by the extra time.

Right now, it looks like teams will continue to perform upgrades and reinforcements ahead of Flight 5.

We can even see that SpaceX has installed scaffolding near the top of the tower.

Following the recent tests, SpaceX is likely to begin reinforcing this section.

Pad A has received a lot of attention given its upcoming flight test, but with the flight being delayed, it's likely SpaceX will turn its focus to its next generation of launch pads, which start with Pad B.

This new tower and pad combo has seen numerous upgrades from its predecessor, including a completely redesigned launch mount.

As much as the Block 2 Starships will bring significant upgrades, the new pad will bring the same.

Teams have continued working around the new launch mount, and most of the preliminary work on the ground is now likely completed.

We know this, because SpaceX workers have finally removed the pile driver, which was busy for months and used to install the sheet piles into the ground.

Next, we will likely see SpaceX begin excavating the area, where the flame trench will go, while adding the concrete walls for structure.

Our photographers were even able to spot what appears to be the beginning of this work with an excavator near a growing pile of dirt, where the flame trench will be.

Looking at the flame diverter that SpaceX built at Massey's as part of its static fire stand, we can see that after preliminary work was completed, the main structure of the diverter was built quite rapidly.

This is a bit of a different case, seeing as how it will be much larger and need to withstand much greater forces, although we should see a similar increase in speed.

It's even possible that by the next episode, we will start to see it look like a proper flame trench instead of just sheet pile lines on the ground.

Looking up from those lines on the ground to the tower, it looks like teams have made good progress across the structure.

Most of the work is being focused near the base of the tower, where SpaceX will install the drawworks motor to control the catch arms.

This will also house quite a bit of hardware needed to get fuel, oxidizer and nitrogen up to the SQD arm and to the ship.

This area needs to have much greater reinforcement than the rest of the tower, as during a launch this area is closest to the flames.

Fortunately for Tower B's engineers and mechanics, the upgrades to the launch mount including the addition of the aforementioned flame trench should go a long way in protecting this area from the majority of the flames and force of a launch.

However due to the pitch over maneuver that Starship performs at launch to avoid accidentally colliding with the tower, the flames often end up being pointed directly at the base.

It still needs to be greatly reinforced, because even if the forces are reduced, they are still extremely powerful, and the sheer size of Starship means they will still be much greater than what most other rocket launch towers will ever see.

Now, we finally see workers install the pipes in this section.

Pretty soon they'll have this new launch pad hooked up to the fuel farm.

I can't wait to see it ready to fill its first ship and booster.

Along with all of the work at the base of the tower, teams have also begun to finish up work on the massive CC 8800-1 crane, which is being used to construct it.

We watched as teams lowered this gigantic crane to the ground before removing its upper sections to decrease the height and increase stability.

This will allow the crane to be easier to work with as the extreme height is no longer needed.

Hopefully this crane will be raised back up in no time in preparation for installing this tower's catch arms, which should happen relatively soon.

At the rate all this work is being done, it is possible that this launch pad could be ready before Flight 5 even takes off.

Just as a reminder, it is normal for other launch providers to take years to build a launch pad from inception to first launch.

Let's head to the Sanchez site, where some of the elusive Flight 5 hardware currently resides.

Sanchez is used for long-term storage of equipment and parts that SpaceX will use later or for things that are no longer needed.

This includes the tower catch arms, which were moved over here a few months ago and we should soon begin to see workers prepping these to move to the launch site for installation.

Ship 30 has also been patiently waiting at Sanchez for its turn to fly for the past couple of weeks after it successfully completed its static fire campaign.

But since then, it's been nothing but crickets.

FAA and EPA have made sure that this will be the case for a while longer.

This creates a rather funny and surreal situation.

At this rate, other prototypes are quickly beginning to catch up with this rapidly aging Block 1 ship.

A while back, before all those delays, it was clear that wasting ships wouldn't make sense.

Is that still the case, now that there's plenty of time to finish the Block 2 ships?

Looking at Ship 33, the first Block 2 ship, which is currently in Mega Bay 2, work has rapidly progressed on this next generation prototype.

Currently, it's receiving final touches after its rapid stack over the course of a month.

In fact, on the night of the 14th, we saw SpaceX finally install this ship's aft flaps as they were lifted and attached.

This means that Ship 33 should now be further in development than Ship 32, which essentially confirms the ultimate fate of this seemingly forgotten Block 1 ship.

It's possible, we may even see Ship 33 rolled out for its first pressure tests any day now.

And Ship 33 isn't the only Block 2 prototype catching up with Ship 30.

Looking into the staff factory, thanks to the wonderful windows SpaceX installed, we can see that what is likely Ship 34's nose cone is nearing completion.

Teams have installed the first of its two forward flaps and should be installing the second one soon.

The rest of the sections of this prototype are likely not far behind.

We may even see this nose cone roll out and get stacked soon just like Ship 33's.

If that's the case, we may even have two Block 2 ships nearing completion or even complete by the time Ship 30 flies.

The speed SpaceX has been moving to build these prototypes is unmatched.

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As fast as SpaceX is building these new ships, the closest one to Ship 30 is obviously its twin, Ship 31.

It was built around the same time, and it is currently expected to be the ship for flight 6.

To make sure the ship is ready for its flight, SpaceX decided to begin its testing regime.

Originally, this ship was supposed to get its tiles replaced with the new stronger version.

However, teams decided to put that on hold and instead rolled this ship over to Massey's testing range.

Last episode we mentioned, that the ship had been filled with cryogenic methane and oxygen ahead of what we thought would be a static fire.

Except, Ship 31 did not end up performing any static fire test that day.

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SpaceX Huge Hardware Upgrade! Shift To Starship Block 2 Way Quicker Than Expected?

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