Starbase: Boca Chica/Brownsville SpaceX Site

[Grendal]

Here is a thread covering the upcoming Boca Chica Texas launch site. This will be SpaceX's fourth launch site and the only one that they own and completely control. The other launch sites are:

SLC-40 at Cape Kennedy in Florida
LC-39A at Cape Canaveral in Florida
SLC-4E at Vandenberg AFB in California

The site has only been moved dirt up until now and a lot has been done to the site in recent months. There is a big tracking dish in the background on the right. This building is called the Stargate building.

 

[ecarfan]

Wow, thanks for starting this thread and posting that photo. I have been wondering about that site.

How did you get that photo? I assume you did not travel to Boca Chica TX. But knowing your location, and your enthusiasm for SpaceX, maybe you did...

 

[TLej]

@Grendal Thanks for all the SpaceX posts - saves me a lot of random searching and I find many things in your posts I would never have heard of otherwise. Appreciated.

BTW, how many chevrons will the Stargate building have when complete?

 

[Grendal]

Wow, thanks for starting this thread and posting that photo. I have been wondering about that site.

How did you get that photo? I assume you did not travel to Boca Chica TX. But knowing your location, and your enthusiasm for SpaceX, maybe you did...

There is a Boca Chica SpaceX Facebook group that posts a lot of stuff to the SpaceX Public Facebook page. This is one of their recent postings. I have a lot of free time at work to see the various sources of information and share them here. All the credit for the work goes to the Boca Chica people that post information and pictures and allow me to repost them here.

 

[ecarfan]

Found that FB group at Space X Boca Chica Beach,Texas! The Southernmost Tip Of Texas Public Group | Facebook

Looks like good progress at Boca Chica!

In that FB group someone posted this photo of what I assume is the Crew Dragon test capsule at KSC in Florida. I had not seen this photo before. Pretty cool.

 

[Grendal]

@Grendal Thanks for all the SpaceX posts - saves me a lot of random searching and I find many things in your posts I would never have heard of otherwise. Appreciated.

BTW, how many chevrons will the Stargate building have when complete?

My pleasure. The ongoing statement from SpaceX insiders is that they expect the Boca Chica site to come online in 2018.

The standard amount of chevrons but the gate address is a closely held secret.

Since SpaceX has a lot of nerdy geeky people, I wouldn't be surprised if the completed building has life sized Stargate somewhere on the premises.

 

[Mike1080i]

My pleasure. The ongoing statement from SpaceX insiders is that they expect the Boca Chica site to come online in 2018.

The standard amount of chevrons but the gate address is a closely held secret.

Since SpaceX has a lot of nerdy geeky people, I wouldn't be surprised if the completed building has life sized Stargate somewhere on the premises.

Their program logo/patch is styled in a familiar looking shape.

UTRGV - The Spacecraft Tracking and Astronomical Research into Giga-hertz Astrophysical Transient Emission (STARGATE)

 

[ICUDoc]

I'd never been aware of this launch site before I saw this thread- cool pics and info, thanks all!
Why does Spacex need another site? Looks expensive to build!
The Dragon photo is awesome.
(Really looking forward to the launch in a couple of days time - SpaceX RTF FTW!!)

 

[Mike1080i]

I'd never been aware of this launch site before I saw this thread- cool pics and info, thanks all!
Why does Spacex need another site? Looks expensive to build!

There are a few reasons, but one is that they will get slightly more performance flying GTO missions out of Boca Chica, TX. At 26 degrees North latitude it is 2.5 degrees closer to the equator than Cape Canaveral, FL. That means a bit more 'free' velocity provided by the Earth's rotation, so for the same propellant more payload mass can ride to orbit.

 

[Grendal]

Boca Chica has been delayed one year and is now expected to be completed in 2019.

Peter B. de Selding on Twitter

Gwynne Shotwell of @SpaceX: Our Texas site still doing landscaping, could be avail in ~ 2 yrs; no rush given our capacity at two Fla pads.

 

[ecarfan]

Interesting article here SpaceX: Progress ongoing at Boca Chica site, second antenna added

That article states that on SpaceX’s property at Boca Chica “no concrete has been poured other than the antenna bases and no structures have been erected”. This thread started with a post by @Grendal showing a photo of the steel frame of a building going up. Is that on SpaceX property?

The article also talks about the “STARGATE Technology Park” which is a public/private partnership between SpaceX and U of Texas, which sounds like a future project on land adjacent to the SpaceX land. Maybe that building is not on SpaceX property? If so, it seems a bit premature...

 

[Grendal]

Interesting article here SpaceX: Progress ongoing at Boca Chica site, second antenna added

That article states that on SpaceX’s property at Boca Chica “no concrete has been poured other than the antenna bases and no structures have been erected”. This thread started with a post by @Grendal showing a photo of the steel frame of a building going up. Is that on SpaceX property?

The article also talks about the “STARGATE Technology Park” which is a public/private partnership between SpaceX and U of Texas, which sounds like a future project on land adjacent to the SpaceX land. Maybe that building is not on SpaceX property? If so, it seems a bit premature...

Considering SpaceX had to get Texas to give them land, a minor amount of money, and all the permits needed to create this launch site, I expect that Texas asked for some payback in the form of an educational technology center. SpaceX is going to need a lot of well educated workers to run this site too. So working with Texas to get plenty of local workers and interns would be a win-win for Texas and SpaceX.

So I'm guessing the Stargate building is a long term political investment that came along with the Boca Chica launch site.

 

[ecarfan]

I'm guessing the Stargate building is a long term political investment that came along with the Boca Chica launch site.

Okay, interesting thought, I had not considered that.

Looking forward to seeing more SpaceX construction at Boca Chica!

 

[rabar10]

Mod note: moved a couple posts to the existing Video: Pad Abort Test thread, to keep this one specific to the Boca Chica site.

 

[Grendal]

Gwynne Shotwell told a reporter that SpaceX plans to focus on building plans at Boca Chica in late 2018 and early 2019.

Eric Berger on Twitter

Article speculating and more details on Boca Chica site:

SpaceX could begin testing its Mars rocket in Texas by late 2018, early 2019

 

[ecarfan]

The most interesting part of that article in my opinion was this:

“While the phrasing cannot provide absolute confirmation, Berger summarized a statement by Shotwell suggesting that SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas launch site, currently in the early stages of construction, could be ready to host “vehicle tests” as soon as late 2018, early 2019. At this point in time, based on comments from Shotwell and CEO Elon Musk, it can be reasonably assumed that SpaceX’s Texas launch facilities will be dedicated mainly to the company’s interplanetary colonization efforts, and will probably be tailored to support the testing and eventual launches of BFR/BFS.”

I do not assume that “vehicle tests” means launches. There is no pad there right now, just a big pile of dirt. But what else could it mean?

 

[Grendal]

The most interesting part of that article in my opinion was this:

“While the phrasing cannot provide absolute confirmation, Berger summarized a statement by Shotwell suggesting that SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas launch site, currently in the early stages of construction, could be ready to host “vehicle tests” as soon as late 2018, early 2019. At this point in time, based on comments from Shotwell and CEO Elon Musk, it can be reasonably assumed that SpaceX’s Texas launch facilities will be dedicated mainly to the company’s interplanetary colonization efforts, and will probably be tailored to support the testing and eventual launches of BFR/BFS.”

I do not assume that “vehicle tests” means launches. There is no pad there right now, just a big pile of dirt. But what else could it mean?

Yeah. I got that too. However, building an entire launch site from scratch seems a bit ambitious to achieve in only one year. BFR would need something even more substantial than LC-39A. There is no pressure at all on the launch schedule with SLC-40 and LC39A up and running to push for Boca Chica to come online anytime too soon. So my instincts are saying that they are misinterpreting Shotwell on this. Maybe some sort of testing will happen but I doubt it is any sort of launching. Historically, Boca Chica is supposed to be able to launch all SpaceX vehicles and I think that will be true. It really makes sense for BFR since launching out of Florida means more oversight than SpaceX might need for Boca Chica.

 

[jkn]

I do not assume that “vehicle tests” means launches. There is no pad there right now, just a big pile of dirt. But what else could it mean?

BFR 1. stage is larger version of F9 that uses different fuel and engines. First tests could be soon. Re-entry of BFS is new tech (much larger than Dragon), but BFS could do grasshopper style tests soon. They could plan tests for end of this year and actually do at end of 2019.

 

[Sean Wagner]

SLC-40 at Cape Kennedy in Florida
LC-39A at Cape Canaveral in Florida

Thank you for all the well-informed updates. If I may haggle with the details on this one:
Kennedy Space Center [KSC] is situated on Cape Canaveral.

 

[bxr140]

Thank you for all the well-informed updates. If I may haggle with the details on this one:
Kennedy Space Center [KSC] is situated on Cape Canaveral.

Cape Kennedy is actually a new one for me.

I’ve always used CCAFS and KSC to describe the locations of SLC 40 (and 41) versus the 39’s, landing strip, etc.