Starbase: Boca Chica/Brownsville SpaceX Site

[JB47394]

Is the pile driving equipment at the left side of this image located where the new OLM/launch tower will be built?

Yes, that's the expectation. RGV said that the vehicle is drilling holes for rebar cages, but the holes are being covered over with dirt. The rebar cages are visible to the lower left of the vehicle, and there's even a crane on site to lift them, but I guess they don't have access to the concrete pouring hardware so they have to wait.

For reference, that black wall is the one with the GATEWAY TO MARS sign (no idea why it's black on this side). I won't at all be surprised to see that torn down. Stuff doesn't seem to last long around Starbase.

 

[JB47394]

Another Starship Gazer image showing the lines that deliver various gases up the launch tower. This image is from section 3 of the second launch tower, currently staged for road transport from Brownsville to Starbase.

GOX is gaseous Oxygen and GN2 is gaseous Nitrogen. MEOP is maximum expected operating pressure.

There's a 30 BAR GCH4 line to the right of these. I'm guessing that the 400 bar lines are the supplies and the 30 bar are the returns.

400 bar is 5800 psi.

There are two slender Argon lines on the left. The one just cut off is 100% Argon and the visible one is 75% Argon. For welding, apparently.

There is also a Helium line.

 

[scaesare]

Another Starship Gazer image showing the lines that deliver various gases up the launch tower. This image is from section 3 of the second launch tower, currently staged for road transport from Brownsville to Starbase.

View attachment 1048350

GOX is gaseous Oxygen and GN2 is gaseous Nitrogen. MEOP is maximum expected operating pressure.

There's a 30 BAR GCH4 line to the right of these. I'm guessing that the 400 bar lines are the supplies and the 30 bar are the returns.

400 bar is 5800 psi.

There are two slender Argon lines on the left. The one just cut off is 100% Argon and the visible one is 75% Argon. For welding, apparently.

There is also a Helium line.

Interesting... I'm assuming the tank fill plumbing is carrying superchilled liquid CH4 and O2, so are these for spinning up engines, or more for things like purging the system prior to launch?

 

[JB47394]

Interesting... I'm assuming the tank fill plumbing is carrying superchilled liquid CH4 and O2, so are these for spinning up engines, or more for things like purging the system prior to launch?

The Nitrogen would be for purging, and the Oxygen and Methane may be for tank pressurization prior to launch (autogenous pressurization requires running engines). To get engine restarts (e.g. boostback, on-orbit, etc), they use helium-pressurized header tanks. Those tanks have a much smaller void to pressurize, so a relatively small amount of helium is needed. Once the engines are started, they can provide autogenous pressurization of the main tanks.

 

[ecarfan]

For reference, that black wall is the one with the GATEWAY TO MARS sign (no idea why it's black on this side). I won't at all be surprised to see that torn down. Stuff doesn't seem to last long around Starbase.

Yes, the concrete covered berm that was between the sub-orbital pads and their tank farm is being/or has been demolished. I thought SpaceX might keep it as a barrier between the new OLM and its tank farm… but nope.

 

[ecarfan]

Starbase Point-to-Point terrestrial transport system. Fully electric, of course.

 

[ecarfan]

New ars Technica article about SpaceX plans in Florida included this bit about Starbase Texas:

"This is now going to be a permanent location for us to be producing and launching vehicles," said Kathy Lueders, SpaceX's general manager at Starbase, in a talk earlier this week. SpaceX is also putting in an office building for SpaceX employees at Starbase.
"Then, we'll probably be in the process of building another high bay," she said. "We are building a second pad right now, too. All of this is to get us ready to be able to start meeting the production and launch rate that we need to be able to accomplish our missions."

 

[JB47394]

NSF used FAA documents to figure out that the marked rectangular area is the site of the second launch tower (the document just gives a point location). You can see the remains of suborbital pad B just to the right (a ring of concrete supports), and the dirt strip between the two areas that used to be a concrete-covered berm. There's a transport ring roughly in the location of suborbital pad A.

 

[ecarfan]

NSF used FAA documents to figure out that the marked rectangular area is the site of the second launch tower

Thanks for posting that image. There was some discussion on the stream today about whether a second tank farm and water deluge system would be built or if the existing GSE would also support the second tower. My guess is that a second farm and deluge system will be constructed, partly because it seems additional areas are being prepared next to the new tower site.

 

[JB47394]

My guess is that a second farm and deluge system will be constructed, partly because it seems additional areas are being prepared next to the new tower site.

Here's a current photo of the launch site to see the size of the current tank farm and the area available for a new one. They won't have any problems putting in a new tank farm, especially when we subtract the space used by the remaining vertical tanks from the current farm.

The NSF guys were suggesting that the area at the far left was for staging of equipment. That might be the temporary use, but I assume it's going to be concreted over and put to good use.

It'll be interesting to see what they choose to do when designing a new tank farm from scratch after the experience of building and operating the first one.

Just to throw it in here, this is a map showing the supposed boundaries of the SpaceX property at the launch site. It's much larger than I thought. Notice how the developed area in purple has expanded right up to the green shaded area marked as "high marsh area" in the middle, that the little sliver of marsh on the far left was only recently incorporated into the developed area, while the whole area at the upper left has been developed right to the limit of SpaceX's property.

 

[ecarfan]

Old suborbital test pad tank farm is now almost completely gone.

Foundation work started for launch tower #2.

Will OLM #2 be about where the mouse cursor is? Maybe.

 

[JB47394]

The GATEWAY TO MARS sign has been taken down. It looks like the entire wall will be demolished so they'll have one large contiguous area for the second tower and its support equipment.