Almost There! SpaceX Prepares to Catch the World's Largest Rocket - SpaceX Weekly #129

this week at Starbase SpaceX completed the stacking of the final module for their new launch Tower the catch arms on Tower one also underwent a rigorous series of testing and over at the build site we get our first look at fuel system changes for the block 2 Starship now let's dig into this week's update Friday morning began with calibrations for booster catch with a Towers catch arms moving in and out before the carriage lowered them back down around test article B1 14.1 the arms performed several simulated catches on the test article before being raised up once more and set down to the side of the orbital launch mount on the tow hard stop glass installation and steel work continued on the new office building with the fourth floor's glass partway done steel stud framing of the smaller extensions is mostly complete on the second floor and Painters have been applying white paint to the steel ahead of the glazers late in the evening test tank 16 was relocated to the Massie Outpost for a second round of testing this test tank features a new iteration of the Starship a skirt which needs to be proven before flight while test tank 16 was on the Move test article b141 was taken off the launch Mount before being relocated to the Rocket Garden on Saturday morning as the sun rose over the launch site module 8 was raised above the new launch Tower the module was then gradually guided into place the first of Chip 33's propellant transfer tubes was relocated from Star Factory to Mega Bay 2 as assembly of the first block two Starship continues a second propellant transfer tube was brought in just a few minutes later early on Sunday morning workers removed the ship quick disconnect from its mounting cutting grinding and modifying the arm for flight five back at the build site a third propellant transfer tube was brought into Mega Bay 2 for installation on ship 33 with the three tubes going into ship 33 this is the first sign that SpaceX is doing something different with the block 2 ship's fuel lines work continued on calibrating The Cho sticks on Tower one for booster catch making use of hold down chains and following a bit of actuator testing the landing rails were raised at one end and then the other a trio of hot dog style storage tanks arrived at the Port of Brownsville in the afternoon these tanks would be brought to the Massie Outpost later in the week the ninth and final module of the new launch Tower was brought to the launch site on Monday morning and set down in a staging area at the complex after cleaning and grinding several sections of tower 1's Chopsticks workers began began adding reinforcement plates over their circumferential welds over at the tower 2 site the Sens Crane's main boom was lowered for inspection Crews inspected one side then the other apparently giving everything the okay and the Crane's boom was raised back up test tank 16 was lifted into the test cage at the Massie Outpost where it will experience simulated flight loads steel work on the bridging structure between Star Factory and the office appears to be completed now and glass installation was nearly complete on the fourth floor later in the evening the installation jig for starship's propellant transfer tubes was brought to the door of meabay 2 revealing the new fuel transfer system for the block two ships the redesigned fuel distribution layout retains the combined sea-level engine supply line and adds a dedicated feed line for each of the ship's vacuum engines just inside the door ship 33 could be seen as it was lifted off of the assembly stand inside Mega Bay 2 clearing the way for the fuel distribution line installation jig the new jig was then brought over to the ship assembly stand part of the header tank liquid oxygen downcomer was lifted in mega Bay 2 on Tuesday Morning this section of piping should connect to an already installed part of the down comr that goes from the header tank to the common Dome this latest piece will feed down the side of the locks tank tank where it will be connected to pre-installed routing in the Yet to Come a section with the stacking of module 9 emminent the elevator rails were lifted into module 7 and 8 of the new launch Tower with the longer section for module 7 going in first the shorter piece for module 8 was added 2 hours later one of the new cryo tanks brought into Port was delivered to the Massie Outpost expanding the sight's propellant storage a new additional protective plate was added to the top of the booster quick disconnect cover improving the housing's durability against super heavy exhaust plume after doubling up the gusset plates workers began reinstalling the cladding that had been pulled off the base of launch Tower one a worker on a lift was inspecting the bumper pads on the Chopsticks before applying labels to them after three straight months of on-site drilling The Continuous flight augur left the Launchpad and was brought over to Sanchez workers began removing the bumper pads from the chopsticks on Wednesday morning starting with the left stick before moving over to the right it's not yet clear if this is due to an issue with how they performed if SpaceX is removing them for further inspections or if this current design is just not reusable Crews finally finished removing the sixth pad from the tower Before Sunrise later after Dawn the sarin crane was hooked up to the ninth and final pre fabricated module of the new launch Tower the section was then lifted and then slowly lowered into place topping out the structure while work on the foundation and base started much earlier the first module was stacked on July 11th with the final module now in place that means that Cruz brought the structure of this new launch Tower up to its full height in just 6 weeks after stacking the first pre-assembled module while there is still a lot of welding and concrete work remaining until the final structure work is complete this rapid Pace has been quite impressive over at the Massie Outpost the top hat fixture used to apply compressive forces to test articles was placed on test tank 16 meanwhile the second cryo tank was delivered from the docks at Brownsville to the Massie Outpost the newly repaired ship quick disconnect was extended for the first time beginning a battery of panel arm and swing arm testing that ran through the night as part of the ongoing effort to reconfigure the propellant storage farm for both launchpads two liquid nitrogen pumps were removed from the methane side of the facility shortly after sunrise on Thursday morning a mechazilla logo was added to ship 30 noting the mission's expected catch attempt with the booster a small rectangular box has been added near the starboard flaps actuator mechanism which appears to be covered in Cork insulation a second one is also present on the port side of the ship these boxes may be spectrometers for studying the re-entry plasma around the Starship making use of a transport cart an autogenous pressurization line was brought out from Star Factory and taken to Mega Bay for installation with the last Tower module mounted and in place the load spreader was detached and later brought down from the tower it was set down in a staging Point farther away from the tower now that it's no longer needed this week at the cape saw Falcon 9 booster 1073 taken off the Dockside stand on Friday and laid horizontal for transport back to Robert's Road support ship Shannon departed Port Canaveral heading off for Tampa likely in preparation for Recovery operations for the upcoming Polaris Dawn Mission Bob then returned to port with both fairing halves from the world viw Legion 3 and four launch which lifted off the day before signant warhorse 3 towed a short fall of Gravitas out to sea on Sunday ahead of the starlink group 10-5 Mission and less than an hour later Bob joined the tug and drone ship in support of the same mission 2 Days Later Falcon 9 booster 1085 made its debut launch carrying the starlink group 10-5 Mission into orbit on Tuesday Bob returned to port on Thursday carrying both fairing halves from the starlink launch for reasons unknown go Cosmos departed Port Canaveral making a beline out of the docks the Polaris Dawn crew performed multiple flybys of historic launch complex 39a ahead of their expected launch on August 27th this is the first of three planned launches for the Polaris program Jared isaacman Scott poti Sarah Gillis and Anna minan will make the highest altitude flight since the Apollo program at about 1,400 k om passing through portions of the inner Van Allen belt they will study the effects of space flight and radiation on human health they will also use the new suits developed by SpaceX to perform a space walk at an altitude of about 700 km and perform various other experiments and research along the way the mission is planned to end with splash down on September 1st go Cosmos returned to Port a few hours later with an empty deck warhorse 3 to to short follow gravitas and booster 1085 back to Port from the starlink group 10-5 launch this booster will be refurbished for the launch of crew 9 currently scheduled to launch on September 24th and there you have it another SpaceX and star Bas weekly update brought to you by lab Padre don't forget to hit the like And subscribe button if you haven't already guys and we'll see you next week thanks for watching lab Padre out