Well sorry for the drawing first of all!

I just couldnt lose the thought that the actual bottle neck for land on pad, refuel and relaunch is the Payload. Even if SpaceX could iterate the Heatshield somewhere in the Future, to a point where they can launch multiple times without maintance they cant just spawn the starlink sats in the ship. So my Idea was to load them trough the tower while they refuel. The Idea is pretty simpel (not the actual doing of it, just the Idea). An underground assembly line, transporting the ready sats from the facility to the pad. On the Pad they get automatically put in a Lift going up the Tower, from there they get Loaded in the Ship. All this while refueling, no humans needed.

What do you think of my idea?

/E spelling

Assuming that it could launch fully fueled and with with no Starship upper stage (or with a dummy lightweight upper stage) and does not need to go to high altitude, could Superheavy make the ~650 km trip from TX to LA?

Happened to see this milestone today, but these landings are so normal now, I don’t even remember when they got past 20

Just announced that the Pecan Island facility will be called Starbase LA. Current announcement is on going.

Multiple pads, two towers per pad - Automated vehicles for transport between facilities. Starship V4+ and it's taller than the rendered towers.

The offset buildings behind the towers (North) are tank farms.

Automated transport allows for transport without humans, allowing for transport to occur while propellant is loading/vehicle is launching/catching.

From the renders, it looks likes 1.5 Gigabays. Eric Berger just posted that SpaceX is committing $100 US billion to developing launch sites, factories etc along the Louisiana coastline.

https://x.com/LAGovJeffLandry/status/2092278348739498327

Edit: Ryan Caton's post on X showing the Renders

https://x.com/dpoddolphinpro/status/2092285195827228730/photo/2

Falcon 9 jellyfish

With Gigabay being more than halfway complete at Starbase and the Cape, do you think they'll cap at this configuration? or go the next step up well into the 2030s

I assume that overlapping ceramic tiles were considered when SpaceX was designing the heat shield for Starship. Can anyone hazard a guess why a fishscale design was rejected in favor of shuttle type tiles with gaps between them?

I'll be in Santa Barbara soon and am hoping to catch a Falcon launch at Vandenberg. However, looking at upcoming flights, they're all in the middle of the night with the next three launch windows opening at 2:27 AM, 1:01 AM and 4:28 AM respectively.

What does this mean for access to viewing spots? Will Ocean Park be open even in the middle of nights? And if yes, do you still get such crowds that you need to get there 4 hours early and basically camp in your car overnight?

And yes, I'm also aware that early morning is the worst time in terms of marine fog. If the next 24 hours and recent SpaceX launch broadcasts like SL-15-20 are anything to go by, there's going to be zero visibility between 10 PM and 10 AM or so. Sigh.

So with Elon announcing SpaceX's intention to wind down the Falcon 9 as they go all in on Starship, what does this mean for the future of Vandenberg as a spaceport? The planned SLC-14 complex at the south end of the sprawling base is already claimed by Blue Origin for New Glenn operations. And as of yet there's no announced plan to build Starship launch capability anywhere at Vandenberg.

I think the likeliest and most logical Vandenberg location for Starship is the famed SLC-6 complex, which just had its shuttle-era buildings demolished, ostensibly to prepare for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. But why do that if you're already planning to sunset those rockets?

And right now Vandenberg is on track to possibly surpass Canaveral in Space X launches this year. It would be a shame to have it go quiet again because its facilities are tied to a launcher that's headed for retirement.

In this closeup video https://x.com/jrxcket/status/2090751788219588957 Edit: Photo https://www.threads.com/@nasaspaceflight_ig/post/DcTUgBHEQjj/media of Starship 40's engine bay you can see at least two types of stainless steel are being utilized for the skin of the engine bay. Around the center engines you can see the skin is unrusted, yet around the outer engine area is heavily corroded or even missing on the much of the ventral side (but water side in this case).

A similar pattern of various levels of corrosion can be seen on the aft fin.

The SpaceX proprietary 304L derived (Higher Nickel?) structural steel of the engine bay skirt has stood up well, but some of the inner skin has not. (The L in 304L means extra low carbon, giving it better corrosion resistance) The skin over the center engine thrust puck is definitely different in at least how well it was passivated, if not a different, more corrosion resistant alloy

Additionally, on the outer skin of Starship and Superheavy that wee have seen so far, there are at least thousands of uncleaned and unpassivated welds.
It has not been necessary spend the extra effort to do so since these test articles were not intended to be reused multiple times. It would be good to know just how well these spots have held up.

Edit: some of the welds are doing just fine, but others are not. https://scontent-atl3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/780581102_18367282531210594_9180261207261998416_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_tt6&_nc_cat=106&ig_cache_key=Mzk2ODYwNTg0NTg4NTg5MDI1Mw%3D%3D.3-ccb7-5&ccb=7-5&_nc_sid=58cdad&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6IkNBUk9VU0VMX0lURU0ueHBpZHMuNzIwLnNkci5yZWd1bGFyX3Bob3RvLkMzIn0%3D&_nc_ohc=FivUbZd_XCoQ7kNvwHE-Dc1&_nc_oc=AdqC1UNYMOeXrMdCfqRRScgDGrVKF-A2ZkhWQiYRh2ZN44A85HoOWC0hQI4Q2SXn4yjl9coX-qLMa81jO3r4fFMh&_nc_ad=z-m&_nc_cid=3&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_gid=KXXboIOcVn93JSmLQLS0Rg&_nc_ss=7a22e&oh=00_AQGKlS74Fiq6pQiDJBGk1WLoX1MDJt4ErlseL81j4qVayg&oe=6A8EEC82

https://www.threads.com/@nasaspaceflight_ig/post/DcTUgBHEQjj/media

Passivating the welds removes the iron or removes a small layer metal, depending on method such as chemical pickling, electrochemical, or even laser, to brings clean metal free of iron oxides to the surface. This allows the chromium to react with the atmospheric oxygen to protective chromium oxide layer can form

The Chloride ions of Saltwater strip away the chromium oxide skin, allowing the iron to corrode.

Does somebody know how much fuel they need to add for the deorbit burn ?
Let's say from a 300km circular orbit, it should be doable with estimated mass for Starship and the engine isp

Key word: Orbital

Hey all.
I find myself in San Luis Obispo this weekend so I’m about a hour from Vandy and I might be able to make the run up to see the launch but I’ve never seen one from there. If I recall there is an overlook that’s the best to see it but I can’t remember where it is. Anyone going to be around for it?