Today I'm flying to Boca Chica TX to visit the #SpaceX construction site 🚀
These NASASpaceflight videos with no voice over speak for themselves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtSCwYRMq7c
#spacex #starship
I spotted another one of those Peace Poles outside Valley International Airport, Harlingen. ☮️
cc: @benoit
The #starship on the left should be #SN15, so far the only landing survivor. She was scheduled for a second flight, but then they removed all three engines (presumably because they were damaged) and eventually it was moved back to the construction site.
On the right, the "high bay", which seems to contains #SN16 and pieces of the #BN2 booster (the first one which is expected to fly).
All the sections of #BN2 have already been spotted on the site, an a good number of them are already stacked.
In sequence:
- Historic Starhopper prototype which flew in July 2019
- Blast wall
- Sections of the orbital launch tower waiting to be stacked,
- The giant crane "Frankenzilla" which is building the 130m launch tower
The cryogenic fuel farm uses steel tanks very similar to #Starship, but they will be enclosed in thermal insulating shells (like the one on the right) to store superchilled O2 and methane more efficiently.
This is the access road to Boca Chica Beach. It's Saturday, and families are coming to enjoy the sea, mostly ignoring the #Starship in the background.
(the car on the right got stuck in the sand; another car is trying to toe it out of it)
Marcus House gives an update on #SpaceX #Starship and #SuperHeavy development:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iFg4wvp5gw
Today I went to South Padre Island, a resort island situated north of the #SpaceX launch complex.
Today I wasted my afternoon at the stupid South Padre Island while Frankenzilla was stacking section 4 of the orbital launch tower 😓
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0AZIvjXjZc
#spacex #starship
Crossing a quagmire filled with hungry mosquitoes, towards Frankenzilla at the opposite end of the site...
Along the way, I spot several holes in the sand; some are the size of an arm. What creatures live in these holes? 😨
#spacex starship
Panning from the Starship construction site in the distance through a sunset obscured by BN2.1, the historic Starhopper prototype, section 5 of the Orbital Launch Tower waiting to be stacked, and finally... 🥁... the massive, mismatched body of Frankenzilla, still holding section 4 after lifting it in place this afternoon.
With my best Russian accent, I should have asked back: "Excuse me sir, can you direct me to the Amerikan Nuclear Wessels?"
I decided stay a few more days to check what's happening during the scheduled road closures:
https://www.cameroncounty.us/spacex/
#spacex #starship
The Boca Chica Road Closures twitter bot says they'll be testing BN2.1 again. Too boring!
I bought one of those scopes with a smartphone mount for bird watching... I've got a *huge* bird to watch! 🤓
Knowing almost nothing about tele lenses, I ordered the cheapest product with a high user rating. And then I'll figure out whether I needed better optics.
Yesterday the road to Boca Chica was open, and I was able to walk around the #SpaceX launch facility:
Ah, looks like Remedios Street and Joanna Street, two roads cutting through the #SpaceX #Starship construction site, should remain open to the public:
https://www.valleycentral.com/spacex/district-attorney-warns-spacex-about-unauthorized-road-closures-security-personnel/
@codewiz you can have good dehaze with a digital one I guess.
@benoit ohh... I guess tripod + long exposures + computational photography can do miracles...
@benoit I'd better test some equipment before the next launch of I want to get some footage.
@codewiz Sounds likely.
It's the #SpaceX construction site! 🤩
Bit it's too far to observe their activity. Even with a telescope, there would be too much atmospheric haze.