Battle of the Bays #16
The end has arrived for this battle. The Gigabay at Roberts Rd in Florida no longer has tower cranes and the roof is being installed. Over at Starbase they have now reached the same height as the Megabay with a bit more to go until topoff. The dots you see in that image happen to be butterflies. Lots of butterflies!
https://t.co/6KAhBCL7eM
https://t.co/SWDT3nx3Eq
OLM2 at Starbase on November 8, 2025
Just looking at this metric alone, LC-39A’s Starship launch pad is over 7 months behind Pad 2 in construction progress.
📸NSF | Starbase Live | https://t.co/4bZFjiIykH @NASASpaceflight
Gigabay roof trusses are also being built in between the bays i have marked them in purple so they are easier to see. Another great shot from @MarcusHouse@lifeatstagezero
@Erdayastronaut The huge savings come from not going to NRHO! The original mission profile had Starship docking with Orion in NRHO and coming back to NRHO after the landing.
SpaceX are planning the construction of a single 16" LNG Pipeline from the port of Brownsville headed on towards their Starbase site!
📸: BND Commission Meeting
Super heavy booster 20 rolling out to Starbase Massey's test site tonight for initial cryo proof testing in preparation for Starship test flight 13.
6/5/26
A Starship transport stand is being moved from Starbase to the SpaceX barge "You'll Thank Me Later" at the Port of Brownsville tonight for transport to Florida.
6/2/26
A Starship booster transport stand has been moved from Starbase to the Port of Brownsville tonight to be loaded onto the new SpaceX Barge "You'll Thank Me Later" for transport to Florida.
6/1/26
Reposting to fix errors🙃SpaceX is replacing the old landing rail beams. It appears that further weight-reduction holes have been added to reduce the total mass. This, along with other upgrades like the electro mechanical actuators to move the chopsticks faster with more responsiveness and improved end-stop control during landings. Ship catches will really put them to the test i think.
Thanks to @RGVaerialphotos for the great images.
While I won’t comment on timeline, I will add that the cleanup can be one of the more challenging parts of the entire project. In the initial days and weeks, you’re using a scalpel, not a bulldozer
You have to first study and then precisely engineer the demo as there are many unknowns with the state of the infrastructure. You also want to do your best to save the GSE that is still good.. A miss on a piece of steel mass/cg or unknown trapped pressure can quickly turn disastrous. The last thing you want to do is make a tough situation worse by getting someone hurt or worse.
Cleanup has to be done with a sense of urgency, but extreme precision. It’s literally launch pad surgery.
Less than a year ago, Ship 36 and the test stand had a really bad evening, and I was delivering pizzas. A year later, V3 launched and now I typically deliver coffee & donuts. A lot of progress can happen in a year. This was a setback, but I have no doubt Blue will bounce back well. NASA will be there to help find solutions, and this time next year, excitement will be building for Artemis III.
We have regained some access to Launch Complex 36 and are actively investigating the hotfire anomaly. We will start clearing the pad soon and have a good rebuild plan in place. The booster and GS2s in the integration facility appear healthy from quick looks.
The aftermath of LC-36 following New Glenn's explosion during its Static Fire test last night captured by D Wise (@dwisecinema).
Overview of the incident:
https://t.co/J1aWYWecfA
BLUE ORIGIN AFTERMATH:
@blueorigin’s teams are out this morning at LC-36 in Florida, preforming initial damage assessments after last nights catastrophic New Glenn rocket explosion…