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On May 20, SpaceX technicians successfully piled a nose on the prototype of the company's Boca Chica orbital spacecraft. Simultaneously, a separate team of technicians and engineers worked hard at building a second similar prototype but different from Starship near Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Confirmed officially by Elon Musk last week, the CEO of SpaceX revealed that the company was not simultaneously building two orbit prototypes of Starship – not a new one in itself – but that these prototypes were designed as a kind of internal competition between different teams and ideas. Competition is not ruthless – knowledge is shared between Texas and Florida – but the strategy is quite similar. Instead of real commercial competitors, SpaceX is trying to compete with itself to develop a brand new launcher – the Starship / Super Heavy stainless steel vessel – faster and more efficiently.
A ship rises in the east
Last week, both SpaceX groups made major progress. On the east coast, the general public saw the first picture of the SpaceX spacecraft in Florida built just seven days ago. It seems that SpaceX has more or less taken over a facility in Cocoa, Florida, known to have been the home of Coastal Steel, a renowned NASA contractor known for its metal structures.
It is unclear whether SpaceX has fully acquired Coastal Steel or whether it is simply joining the small business at the very beginning of its development in Florida. In any case, even in perspectives a little more distant than those available in Texas, it is clear that metal processing is at least equivalent to that of Boca Chica, unless they are given the chance to win their prize. life.
True, the playground is not exactly level. The SpaceX team in South Texas is working just meters from the Gulf of Mexico, in conditions that would allow for an excellent horror show in the traditional aerospace industry. With the exception of an isolated tent, all welding, assembly, integration and testing work was done fully exposed to the elements. The SpaceX team in Florida appears to have the luxury of a well-established warehouse – once used for metallurgy – that could be used as an indoor and partially insulated work and gathering area. The Florida team did have everything they needed right from the start, while Texas had to literally build all of its facilities from scratch.
Whether it is the luxury facilities or the much larger pool of local aerospace talent, it is clear that the SpaceX team in Florida will be a competitive force with which it will will have to count despite the apparent length of the Texas head. In the seven days following the release of the first photos of the Florida Starship, SpaceX technicians almost doubled the height of the larger welded section from about 5.5 m to about 9 m (18 to 30 m).
Meanwhile, those working inside the preparation warehouse continue to create 2 x 9 m subsections, already giving way to what appears to be the first conical nose section of the spaceship of Florida. At this rate, Florida could very well catch the SpaceX Texas Starship in a month or two. It should be noted that the Florida team does not appear to participate in Starhopper activities. SpaceX Boca Chica, on the other hand, has devoted much of the last few months to building Starhopper and preparing a strange prototype for unrelated jumping tests.
The guard (slightly) old
Despite the rapid progress of Starship Florida, Starship Texas did not make the difference. For about a week now, SpaceX technicians and engineers have been working on new integration, assembly and testing campaigns with Starhopper and the first orbital prototype. An article dedicated to Starhopper will be released later this week as the SpaceX team in South Texas approaches the relocation of Raptor and a tie-free jumping test campaign, which should begin in late May.
With regard to the orbital vessel, Boca Chica has taken a major symbolic step toward the completion of the aeroshell by covering the top of the prototype with a stainless steel nose section. In total, the spacecraft assembly is now about 25 m (80 ft) high, from tip to tail, about 60% of the size of a Falcon 9 booster (first stage). With the installation of the nose of the craft, SpaceX also implicitly confirmed that most – if not all – tanks of the spacecraft prototype were yet to be built, unless a lot of material was hiding in Boca's tent. Chica.
What could be either the seven Raptor engine section of the orbital vessel or the beginning of its oxygen tank or liquid methane is also being built a few hundred feet away. This mysterious segment was recently put on a second concrete template for easy access, while SpaceX also worked to create a dedicated integration center similar to the warehouse used in Florida.
In total, the SpaceX team in South Texas seems to be 30-40% of the completion of a spaceship-sized steel aeroshell. A huge volume of work remains to be done within the vehicle capable of operating in theoretical orbit, including propellant tanks, a thrust structure capable of supporting seven Raptor engines, landing flaps / flaps and a plethora of plumbing and avionics facilities. Nevertheless, the amount of progress already visible is undeniably impressive, made even more intriguing by the existence of a separate effort to build the Starship to the east.
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