By Eric Ralph
Teslarti
A duo of SpaceX job postings at the company’s South Texas facilities have confirmed that both Starship and Super Heavy “flight article” vehicles will initially be fabricated and assembled on-site in Boca Chica, also implying that the rocket’s first orbital launch attempts will occur in the same vicinity.
Construction of the first massive Super Heavy booster could begin in Boca Chica within the next several months, presumably progressing in a similar fashion to Starship’s full-scale hopper prototype. According to CEO Elon Musk, Starhopper hop tests and Super Heavy construction could begin – respectively – as early as March and April 2019, perhaps just one or two months from now.
Posted on February 15th, both open positions centered around structural assembly (i.e. welding) critical for the construction of the massive propellant tank domes, barrel sections, and other major structure of Starship and Super Heavy.
Known as Berth 240, SpaceX’s lease began in March 2018 but was reportedly terminated in January 2019, likely meaning that the company will have to vacate the premises next month.
Assuming SpaceX chooses to assemble Super Heavy with the same vertical, outdoors approach, Boca Chica, Texas is going to be greeted by a view even more exotic than the already-impressive progress being made with Starship’s Starhopper prototype. CEO Elon Musk noted that he believed the first Super Heavy prototype would begin to be built this spring(as early as April).
Construction of the first massive Super Heavy booster could begin in Boca Chica within the next several months, presumably progressing in a similar fashion to Starship’s full-scale hopper prototype. According to CEO Elon Musk, Starhopper hop tests and Super Heavy construction could begin – respectively – as early as March and April 2019, perhaps just one or two months from now.
Posted on February 15th, both open positions centered around structural assembly (i.e. welding) critical for the construction of the massive propellant tank domes, barrel sections, and other major structure of Starship and Super Heavy.
Following an unanticipated pivot to stainless steel – rather than advanced carbon composites – as the primary structural material of choice for BFR, the project has been continually marked by a flurry of impressive technical progress at the same time as many previously foundational aspects became uncertain.
Most notably, SpaceX appeared to terminate a lease agreement it had held with the Port of Los Angeles for a large berth meant to be developed into a dedicated factory for BFR’s massive spaceship upper stage and booster, whose 9m (~30 foot) diameter would have been highly impractical to build somewhere that wasn’t either at the rocket’s launch site or directly adjacent to a port.
Most notably, SpaceX appeared to terminate a lease agreement it had held with the Port of Los Angeles for a large berth meant to be developed into a dedicated factory for BFR’s massive spaceship upper stage and booster, whose 9m (~30 foot) diameter would have been highly impractical to build somewhere that wasn’t either at the rocket’s launch site or directly adjacent to a port.
With its headquarters in Hawthorne, CA (southwestern Los Angeles), SpaceX’s first choice was unsurprisingly the Port of LA, a location that would have allowed its 5000+ local employees to have seamlessly transferred to the BFR program without requiring highly disruptive relocations.
While an official SpaceX statement and subsequent Elon Musk tweets relating to that report served to partially correct the record and confirm that “Starship prototypes” would be built locally in South Texas, Super Heavy was never mentioned. SpaceX’s latest job postings complete the image, indicating that all aspects of the first Starship and Super Heavy prototypes will be assembled in South Texas...
In the meantime, SpaceX continues to exploit the benefits of stainless steel whenever it can, utilizing the company’s wealth of Hawthorne, CA expertise and infrastructure to fabricate subassemblies that can easily be shipped by road or plane to South Texas. After arrival, Boca Chica-based employees or contractors can be tasked with the considerably less infrastructure-intensive work of final assembly and integration, a challenging and critical process but one that is at least slightly more setting-agnostic.
To read the full story, click on link: https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-job-openings-starship-super-heavy-booster-texas-production/
11 comments:
Musk will fit in with the credit card thief Jason Hilts and the yes man Lazoya. They are all reaching for the Stars, but some will never break the chains of the handcuffs and will join Armando Villalobos.
The “tooth fairy” is alive and well in Brownsville, TX. Musk is blowing a lot of smoke from his Doobie and our local jefes taking deep inhales!
Another of Mayor Tony Martinez's failures. Add SPACEX to the real estate ventures to help Julieta Garcia (ending in millions spent for worthless real estate which is now an albatross around the neck of the city and Julieta losing out big time with UT System), millions spent on hike and bike trails while pot holes and infrastructure problems plague the city and terrible management of city operations. Tony has done an awful job as mayor and we may never catch up with the rest of the RGV.
I got the same press release and refused it because after the wind incident, I just do not believe the source, plus Musk text on the truth of the story makes the entire thing suspect.
Bobby Wc
They are NOT gonna launch out of Boca Chica.
They will launch out of their Hawthorn facility.
Brownsville's growth might have a better chance LNG.
They look just like to gigantic dildos.
When the rocket finally get launched, make sure Tony Martinez is on it.
Oh, and while you are at it, put the PMS in there too. Prisci, Minerva and Sylvia.
Look at all these uninformed, negative, average nobodys from "El Valle" giving their worthless opinions - especially the idiot that claimed SpaceX will launch out of their Hawthorne facility. Hey vatito, Hawthorne is their headquarters and manufacturing facility, not a launch site - did you mean Vandenberg Air Force base? Anonymous @4:24, you are disqualified from ever commenting on Spacex again. The whole reason SpaceX is building their own PRIVATE launch facility @BCB is so they don't have to launch from government sites, i.e. Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg AFB. They don't have a choice, they MUST build where they launch, and they MUST launch where they build. How the F you going to transport a 30' wide, 400' long rocket?
Hopefully, one day, it will launch, and you can say "I was wrong" and get lost.
Musk is waiting for the scumbag Rene Oliveria to get his DWI dismissed first, as he is waiting to employ him as the second monkey to go into space.
He has to wait for the case to be dismissed, as he does not want to be charged with his escape from justice. He wants to keep his promise to the Scumbag to take flight from Brownsville.
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