Giant SpaceX barge for transporting Starship/Superheavy arrives in Texas
For scale, note the tiny people watching on
shore. Click for source.
The giant specially designed barge that SpaceX plans to use to transport Starships and Superheavys from Boca Chica to Florida, dubbed “You’ll Thank Me Later”, arrived in Texas last week.
Avid Space, a Starbase streaming outlet part of Labpadre, captured the barge’s arrival, posting images, of which the one to the right is a screen capture. From the first link:
The retrofitted barge Marmac 31, nicknamed “You’ll Thank Me Later” by Elon Musk’s space firm, arrived at the Port of Brownsville last week. It will be used to carry Starship megarockets built at Starbase to Florida and eventually other destinations.
The Starbase-headquartered company has said it would use barges to float the rockets to Florida for launches from there until the Starship factory that it’s building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is complete. The company has been in talks with port officials about a 50-year lease for an 83-acre site that would be used as a terminal for the 400-foot-long rockets. Those negotiations are ongoing.
This barge’s arrival in Texas not only makes Starship launches from Florida more likely in the near future, it gives SpaceX the option to buy other launch sites along the Gulf coast, such as that rumored purchase in Louisiana.
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I hope they put side thrusters on those barges. Winds in the gulf get pretty good.
That thing looks like a big sail designed to catch the wind.
Recent observations from Starbase would indicate that the barge’s first cargo will be booster and ship transport stands for use at KSC once an actual ship and booster are sent, so KSC has something to move them around safely.
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=55672.msg2794099#msg2794099
No one has spotted the stands for laying down a ship or booster (yet). But a set of those stands would also be needed at KSC for uprighting. Same for any horizontal transport cradles.
I bet it pulls into a special dock and is set down on a set of legs to hold the barge.steady and in place.
Then the rocket or cargo is loaded and unloaded from the front or back by rail car. Though it looks like the hanger doors are on the back, odd.