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.
It probably has some for precise maneuvering in tight quarters and for smooth dockings and departures. The previous Marmac barges converted to autonomous drone ships for F9 booster catches all have thrusters to maintain precise position at sea while awaiting booster arrivals. Given its different role, ‘You’ll Thank Me Later’ may not have thrusters as powerful as those on the drone ships as they are intended to transit from place to place using tugs for motive power.
Barge looks no worse than the car carrying ships from Asia that come into Australia. A lot of modern ships have thrusters.
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.
Given the sorry state of the Royal Navy, I think Elon has more ships than King Chales.
And the ships Grand Admiral Elon has are also in a better state of repair.
Perhaps Prince Wills can do something about that now that he is sort of the semi-King. Left to its own leftist devices, the Starmer administration seems quite unlikely to sort that out.
It might be time for them to simply give up on the idea of having a Navy altogether….perhaps fund space.
Over at the secret projects forum is a German national by the name of Martin Bayer. He has worked for Boeing many years and looks to retire soon.
He put a lot of time and money into a TSTO VTOHL proposal that Boeing rejected out of hand.
Seeing the ponderous and slow sea-based infrastructure above, I wonder if a modification can be done such that both winged stages could self ferry.
If Elon and Boeing are willing to play along, I could see Raptor 3 used for a first stage, and RS-25/SSME’s for the second.
Perhaps the UK could set itself up as a matchmaker with their fleet mothballed and the Navy money going to this project.
They and Space Force could take a few of these double space-planes into possession.
The payload would be nothing like SH/SS, but it could open up airports.
Perhaps Elon could get Martin Bayer to work for him. Bayer has always impressed me, and a winged first stage might allow Raptor 3 articles to be returned for teardowns that would otherwise be lost at sea.
Curious what SpaceX plans to do when a hurricane is active. Will they stockpile hardware at the launch site(s) in anticipation?
Their gulf facilities are all ready and pretty much wind proof. If Florida has survived all these years then Houston and Louisiana. will be fine.
Plus local codes are pretty stiff.