Musk: Starship/Superheavy launchpad essentially undamaged after launch
Click for original image.
In a tweet posted only a short time ago, Elon Musk announced that the redesigned and rebuilt Boca Chica launchpad experienced little or no damage during the launch of Superheavy/Starship on November 18, 2023.
Just inspected the Starship launch pad and it is in great condition!
No refurbishment needed to the water-cooled steel plate for next launch.
Congrats to @Spacex team & contractors for engineering & building such a robust system so rapidly!
Musk included the picture to the right in the tweet, showing the essentially undamaged launchpad pad. A close looks suggests there was some damage to the rear pillar near the top, but overall it appears the next launch could occur here very quickly.
Musk of course is wrong about who he credits for redesigning and rebuilding this launchpad. The real credit must go to the FAA bureaucrats who led the investigation and must have clearly guided those SpaceX engineers and contractors. To expect private citizens to think for themselves and come up with such difficult engineering without supervision from government paper-pushers in Washington is unreasonable and unfair. Maybe the Biden Justice Department should consider another lawsuit against Musk, this time for spreading more disinformation!
Moreover, who cares that the launchpad deluge system worked exactly as planned? We must allow Fish & Wildlife to spend several months now to investigate this launch — as well as write a long report of many words — to make sure that deluge of water did not harm any of the wildlife that lives on this barrier island, which has a water table of essentially zero and is flooded regularly and repeatedly by storms over time.
Anyone who disagrees is clearly a bigoted racist who wants to harm little children!
Readers!
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Click for original image.
In a tweet posted only a short time ago, Elon Musk announced that the redesigned and rebuilt Boca Chica launchpad experienced little or no damage during the launch of Superheavy/Starship on November 18, 2023.
Just inspected the Starship launch pad and it is in great condition!
No refurbishment needed to the water-cooled steel plate for next launch.
Congrats to @Spacex team & contractors for engineering & building such a robust system so rapidly!
Musk included the picture to the right in the tweet, showing the essentially undamaged launchpad pad. A close looks suggests there was some damage to the rear pillar near the top, but overall it appears the next launch could occur here very quickly.
Musk of course is wrong about who he credits for redesigning and rebuilding this launchpad. The real credit must go to the FAA bureaucrats who led the investigation and must have clearly guided those SpaceX engineers and contractors. To expect private citizens to think for themselves and come up with such difficult engineering without supervision from government paper-pushers in Washington is unreasonable and unfair. Maybe the Biden Justice Department should consider another lawsuit against Musk, this time for spreading more disinformation!
Moreover, who cares that the launchpad deluge system worked exactly as planned? We must allow Fish & Wildlife to spend several months now to investigate this launch — as well as write a long report of many words — to make sure that deluge of water did not harm any of the wildlife that lives on this barrier island, which has a water table of essentially zero and is flooded regularly and repeatedly by storms over time.
Anyone who disagrees is clearly a bigoted racist who wants to harm little children!
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Here’s the proper strategy for dealing with bureaucrats!
https://x.com/wallstreetsilv/status/1726394041745444923?s=46
What SpaceX has now is a reusable launch pad, and given the nature of the program and the circumstances it has to work in, that is no mean feat.
Of course, no small part of that was having B9/S25 spend less than half the time on the orbital launch mount after ignition, because this time none of the engines were shut down.
I read a “futurism” review. Futurism is clearly not interested in the product they supposedly report on, they are just a bunch of hacks.
I’m not an engineer in title, but I know how things work, and to see the repeated LIES about how failure is failure for ever, rather than an expression of progress by ideologically driven twats just pisses me off.
SpaceX could have had this demonstration 3 months ago, and should have another demonstration in 1 or 2 months.
Futurism, a journalistic entity, acts as though this is just one more big boom in atmosphere. I truly hate these people.
Bob, your humour has me rolling in the Ilse.
BTW
I never could spell
I wish they would cover the surrounding areas with sheet metal just to knock down the dust.
We WERE going to have this by 1982…but something “bushy” occurred to prevent the “gov’t” from releasing the old NCP format internet for the summer 1976 Bicentennial celebrations…
It’s FORTUNATE that most of your readers are not leftists since they would not realize the SILENT “/s”!! I do find it odd that the Fish and Game people need to be involved, but I guess since there’s WATER involved there might be a chance of some injuries to some fishes! As far as the Government’s “engineering”? Now THAT was a good one!
I always enjoy your articles and have learned a lot about stuff I never saw in other places – THANKS!
With a nod to the sarcasm, I’d be surprised that FWS is involved any further, unless SpaceX makes significant changes to the pad water system.
Having said that, I agree that the FAA is going to give this launch a good once-over, especially the Starship. This was essentially it’s maiden launch, and while it performed admirably, the self-destruct that far downrange is something that SpaceX will have to address to the FAA’s satisfaction prior to IFT-3. Remains to be seen just what happened beyond T+7:06.
But an AWESOME test flight!
I noted some interesting articles out there accusing Musk of a number of new things.
Elections are a year away, and they are out for him.
I cynically think it is an attempt to wrest twitter/x from him before the the major campaigning begins.
Finally! This site gives Fish and Game the credit they deserve. Without them there would be no launch pad nor would we be going to the moon, baby.