Comments on: SpaceX doing trial runs of specialized barge for transporting Starship/Superheavy from Boca Chica to Florida https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-doing-trial-runs-of-specialized-barge-for-transporting-starship-superheavy-from-boca-chica-to-florida/ Wed, 21 Jan 2026 03:46:57 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Jeff Wright https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-doing-trial-runs-of-specialized-barge-for-transporting-starship-superheavy-from-boca-chica-to-florida/#comment-1627726 Wed, 21 Jan 2026 03:46:57 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=120422#comment-1627726 There have been improvements in steel handling of use to Elon, Stoke, etc:

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-real-3d-steel-shipbuilding.html

]]> By: Philip Wilson https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-doing-trial-runs-of-specialized-barge-for-transporting-starship-superheavy-from-boca-chica-to-florida/#comment-1627110 Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:58:18 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=120422#comment-1627110 Views of newly manufactured 1st stage Super Heavys over flying FL from TX to Cape Canaveral will be Spectacular.
Plenty of Delta V available including propellant to ease re-entry.

]]> By: Jeff Wright https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-doing-trial-runs-of-specialized-barge-for-transporting-starship-superheavy-from-boca-chica-to-florida/#comment-1627081 Sun, 04 Jan 2026 13:41:09 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=120422#comment-1627081 Starship/SuperHeavy is very like the old Boeing Space Freighter.

I forget if they could self ferry.

]]> By: Dick Eagleson https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-doing-trial-runs-of-specialized-barge-for-transporting-starship-superheavy-from-boca-chica-to-florida/#comment-1627068 Sun, 04 Jan 2026 05:19:05 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=120422#comment-1627068 Saville,

Overflying a chunk of Florida is going to be SOP for Starship soon enough, but I think sea transit will do in the early going.

]]> By: Saville https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-doing-trial-runs-of-specialized-barge-for-transporting-starship-superheavy-from-boca-chica-to-florida/#comment-1627042 Sat, 03 Jan 2026 14:22:20 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=120422#comment-1627042 Jeff Wright wrote:

“No plane big enough. ”

Perhaps Seawriter meant flying the boosters with their own engines, not on the back of a plane.

Which seems like the way to go to me…so long as you can get clearance to overfly a chunk of Florida.

]]> By: Ray Van Dune https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-doing-trial-runs-of-specialized-barge-for-transporting-starship-superheavy-from-boca-chica-to-florida/#comment-1627028 Sat, 03 Jan 2026 02:48:27 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=120422#comment-1627028 “Going to need a way to get them to Vandenberg too.”

Starships can fly partial orbit point-to-point Starbase-Vandy.
Boosters, shipped via Panama Canal.

]]> By: Jeff Wright https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-doing-trial-runs-of-specialized-barge-for-transporting-starship-superheavy-from-boca-chica-to-florida/#comment-1627022 Sat, 03 Jan 2026 02:14:31 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=120422#comment-1627022 No plane big enough. An in-flight emergency was declared with one of our C-5 jets over the Pacific.

Central Alabama has a massive steel plant….and an actual port of call at Birmingport.

We have the Tennis/Tom and massive stainless plants.

The AN-225 could fly not just Buran (Bison bombers could, with modifications)–but the AN-225 could have flown the entire Energiya Core Block.

The Soviet Union produced not just the largest planes, but choppers to boot.

I am still livid we didn’t keep those records.

]]> By: Seawriter https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-doing-trial-runs-of-specialized-barge-for-transporting-starship-superheavy-from-boca-chica-to-florida/#comment-1627020 Sat, 03 Jan 2026 01:45:47 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=120422#comment-1627020 Seems like flying them there may be the fastest and simplest way to move them.

]]> By: Steve White https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-doing-trial-runs-of-specialized-barge-for-transporting-starship-superheavy-from-boca-chica-to-florida/#comment-1627005 Fri, 02 Jan 2026 19:57:48 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=120422#comment-1627005 What route does the barge take? I would presume it would use the Intracoastal Waterway from Brownsville to the Florida panhandle; the Waterway doesn’t extend completely to Key West. But if one sailed the western coast to that point it could then pick up the parts of the Waterway on the eastern seaboard to its final destination.

Alas for SpaceX, the Central Florida Canal was never done.

]]> By: M Puckett https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-doing-trial-runs-of-specialized-barge-for-transporting-starship-superheavy-from-boca-chica-to-florida/#comment-1627002 Fri, 02 Jan 2026 18:40:37 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=120422#comment-1627002 Going to need a way to get them to Vandenberg too.

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