Update on Starship launchpad construction in Texas and Florida
Link here. First, it appears construction of a second launch tower in Florida is about to begin. Second, the launchpad needed for the next orbital test flight of Starship/Superheavy is nearing completion.
Not only does this suggest the next test flight is only a matter of weeks away, the first launch out of Florida is not far in the future.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
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Link here. First, it appears construction of a second launch tower in Florida is about to begin. Second, the launchpad needed for the next orbital test flight of Starship/Superheavy is nearing completion.
Not only does this suggest the next test flight is only a matter of weeks away, the first launch out of Florida is not far in the future.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Robert, there is no link in the “”link here.””
Thank you for the attention to this matter.
Ronaldus Magnus: Link fixed. Sorry about that.
Ultimately, I think the plan is to place at least 9 launch towers in Florida (one at 39A, two at 37, and six(!) at the new 40 site to the north). Not sure they could pack any more towers at Boca, but they might try.
I predict lots of envirowacko heartburn on the Space Coast if/when all nine pads get rolling. Might still be 10 years off (although hoping for less). Sure hope we can keep a Republican admin through all of that. Otherwise, the lunatic Dems will come down hard. They’re SO vindictive.
The VP has the personality of oatmeal. The GOP has to pull a Kamala and put an outsider in that oppo researchers don’t know from Adam.
Someone with no ties to the current administration, who can even pretend to take issue with Trump.
Yes, it might sound wise to have the VP run on accomplishments….but the average pauper/swing voter is going to believe economic statistics the way Mr. Z believes climatologists…so the next candidate bloody well better have plausible deniability.
The number one quote on politics that everyone should remember.
“When you’re explaining, you’re losing.”
Chuck,
Interesting concept but my understanding is that the notional LC-40 site has been removed from consideration because it is too close to the northern borders of KSC and the ground is even less suitable than other locations.
You are likely right that SpaceX will seek to build more Starship pads at KSC/Canaveral, but my personal bet is that it would start by putting a second such on the opposite side of LC-39A from the one it is currently building there and then two more flanking the – for now, but not, I think, for much longer – SLS pad at LC-39B. With the pad already nearing completion at LC-39A and the two that will be built at SLC-37 at Canaveral, that would give SpaceX six Starship pads at KSC/Canaveral before the end of the current decade.
Should SpaceX require even more Starship launch infrastructure in the 2030s, SLC-40 could be redone as a Starship pad once the Falcons are retired. And when ULA disappears, SpaceX could do likewise at SLC-41. That would give SpaceX eight Starship pads in FL by the early to mid-2030s. Close enough to your notional nine and without needing to muck about in what is, frankly, out-and-out swampland.
Jeff Wright,
I suppose it should come as no surprise that your grasp of American politics is as problematical as your grasp of spacecraft engineering.
The VP’s personality? Let’s just say “oatmeal” is not exactly the word that comes immediately to my mind. JDV is an articulate and quick-witted rhetorical cage fighter who tends to go for the casual bitch-slap rather than the fist-in-the-face approach of his boss. He’s less pyrotechnic than Trump but that is true of pretty much everyone else on the planet.
The only connection I’d make between oatmeal and a VP would be anent our previous one. In her case it was not her personality that seemed oatmeal-ish but her brain – or whatever she was using as a rough substitute for one.
Small correction: the launch site in question at the north end of KSC property is called LC-49, not LC-40! There is already an *SLC-40* — which SpaceX currently leases as its most active launch pad — at the north end of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
As for LC-49, things are a little opaque right now, but I think SpaceX has not given up on pursuing the site . . . that just seems to have put it on a back burner right now, because it has the most legal hurdles to clear of any site SpaceX has looked at. As the SpaceX Starship-Super Heavy CCSFS Final EIS puts it, “Proposed LC-49 is identified as a potential vertical launch site LC-49 in the 2016 KSC Master Plan (NASA 2016); however, it is in the northern portion of KSC in proximity to publicly accessible areas of MINWR and CANA’s Playalinda Beach, and the land is currently part of MINWR and managed by USFWS. (NPS 2024b). The site would create non-compatible public land uses because of the required Launch Exclusionary Safety Zones. This launch site does not meet Selection Standard B. Therefore, it was eliminated from further consideration.” (Page I-7)
https://spaceforcestarshipeis.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/SpaceX_Starship-SuperHeavy_CCSFS_Final_EIS_508.pdf
I suspect they’ll try to reopen looking at it later, after the other pads at LC-39A and and SLC-37 are finished and they’re ready for another round of expansion at the Cape.
If the stunning number of Starship launches predicted by Musk come true, even the putative launch facilities will be insufficient, not to mention the vehicle manufacturing capacity.
There is the additional challenge posed by future versions of Starship that may be substantially larger in length and diameter – the exclusion zone around the launch site for one of these 18 meter diameter monsters will make it nearly impossible to fit into any existing launch centers
It seems as though some or all of the following are going to be required:
– sea-based manufacturing and launch
– inland manufacturing and launch, that will require relaxation of present restrictions on flight over populated land area
– orbital manufacturing and launch, that will eventually eliminate ground launch and landing of Starships, with crews ferried up and down via “smaller” shuttles.
Anybody still wondering what millions of Optimus robots are going to do? They’re going to be building and crewing Starships!
Ray Van Dune wrote: “If the stunning number of Starship launches predicted by Musk come true, even the putative launch facilities will be insufficient, not to mention the vehicle manufacturing capacity.”
Not necessarily. If SpaceX can manage its goal of 3 launches per day at each launch pad, then each pad would be launching 1,000 times per year. Eight pads in Florida and a couple in California would result in 10,000 per year. Florida could see hourly launches, or maybe several launches during an hour, with seven tankers that will refill the tanks of the Mars/deep space Starship that launches with them.
Starships returning from Mars and from low Earth orbit would be reusable, so the manufacturing rate would not have to be so very high.
A high launch rate to Mars is assisted by a second launch window — more like an extension of the primary window — that we currently do not use. We use the 6½ month voyage window, but cargo flights could use the one that takes several months longer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSEPwokZmRQ#t=243 (13 minutes, Scott Manley, Pork chop plots)
The issue that I foresee is the storage of the hundreds of Starships as they await launch for the Mars transit windows. My first guess is that cargo ships would be loaded, launched, and stored in orbit as they awaited their window, but passengers would not be as happy waiting around in orbit for weeks or months as they awaited the window for their voyages. Scores or hundreds of passenger Starships would have to be stored somewhere near their launch pads until the transit window gets close.