CNBC reports “Elon Musk says SpaceX has started building a Starship launchpad on Florida’s Space Coast”. A concrete foundation for a Starship pad was poured at the Launch Complex 39A site leased by SpaceX in 2019 at a time when Musk said SpaceX would assemble Starship test vehicles both in Texas and Florida, but no further work was done or mention of Florida launches until yesterday’s announcement.
NASA approved the construction of Starship facilities in 2019, with the above diagram showing where they will be placed with the 39A site. Note that the existing Falcon 9/Heavy pad will not be affected, so SpaceX should be able to support both vehicles at the same time.
One detail not mentioned so far is how Starship and Super Heavy will get to Florida. If manufacturing remains at Boca Chica, there’s really only two ways to get them to Florida: by sea or by flying them there. It’ll be interesting to see what plans emerge.
Sometimes, it seems that NASA is a make-work jobs program for lawyers:
NASA, in a statement to CNBC, confirmed that SpaceX is “within the rights of their lease agreement to make launch infrastructure improvements within the boundaries of the pad.” The agency also confirmed that NASA is not providing funding for the Starship launchpad, and deferred to SpaceX on the project’s scope, cost, and timeline.
The space agency performed an environmental assessment of the plan in 2019 and gave SpaceX permission to begin work within the LC-39A site. But the agency said that “approval is only to build at this time,” with authorization for launches and landings requiring a separate approval process.
And that is potentially a gun to the head of SpaceX, especially after they’ve sunk the costs of building the launch. landing, and ground support equipment infrastructure. The Merritt Island facilities were sized based on Saturn V operations, with the 5 km spacing between the launch pads and vehicle assembly building and launch control centre based upon estimates of a worst-case accident on the launch pad and noise/vibration from an operational launch. But Starship has around twice the fuel load and thrust of the Saturn V, which may argue for greater separation. I recall that when NASA was considering the Nova rocket as a Saturn V successor, which was comparable to Starship/Super Heavy in mass and thrust, they said it may have to be launched from an offshore facility due to hazard and noise considerations. Also, NASA may object to launching and landing Starship so close to the Falcon 9 pad from which Dragon cargo and crew missions are flown, since a Starship disaster would probably put the Falcon pad out of service for an extended period of time, interrupting access to the space station.
When I was in consulting, there was a price for me to get the job done, and a price to help someone get it done.
The latter price was double.
Reminds me of SpaceX working with NASA.
As of this writing, my intuition tells me SpaceX Mars mission will precede SpaceX/NASA mission to the moon.
SpaceX Mars mission or SpaceX only Moon mission, is far more likely, and easier, than NASA involved mission.
