SpaceX is building a 122m launch tower to put Starship SN16 on top of the launcher, with the latest photographs of the launch site revealing that it is more than 50% complete.
It is the company's largest building to date, and it will serve as a model for future "ocean spaceports" that Elon Musk hopes to construct next year.
Last month, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk claimed to develop a global network of offshore platforms to support Starship. Musk's company is already transforming two decommissioned oil rigs in Brownsville, Texas.
SpaceX has made substantial progress toward the next Starship launch, which will see a prototype of the Mars-bound rocket fly into orbit for the first time.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A during a brief static fire test ahead of NASA's SpaceX Crew-2 mission on April 17, 2021, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
SpaceX Outfits Few Parts of Tower That Catches Rocket Boosters
Teslarati said the first significant component of a device that would allow SpaceX's Starship 'launch tower' to catch Starship boosters — and possibly the ships themselves — in mid-flight appears to have been installed on the structure.
The tower's principal objective, which is now nearing completion just a few months after construction began, is to provide a sturdy platform capable of steadying Starships and Super Heavy boosters during final integration when the two stages unite to form one launch vehicle. The task of precisely mating two parts of what amounts to a few hundred-ton skyscrapers will be significantly more difficult than it appears, as it will be located within a stone's throw from the Gulf of Mexico on the windy South Texas coast.
They added a new machine to the base of the tower: pic.twitter.com/vMtDZ1tXwS
— Starship Gazer (@StarshipGazer) June 19, 2021
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Regular Starship operations will demand swift, dependable, and repeatable mating in practically all weather and wind situations; however, early operations may trade refinement for patience and some extra risk. To put it another way, Starship's integration tower will very certainly be equipped with arm-like devices capable of temporarily securing Starships and Super Heavy boosters. As teased by CEO Elon Musk multiple times over the last six months, SpaceX or its obstinate boss appears to have determined somewhere along the way that the same tower might potentially catch those building-sized rocket stages as well.
Will SN16 Launch In July?
Independent said the Starship SN16 is set to launch later this month from SpaceX's Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. It will travel for around 90 minutes before landing off the coast of Hawaii.
The next step of Starship's development will be a 70-meter-tall Super Heavy booster stage capable of launching the 50-meter spacecraft into orbit.
Only one of the high-altitude flight tests conducted so far has resulted in no explosions, with Starship SN15 safely landing in early May.
SpaceX has not released a firm timeline for the next phase of Starship testing, but it did say in March that SN16 will complete the first orbital test flight by July.
Elon Musk's Plan To Mars
The first commercial mission, a flyby loop around the moon with paying passengers on board, is scheduled for 2023.
Musk has previously stated that visits to Mars might happen between 2024 and 2026 when Mars and Earth are at their closest distances. However, the tech tycoon is known for his excessively optimistic predictions.
NASA has already awarded SpaceX a multibillion-dollar contract to construct Starship for the Artemis mission to the Moon in 2024.
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