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SpaceX's Texas Starship factory set to receive more parts from Florida

Transport ship GO Discovery is getting ready to send another batch of Florida Starship parts to SpaceX's Texas facilities. (John Winkopp - Seamore Holdings)

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6 years ago

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After successfully delivering Starship hardware and manufacturing tools to SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas rocket factory and launch facilities, the company has begun preparing a second load of parts to be shipped from Florida to Texas in the near future.

This is the latest chapter in a saga that began when SpaceX revealed that it would effectively pause its Florida Starship manufacturing operations and reassign most of its affected employees. Since SpaceX’s early-December confirmation, the company’s Cocoa, Florida Starship production hub has been more or less at a standstill, only interrupted once and awhile by efforts to either scrap hardware that is no longer needed or send it to Texas, where SpaceX has redoubled efforts to build the next series of Starship prototypes.

Teams in Florida are still working tirelessly to construct a massive Starship launch mount at Pad 39A believed to be capable of supporting full-scale Starship and Super Heavy static fires and launches, confirmation that SpaceX is likely only temporarily halting Starship production in the region. Nevertheless, the focus is now unequivocally on SpaceX’s Boca Chica facilities, where the company is rapidly building and expanding manufacturing facilities and constructing the next full-scale Starship prototype (SN01).

Although manufacturing operations have been paused in Florida, the existing Cocoa facility still has a huge amount of Starship hardware strewn about, most of which appears to be bound for scrapyards. Some of that hardware and infrastructure, however, can be salvaged and used elsewhere by SpaceX, and that is exactly what the company is now doing.

Most recently, SpaceX loaded transport ship GO Discovery with two giant steel stands and a completed Starship dome and transported that hardware from Port Canaveral, Florida to Port of Brownsville in early-December 2019. After arriving, SpaceX moved the rocket parts and infrastructure by road to its Boca Chica facilities, where they have since been stored until they’re needed.

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While they may look rather small on GO Discovery, the steel assembly rings she transported to Texas are absolutely massive. (NASASpaceflight – bocachicagal)

At the moment, the almost-finished Starship Mk2 prototype remains at SpaceX’s Cocoa factory in three giant pieces – a cylindrical tank and engine section, the start of a curved nose section, and the tip of that nose section. It remains to be seen what the fate of those rocket parts is, as much of the structure could theoretically be sent to Texas to expedite Starship SN01 production and assembly. However, the utility of those parts is likely almost entirely dependent on their quality and the design and fabrication delta between them and whatever SpaceX has in mind for the next phase of prototypes.

SpaceX continues to develop Starship in largely the same way it worked on Falcon 9 booster landings, beginning with a minimum viable product (Grasshopper/Starhopper) and gradually improving the test hardware into something much more reminiscent of the real deal (F9R/Starship Mk1, Mk2). Ultimately, all the experience gained and lessons learned from building and flying those increasingly more complex prototypes is merged with true orbital-class flight hardware.

It appears that SpaceX (or at least CEO Elon Musk) believes that the company may have already learned enough from Starhopper and Starship Mk1/Mk2 to graduate directly to some form of serial production – implied by his statement that the next Texas prototype will now be known as Starship SN01. Formerly Starship Mk3, Starship SN01 will be built with an array of refined or fully-new production and assembly processes, hopefully resulting in a prototype that is significantly more refined than Starship Mk1, which is believed to have been intentionally destroyed during pressure testing in November 2019.

In line with that strategy, SpaceX is preparing to ship more upgraded Starship hardware and infrastructure from Florida to Texas.

https://twitter.com/John_Winkopp/status/1213850219672154114

Based on photos taken in the last few days by local photographer and observer John Winkopp, GO Discovery’s next shipment will include a number of rolls of stainless steel stock, another steel stand for Starship ring assembly, and parts of another unfinished Starship tank dome.

Altogether, it’s possible that Starship SN01 assembly will end up taking far less time than Starship Mk1 or Mk2. Musk believes that that new and improved Starship prototype could be ready for flight testing as early as February or March 2020.

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Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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SpaceX aces Starship test flight 10 with successful payload deployment

The mission began at 6:30 p.m. local time in Starbase, Texas, when the launch of Starship initiated. After about eight minutes, stage separation was completed, and the Super Heavy Booster headed back down to Earth for a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean:

Published

11 hours ago

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August 26, 2025

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Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX aced its tenth Starship test flight on Tuesday night after multiple delays pushed the mission back to this evening. Originally scheduled for Sunday night, SpaceX had two delays push the flight back to Tuesday, which ultimately provided ideal conditions for a launch attempt.

The tenth test flight of Starship had several objectives, including a successful splashdown of the booster in the Gulf of America, the deployment of eight Starlink simulation modules from the PEZ dispenser, and a splashdown of the ship in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX Starship Flight 10: What to expect

SpaceX successfully achieved all three of these objectives, making it one of the most successful test flights in the Starship program. There was no attempt to catch the booster this evening, as the company had been transparent about it ahead of the launch.

The mission began at 6:30 p.m. local time in Starbase, Texas, when the launch of Starship initiated. After about eight minutes, stage separation was completed, and the Super Heavy Booster headed back down to Earth for a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean:

Starship was then the main focus of the rest of the broadcast as it completed its ascent burn and coasted through space, providing viewers with spectacular views as the mission headed toward new territory, including the deployment of Starlink simulators. This would be the first time SpaceX would attempt a payload deployment.

The deployment works like a PEZ dispenser, as the simulators were stacked on top of one another and would exit through a small slit one at a time.

This occurred roughly 20 minutes into the mission:

An hour and six minutes into the flight, Starship reached its final destination, which was the Indian Ocean. A successful splashdown would bring closure to Starship’s tenth test flight, marking the fifth time a test flight in the program’s history did not end with vehicle loss.

It was also the first of four test flights this year that will end with Starship being recovered.

SpaceX is expected to launch Starship again in approximately eight weeks, pending the collection of data and other key metrics from this flight.

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WATCH: SpaceX attempts Starship’s tenth test flight after two delays

This evening, SpaceX has already stated that conditions appear to be approximately 45 percent favorable for launch. This is ten percent less than last night, when the mission was eventually scrapped around 7 p.m. local time.

Published

13 hours ago

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August 26, 2025

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Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX is set to launch Starship tonight, provided the weather cooperates and everything with the ship goes smoothly.

This is SpaceX’s third attempt to launch Starship for its tenth test flight, with Sunday’s and Monday’s attempts both being scrapped due to a leak and unfavorable weather conditions on the respective days.

This evening, SpaceX has already stated that conditions appear to be approximately 45 percent favorable for launch. This is ten percent less than last night, when the mission was eventually scrapped around 7 p.m. local time.

SpaceX Starship Flight 10: What to expect

Propellant load of the upper stage and Super Heavy booster is already underway, and the launch is expected to occur at 6:30 p.m. in Starbase, Texas.

You can watch the tenth test flight of Starship below via SpaceX:

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Tesla one-ups Waymo once again with latest Robotaxi expansion in Austin

Tesla’s new Robotaxi geofence measures roughly 171 square miles of Austin’s downtown and suburbs. This is more than double the size of Waymo’s geofence, which measures 90 square miles.

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18 hours ago

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August 26, 2025

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Credit: @BLKMDL3 | X

Tesla’s expansion of the Robotaxi geofence on Tuesday morning was a one-up on Waymo once again, as the automaker’s service area growth helps eclipse its rival in an intense back-and-forth.

A lot of conversation has been made about Tesla’s rivalry with Waymo in terms of the capabilities of its driverless ride-sharing service in Austin, Texas.

The two companies have sparred with one another, answering each other’s expansion, and continuing to compete, all to the benefit of consumers in the region.

Tesla expanded the geofence of Robotaxi once again this morning, and it is another growth that catapults it past Waymo’s service area in Austin — this time by a considerable margin.

Tesla’s new Robotaxi geofence measures roughly 171 square miles of Austin’s downtown and suburbs. This is more than double the size of Waymo’s geofence, which measures 90 square miles.

On July 14, Tesla officially overtook Waymo in terms of service area in Austin. But just a few days later, Waymo had responded with a bold statement, expanding from 37 square miles to 90 square miles.

Sarfraz Maredia, Global Head of Autonomous Mobility & Delivery at Uber, said the move “unlock[ed] another key milestone in Austin as our operating territory with Waymo expands from 37 to 90 square miles, which means that even more riders can experience Waymo’s fully autonomous vehicles through the Uber app.”

Tesla did not respond immediately, but it took its time with validation vehicle testing in the Austin suburbs, as we reported yesterday:

Tesla looks to expand Robotaxi geofence once again with testing in new area

Today’s expansion is perhaps the biggest step Tesla has taken in its efforts to continue to grow its Robotaxi platform. This is not only because the company has significantly expanded the size of the geofence, but also because it has ventured into suburban areas and even included Gigafactory Texas in its service area.

Waymo could come up with another timely response as it did when Tesla expanded in late July. We’ll wait to see what it comes up with, as this awesome competition between the two companies is accelerating innovation.

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