{"id":94449,"date":"2019-08-05T06:43:15","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T13:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/spacexs-florida-starship-hits-growth-spurt-as-texas-starship-begins-bulkhead-installation"},"modified":"2019-08-05T06:43:15","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T13:43:15","slug":"spacexs-florida-starship-hits-growth-spurt-as-texas-starship-begins-bulkhead-installation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/spacexs-florida-starship-hits-growth-spurt-as-texas-starship-begins-bulkhead-installation","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s Florida Starship hits growth spurt as Texas Starship begins bulkhead installation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/spacexs-florida-starship-hits-growth-spurt-as-texas-starship-begins-bulkhead-installation.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the last week alone, SpaceX\u2019s twin orbital Starship prototypes have made some truly jaw-dropping progress. Onlookers have witnessed Florida\u2019s Starship push through a rapid growth spurt, while the company\u2019s Texas team has begun to install propellant tank bulkheads and work on a triple-Raptor thrust structure.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has suggested that one or both of the orbital-class Starship prototypes could be \u201calmost ready to fly\u201d by August 24th, the date of the CEO\u2019s next official update on Starship (formerly BFR and ITS). Although the actual challenge of building a massive, orbital-class launch vehicle is far subtler than the visible steelwork needed to build its primary structure and pressure vessels, the veritable leaps forward made in both Texas and Florida in the last 7\u201310 days are extremely encouraging signs.<\/p>\n<p>Starting off in Boca Chica, Texas, SpaceX\u2019s team of engineers and technicians have been simultaneously handling Starhopper\u2019s first untethered flight test (completed on July 25th) and building the facility\u2019s orbital-class Starship prototype. Most significantly, after a few days of preparation, what is likely the Texas Starship\u2019s first bulkhead was lowered inside its ~25m-tall (80 ft) barrel section, composed of the spacecraft\u2019s propulsion section and propellant tanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the last week alone, SpaceX\u2019s twin orbital Starship prototypes have made some truly jaw-dropping progress. Onlookers have witnessed Florida\u2019s Starship push through a rapid growth spurt, while the company\u2019s Texas team has begun to install propellant tank bulkheads and work on a triple-Raptor thrust structure. Meanwhile, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has suggested that one [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2019,1514],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elon-musk","category-space-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}