SpaceX Kennedy Starship Launch Tower Rollout

[glend (Glen)]

SpaceX has pre-assembled most of the Starship launch tower segments for the tower build at Cape Canaveral. Today they rolled out segment two to the tower base location, segment one is already there. The tower concrete base was finished previously. These tower segments should go up quickly as they are complete assemblies, including cable ducts, elevator tracks, propellant piping, etc.
The NASAspaceflight Utube channel has video of the segment move, if your interested.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Glen,
I follow most of the YouTube channels every week or so watching Space X progress both at Boca Chica and the Cape.
In July 2018 , my wife and I spent 3 days touring the KSC and Cape Canaveral Air Force precinct and back then the only signs of Space X activity was a small hanger (30m x 20m ) on the road out to Pad 39A.
Fast forward 3 to 4 years later and in a few months time they will have almost completed a full Starship launch facility.
The rate of progress from this private company is absolutely staggering.

One question I still can’t get my head around , the Saturn 5 produced 7.6 million pounds of thrust during launch, spectators were nearly 4 miles away and and felt their bodies and the ground shake like an earthquake, apparently the shock waves from the launch also killed most of the fish in the Banana river nearby not to mention other wildlife in the area.
An orbital Starship will produce nearly 17 million pounds of thrust at liftoff and it’s only located a few miles from Pad 39A.
Q: How on earth is the FAA going to approve a Starship launch at the Cape ???

Comments welcome

Cheers
Martin

[glend (Glen)]

SpaceX already has approval for launches from the Cape, albeit the original approval was for Falcon Heavy type. As the SLS apparently has approval I can't see an issue for the Starship, and environmentally the concerns would be the same. Certainly there does not seem to be the requirement for a new environmental impact study, such as the recent Boca Chica gauntlet. I have heard concerns mentioned from NASA regarding potential damage to adjacent pads being used for ISS resupply and crew missions, but SpaceX can launch Falcon 9 missions from Vandenburg if required. Mitigation steps of damage radius may be taken, as those required at Boca Chica, like the tower blast wall, but there is no formal review program that I know of, and Elon is unlikely to have moved to build a new launch tower there without asking the question. As far as a few dead fish and birds are concerned, these are normal hazards in an operational space port. More concerning is the recommended exclusion zone radius, during launch, which for Starship I believe is a 30km radius. This is achievable at Boca Chica, as they only have to evacuate a few properties at Boca Chica village, but Coco Beach is a different situation as the area within the exclusion radius contains many people and businesses. Still the SLS has similiar concerns I would think. The SLS will launch from the Cape before Starship (which will first launch from Boca Chica), so let's see what happens.

[Visionary (David)]

It’d made more sense (given green field status) to choose a site similar to Black Rock, a desert site. If things go wrong the size of the blast would be in the ball park of Hiroshima, bloody big!
Even to have located into one of Australia s many, many desert sites. Unfortunately in Oz there maybe a sacred rock or twig that would be discovered just after building commenced.
I live near Aust only nuclear reactor, perfectly safe, rockets aren’t safe and until SSO tech is developed they’ll remain risky. Rockery is a risky business, aviation is a safe we’ll proven business, make rocketry mor like aviation.
We need a decision, not a thought bubble via a billionaire, an idea multiple countries get behind note: the opposite of the ISS, something ground breaking and worthwhile, advancing the science of rocketry.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Current Falcon 9 launches at the Cape 1.1 million pounds of thrust
Previous Falcon Heavy launches at the Cape 4.1 million pounds of thrust
Proposed Starship Orbital launch at Cape 17 million pounds of thrust

How do they dampen all that kinetic energy produced from Starship ( equal to a mini atomic bomb )

Approval from FAA or not , I certainly wouldn’t want to live within 50 miles of the launch site

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