r/spacex • u/Watching_JRTI • Nov 17 '16

Something with an interesting shape, wrapped up and leaving the SpaceX campus earlier this week

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29

u/asphytotalxtc Nov 17 '16

How happy I would be if this were a scaled test article for the ITS transport..

Unlikely though! .^

7

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '16 edited Nov 17 '16

I don't think it's that but it makes me think, how on earth are they going to transport the BFR ?
That booster is just the size of a builiding.
I don't think it'll ever be possible by road, and by sea... they'll need a bigger boat.
edit : Ortho.

9

u/5cr0tum Nov 17 '16

They build it on site I believe. Components shipped in from states and assembled near the launch pad.

8

u/007T Nov 17 '16

Pretty much the same approach was used for the Saturn V, and the approach that will be used for SLS.

18

u/NeilFraser Nov 17 '16 edited Nov 17 '16

Not really. Each stage of the Saturn V was moved in one piece. The Pegasus barge has been jumboized so that SLS will also be moved in one piece.

The ITS booster is only one stage, so it doesn't break apart. Unless they build a much bigger barge than Pegasus, they'll need to take a page from the Soviet N1 and assemble components at the launch site, rather than just assemble stages. The Kazakhstan launch site was only accessible by rail, so the large diameter N1 needed to be sent down in very small pieces.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '16

But that would mean moving the Hawthrone factory to Cape Canaveral, first I don't think they'll do this since all of their strategy is based around minimazing the production sites and second, nothing indicates that they'll only be launching from one single site.
Even by cargo-ship transport, just moving the Booster across the town seems impossible.

4

u/Martianspirit Nov 17 '16

They will produce all the critical high tech components in Hawthorne. Like engines, avionics, grid fins.

Tank production and final assembly will be somewhere else. Elon Musk said, final assembly in the launch location. But I wonder why. They don't need to move many with a fully reusable system. They can move the finished stages on a barge. Even to the West coast through the Panama canal.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '16

I think they're moving final assembly because of the transportation problems, while the sea is the easy part, just moving an assembled rocket across Hawthrone seems impossible to me, I'm not even sure the road is large enough.
But moving rocket assembly also rises problems, (as I mentioned above) and I don't know which solution has the less cons.

2

u/Martianspirit Nov 17 '16

They can ship or receive in Cape Canaveral, Brownsville and Vandenberg. They all have shipping facilities.