SpaceX and other space news updates

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will25u
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10k launches a year? Seems... like a lot, a lot.

Tailgate88
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will25u said:

10k launches a year? Seems... like a lot, a lot.



My Starbase Louisiana SpaceX town hall notes!

Roads: Bridge work is the first priority, with road upgrades coming soon. Once construction starts, they plan to bus contract workers in to reduce traffic.

About 40,000 acres will be developed. SpaceX says it is committed to keeping the other two-thirds accessible to the public for hunting and fishing.
More specifically, expect limited access south of Humble Canal.

Why 40,000 acres? One reason: some pads will be operational while others are still being built. That means more spacing between pads.

They do not anticipate structural damage to homes in Pecan Island, and say they will work with residents if it becomes necessary.

Target: 10,000 launches a year. Expect most activity around sunrise and sunset.

First permits should start showing up soon.

Starship will be manufactured on site.

There will not be one contractor in charge. There will be many, with SpaceX keeping the lead.
Contractors are held to a high standard and will have to keep earning their spot on this site.

Biggest takeaway: SpaceX is humble. Always wanting to learn, and not claiming to have all the answers.
They are leaning on experts in Vermilion Parish for wetland and wildlife knowledge while developing the largest spaceport in history.
will25u
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Zobel
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They're going to need to do air separation and liquid methane production on site for that.

I imagine that will be an all electric drivetrain.

But you need a LOT of electricity. Back of the envelope ~5GW. That's a lot of gas turbines.

And would be like... 10x? 20x? the largest air separation complex in the world?
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TexAgs91
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Zobel said:

They're going to need to do air separation and liquid methane production on site for that.

I imagine that will be an all electric drivetrain.

But you need a LOT of electricity. Back of the envelope ~5GW. That's a lot of gas turbines.

And would be like... 10x? 20x? the largest air separation complex in the world?


There's also abundant natural gas pipines going through there.
Chemistry happens and eventually the rocks get opinions...
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Maximus_Meridius
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True, but pulling 5 GW worth of natural gas through those lines is going to put some serious strain on the system. Wouldn't be surprised to see at least 1 new line, plus some uprates of the pipelines there.

Or hell, Elon might go rogue and throw up a couple SMR plants. At this point, anything is possible with that guy.
Zobel
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Its not 5GW worth of LNG - about 1/10 of that. SpaceX says its something like 5250 t of propellant per launch, assuming split beween LOX and liquid methane its like 4:1 - so at 10,000 launches per year roughly 41 million tpa of LOX and 11 million tpa of LNG.

so like 3 GW is for LOX, bout 0.5 GW for LNG, then fudge factored it up for boiloff losses and pumps and whatnot, plants running with some headroom, ~5 GW for rough order of magnitude.

11 million tpa is not insane, Freeport LNG is 15 mmtpa. But its a *huge* air separation unit.
torrid
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Tailgate88 said:


Target: 10,000 launches a year. Expect most activity around sunrise and sunset.


27 launches a day.
tk for tu juan
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Would never have to buy an alarm clock, guaranteed to be awake at sunrise
TexAgs91
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tk for tu juan said:

Would never have to buy an alarm clock, guaranteed to be awake at sunrise



Chemistry happens and eventually the rocks get opinions...
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will25u
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CascadiaAg
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bmks270
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Is there even 10,000 launches per year of payload? What will the payloads be, and what is their economic value?

Is this the plan just for space data centers?
bmks270
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It's all pure fantasy though. Falcon isn't even 200 launches in a year, and he's saying they'll be doing 50x that with starship.

Just the human man hours required may not exist. It will be a lot of engineers. I guess he plans to replace them with AI.?
bthotugigem05
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Why do you think they've been making robots?
Jock 07
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bmks270 said:

Is there even 10,000 launches per year of payload? What will the payloads be, and what is their economic value?

Is this the plan just for space data centers?

pLEO is fixin to turn up launches to 11. While a lot of the satellites will be smaller so you can launch more at once it will still significantly increase launch cadence. Not speaking specifically to starship more in general.
PJYoung
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Kenneth_2003
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bmks270 said:

It's all pure fantasy though. Falcon isn't even 200 launches in a year, and he's saying they'll be doing 50x that with starship.

Just the human man hours required may not exist. It will be a lot of engineers. I guess he plans to replace them with AI.
An additional dozen launch facilities in Louisiana is the force multiplier. At peak they had 3v F9 launch facilities.

The orbital refueling is also a big consumer of launch cadence. The driver of rapid reuseability is very literally catch, fuel, and fly. If a drone and AI can aide in pre-reflight inspection then that's what it will require.
ABATTBQ11
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bmks270 said:

It's all pure fantasy though. Falcon isn't even 200 launches in a year, and he's saying they'll be doing 50x that with starship.

Just the human man hours required may not exist. It will be a lot of engineers. I guess he plans to replace them with AI.?


Falcon is pretty old at this point, and I don't think they ever wanted to invest in the infrastructure for that kind of cadence knowing starship would eventually replace it
will25u
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will25u
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nortex97
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Fueling speed is great after a huge fleet of trucks show up for a flight. But that's not sustainable either with rapid launches. They have to really build the infrastructure to produce all that methane-lox near term to the 2 starbases. Then figure out what they will be doing out at sea.
will25u
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Mr President Elect
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Yeah, but isn't a propellant farm part of the core design for the Louisiana site?
txags92
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Mr President Elect said:

Yeah, but isn't a propellant farm part of the core design for the Louisiana site?

They are building an air separation unit and methane production plant at Starbase too. The pipe carrying the methane from the port to the launch complex I think they referred to as Starpipe.
nortex97
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Methane line chill-down might have started already. T-0 of 7:45am this morning as of now (It slipped 30 minutes, not sure why, not a big deal).
Some links;
Live coverage on youtube from nsf: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/09/starship-flight-14-orbit/

https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-14
PJYoung
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PJYoung
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I assume no more jelly fish effect for us.
PJYoung
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PJYoung
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Kenneth_2003
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GO for launch! and its off!!!
YellowPot_97
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Cruisin'
Mathguy64
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Losing some raptors. I wonder if that's compromising a catch.
Mathguy64
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Ah. No catch was planned. Thought they were doing a booster catch this time.
AtlAg05
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Mathguy64 said:

Losing some raptors. I wonder if that's compromising a catch.


I think I've heard they can still catch without some lit, when they actually try to do it next
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