It’s been asserted that they were used for water but I know of no evidence that they actually were.

Texas regulations require that the design for a methane storage system be done by a registered professional engineer certified to do methane storage systems in Texas and be submitted for approval before construction starts. Thus it’s unlikely that they were “too close together”. More likely they just didn’t work right. Perhaps they had an excessive boiloff rate or too high a leakage rate.

Speculation: Perhaps they decided to build their own tanks because lead times for purchased tanks were too long. It worked out for LN2 and LOX.

I wonder why they have not recycled the suborbital tanks?

They’re now cutting up the shell of one of the vertical methane tanks. They managed to suck all the perlite out when we weren’t looking.

But there’s a guy up on one of the veritcal tanks working on the lifting rings so perhaps Zack is right.

That looks like a long reach from where it’s parked.

The LR11000 has moved into the space near gate D2 where they recently demolished the storage sheds. I think it’s there to handle the last three horizontal tanks (unless it’s just there to compact the new asphalt…)

Kathy Lueders said that this month is unlikely but seems to think that there’s a chance for January. I’ll go with that.

I think that a launch this year is still possible but I wouldn’t want to give odds. I think that before the end of January is likely. It would be cool for it to happen on my birthday but I’d rather see it earlier.

“Runs the risk” means it might happen, not that it will happen. When he said that Starlink was committed to switching to the version two satellites and F9 was not expected to be able to launch them. They would have missed their FCC deadlines. However, they were able to develop the “shrunken” Starlink2 that fits on F9. I also think that both the F9 launch cadence and Starlink sales have exceeded expectations.

If you never succeed you are pushing them too hard.

A test that goes to completion always returns more data than one that doesn’t. For example there is a theory that the flaps on the ship are too large. IFT2 could have confirmed or falsified it.

Disconnect arm. Looks like they’re planning on lowering at least a portion of it. (Rover 2.0 Cam)

They removed the flex pipes.

A way to make it quite stiff would be to sandwich stringers between an inner and outer ring.

There evidently is a manual shutoff but an attempt to reach it was aborted.

I think this test was done without the plates that close the top of the connection to the center section. If I’m correct the next test will look quite different.

Musk has said that he expected approval of a new FTS to be the long pole.

Musk said that he thought that FAA approval of a new FTS design was likely to be the long pole.

Hot staging also eliminates the gravity loss that otherwise would occur during the coasting phase during and after separation.

They may ignite only three engines at half thrust for the first second or so.

Such a device has been spotted at the shipyard. It has been speculated that the reason the ship QD was removed was to adjust it for the height added by the vented spacer.

Detanking at 15:43 CDT.

Looks like everyone is leaving the launch site in preparation for the static fire.

[Edit] Deputies at the road closure point.

Designs often start out symmetrical…