Latest at SpaceX with LabPadre: April 17

BOCA CHICA, Texas (ValleyCentral) — This Week at Starbase, SpaceX dials in the chopsticks at Pad B.

The flame diversion system is delivered and installed at the launch complex, and the build out of Ship 35 and 37 continue now.

Let's dig into the rest of this week's update.

Picking up where we left off earlier in the week, under the cover of night demo, crews continue to level the old Stargate building until it was completely demolished.

The unrelenting high bay crews are also keeping up the pace as they tear into the building.

With the help of the crane operators, portions of the walls are lowered as the ground crews help complete the mission.

By nightfall, the elevator shaft was reduced to rubble, leaving the Stargate building all but a memory over at the launch complex, work never stops.

Once again, the chopsticks were actuated laterally for further testing and inspections.

A parade of vehicles followed portions of Pad B's flame diverter system as it made its way to the launch complex.

After an hour on the road for a 2.5 mile road trip, they finally made it through the D2 gate to the Pad B site.

After sunrise, we could see both modules were lifted and set in place inside the flame trench. At the time of launch, water will flow through the grid of pipes, helping to cool the flame trench in the surrounding area.

In what seems to be a never ending job, crews continue with the upgrade of the fuel farm pumping station.

The fifth LOX pump motor was installed along with a sixth pump, sump and pump eventually there will be a group of nine liquid oxygen pumps to help fuel the launch pads.

Back at the build site, a couple of raptor engines were spotted near the front of Mega Bay One as they're prepped to be installed into Ship 35 for the upcoming flight nine.

Launch crews are also finishing the build out of Ship 37 prepping its surface for heat shield tile installation as the sun rose, daylight revealed the cladding on the back side of high bay being removed in a checkerboard pattern.

I can only speculate the reasoning behind this is to allow the wind to pass through as it's being lowered to the ground to keep it from blowing like a sail.

And later in the afternoon, two more raptor engines were spotted making their way into Mega Bay One to complete Ship 35's six-engine ensemble.

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