Latest at Starbase with LabPadre: August 11

STARBASE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — This week at Starbase, boosters trade places at the build site. Ship 37 makes its way back to Mega Bay two, and construction continues at the launch site, as well as the sites for the new Giga Bay and air separation plan.

Starting with our fabrication updates, the Starlink loader was removed from the Star Factory and sent to Mega Bay Two. It stopped in front of the center work stand with Starship 38, and crews began rigging the box for a lift.

Mega Bay Two's front door was closed at that point, blocking the view inside. About 36 hours later, the Starlink loader was brought out of the bay and returned to the Star Factory.

At the launch complex, workers began preparations to return ship 37 to the production site, lowering the work stand from beneath the ship and sending the transport stand to pad A.

Several hours later, with hardware removed and the transport stand in place, ship 37 was lifted off the launch mount.

Crews took their time with the ship, and it spent quite some time in the air before it was set down on the transport stand near the tower.

The chopsticks released the ship a few hours later, and ship 37 began its journey back to the production site.

Once the ship arrived at the build site, it was brought into Mega Bay two, and workers positioned the ship for lift onto the center work stand so that the ship's heat shield and other remaining pre-flight items could be worked on ahead of flight 10.

Now with ship 37 off the launch mount, workers began reconfiguring Pad A for regular flight operations.

Workers began to disassemble the ship interface system, and the crane was brought over to remove the ring adapter from the launch mount.

Making use of a crane, workers began to reinstall the hold-down clamps on the launch mount. A total of 15 were finished before the crane was retracted.

Although ship 37 was sent back to the build site, workers began dismantling the improvised test equipment. It seems that the static fire did not go as well as previously thought.

Workers began removing the 15 clamps that had been reinstalled on the launch mount, and the modified ship stand was also lifted back onto the launch mount for another static fire test.

Over at the build site, one of the Raptor vacuum engines was swapped out on ship 37 to be test-fired soon.

This change in plans will delay things, and SpaceX filed a new notice to mariners with flight 10 now launching no earlier than Aug. 22.

SpaceX recently released a new testing closure date for Tuesday, August 12, from 4 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Stay tuned to LabPadre for continued live coverage and other detailed Starbase content. Visit the LabPadre YouTube channel or LabPadre.com.