Latest at Starbase with LabPadre: Nov. 3

STARBASE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — This week at Starbase, SpaceX crews get to work dismantling the Pad 1 launch mount at the launch site.

Pad 2's chopsticks and booster quick disconnects are put through a battery of tests, the rise of cranes continues as Gigabays construction shifts into overdrive, and SpaceX releases an update on their Starship human landing system that will deliver astronauts to the moon.

Demolition work began on the Pad 1 launch mount, with workers cutting out the propellant lines that run around the base of the structure.

The rest of the launch structure has been marked in green paint, divided into segments that can be cut and lifted out one at a time.

Looking at the construction back at the build site, work on Gigabay is well underway with banks of ground-level columns being raised and put in place in the center of the site, keeping the crawler crane busy while waiting for tower crane parts.

After the easternmost crane's boom and rigging were installed, the crawler was put back to work on the innermost columns.

With the tower cranes now coming online, the easternmost crane was put to use unloading steel from delivery trucks, and the crawler lifted the cab and mast of the southernmost crane into place.

Meanwhile, the tower cranes began erecting steel columns on the right side of the bay.

The LR-1300 crawler crane was then brought to the front of the Giga Bay site before moving to the left side of the bay, hoisting its cribbing from one side to the other for the move.

From here, the crane will finish assembling the remaining two tower cranes.

Returning to the launch site to review this week's testing activities, Pad 2's chopsticks arms and landing rails were tested with crews checking the arms' rotation and the buffering mechanism on top.

Once the tests were complete, the landing rails were lowered back into their resting position.

The two booster quick-disconnect armatures, designed to carry liquid oxygen and liquid methane separately, went through a battery of extension and retraction tests, continuing the work to verify the readiness for the upcoming flight operations.

Venting was also seen at the perimeter of pad two.

Workers might be purging the cryo lines, which helps clean out any potential debris left inside during construction.

In other Starship news, SpaceX published an extensive update on their upcoming human landing system, scheduled to take astronauts to the lunar surface on Artemis 3 for the first time since the end of the Apollo Lunar Exploration Program in 1972.

Alongside footage and fantastic new renders of the ship's interior and exterior, SpaceX announced that spacecraft subsystems development, part of the orbital refueling, is now complete, and the company is making good time toward spacecraft readiness.

A demonstration spacecraft is currently in production, and it will perform a demonstration landing with representative flight hardware ahead of Artemis 3 to show that the ship is ready to carry astronauts to and from the lunar surface.

Several details were made clear in the new images.

The human landing systems' elevator systems are mounted on what would normally be the heat shield side of the spacecraft and will face away from the tower during launch.

Avigation lights on the outside of the spacecraft will help astronauts orient themselves relative to the ship while docking.

On the side, the flight deck, crew cabins, and flight controls were also showcased.

The human landing system's engine panel shows three sea-level and three vacuum engines, as well as six banks of lower-power thrusters for performing a soft touchdown on the lunar surface.

For continued live coverage and other detailed Starbase content, visit the LabPadre YouTube channel or LabPadre.com.