Latest at Starbase with LabPadre: Oct. 23

STARBASE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — This week at Starbase, with Flight 11 now checked off the success list, our new expert analyst, Caden, provides a thorough update as Block 3 vehicles are in full production at the build site. Workers make their way to complete the build-out of Pad 2 with Flight 12 in their sights.

No further launches are planned from this Pad 1 launch mount, so it will be demolished.

The work platform was brought back to the build site, where it will likely be scrapped.

Back at the build site, crews were busy moving multiple test tanks in and out of the Star Factory.

Test article Ship 39.1, recently assembled inside Mega Bay 2, was lifted off the turntable and taken into the factory, and a new lifting jig was brought inside the bay.

Inside Star Factory's assembly hall, the scaffolding was taken down from around the nose cone of Starship 39, the first V3 ship.

A ship lifting jig was brought into Mega Bay 2, ready to begin assembly of that ship.

Amid the equipment shuffle, the Starlink loader and installation jig were brought into the bay, near one of the right-side work stands.

With the bay prepared, Starship 39's nosecone was rolled out of Star Factory, giving us our best look yet at the V3 payload bay section.

Most of this section's design is surprisingly largely unchanged from V2, save for a cleaner tile profile and the docking interface hardware for ship-to-ship propellant transfers.

Starship, as we all know, is designed to refuel in orbit, which will let it travel anywhere in the solar system.

A V3 booster's forward dome and hot staging truss section, likely for booster 18, was moved from the Star Factory to Mega Bay 1 for stacking.

If we take a closer look at the upper dome, we can see that the top section has been reinforced with doubling plates underneath Starship's engines, which will protect the upper pressure dome of the methane tank during ignition and hot staging.

Back in Mega Bay 2, Ship 39's nose cone was lifted over and attached to the Starlink dispenser hardware we saw earlier.

The lift and chain drive system is designed to eject the new V3 Starlink satellites one at a time.

Once installed, the ship was moved over to the right-hand side of the bay while the dispenser installation stand was taken back to Star Factory.

Ship 39 was brought out to the door again a few hours later, showing the dispenser's chain drive which pushes the satellites out the door.

Moving down Highway 4 back to the launch site, fabrication work at Pad 2 continued with more cladding added to the pad side bunker.

Several flex hoses were installed on the booster quick disconnect housings, bringing the pad closer to readiness.

Shielding panels were brought to the launch site, where it looks like installation will be over the water cooling manifolds for the launch pad's upper deck.

The liquid oxygen booster quick disconnect mechanism was also put through a battery of extension and retraction tests.

With Flight 12 scheduled to fly from Pad 2, the race is on to bring the pad into service.

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