Latest at Starbase with LabPadre: Oct. 30

STARBASE, Texas (ValleyCentral) —Wrapping up the rest of this week's update, LabPadre is seeing major changes happening at the launch complex.

Crews are preparing for the demolition of Pad 1's launch mount, the existing chopsticks are in for a major overhaul, Pad 2's launch mount construction is still underway, and Massey's outpost fueling infrastructure continues to be repaired.

Down at the launch complex, the push is on to demolish the outdated equipment at Pad 1.

On Sunday, crews got to work on the chopsticks, removing the pusher cars and ship lifting pins from the arms.

On Monday, demolition of the berm between Pad 1 and the tank farm began, with excavators breaking up and pulling down a section of the barrier's concrete cover.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the vent lines were removed from the tops of the liquid oxygen subcoolers on the pad on one side of the tank farm.

This removal begins what will most likely be a major redesign of how the original end of the tank farm is utilized.

Later in the week, the focus shifted to the liquid oxygen pumps.

First, the motors were removed, then crews began lifting the pumps themselves out.

It's not yet clear if all of this will be replaced or removed and later reinstalled in the new layout.

Once all the liquid oxygen pumps were removed, the sumps that had previously housed them quickly followed suit.

On Wednesday, an interesting delivery was taken to the launch complex, likely to be used on the cable for Tower 1.

The next day, the lifting cable for the Pad 1 chopsticks was unreeved, paving the way for the removal of the arms from the tower.

It is likely that they will be replaced by the shorter arm design we see on Pad 2.

On Friday, crews began removing the liquid oxygen feed piping to the sub-coolers.

Later that afternoon, crews were observed painting lines on the side of Pad 1's launch mount, likely marking where they will be starting the cuts as the massive structure is taken apart.

Meanwhile, over at Pad 2, crews worked to install more protective steel panels covering the part of the top deck water manifold, as well as other parts of the service structure.

It also appears that the crews have been busy installing catch hardware on the Pad 2 chopsticks.

In this photo, we can see what appears to be the catch bumpers on the starboard chopstick.

Venting was also seen coming from the Massey Outpost tank farm on Wednesday as SpaceX performed some testing of the infrastructure there.

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