Orbital Starship gets a nose

Construction of the orbit-capable Starship prototype in Boca Chica, Texas, has progressed to the point where it has — well, it has a point. No longer can it be mistaken for R2D2, or a water tank. This is undeniably a spaceship.

Musk has brought in the big gun of a free society: competition. A second Starship is being built at Cape Canaveral, at the grounds of a steel fabricator that is very familiar with NASA work (Coastal Steel). Word has it that SpaceX seems to have actually taken over the facility, though there are no rumors that they have actually bought them.

Competition is often used in racing to develop new industrial products, but seldom do design managers commit the resources to do it within their own company. That SpaceX is doing this in this manner implies to me that they are seriously serious about becoming a serious player in the developing infrastructure of our solar system.

Through the magic of photoshop, above is a direct visual comparison of the two different versions. Apparently, latitude has been given to the teams to choose their own methods of construction. Notice, for instance, that the Florida team uses steel plates of a different size, resulting in less welding and a smoother surface. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

In other SpaceX news…

Falcon 9 is going to take another swing at launching the first 60 Starlink satellites this coming Thursday, at 7:30 pm EDT. Link to video is found in this article.