The Starship program is investigating the machine with an eye toward a possible tower catch for subsequent flight, a purpose that is likely to prove more useful following Aviation 4’s successful sea soft landing. Booster Check Division – Booster 14.1 – Development is underway on a second orbital installation habitat at Starbase, using learnings from the primary habitat, with the transfer to the orbital installation habitat.
Several indicators point to a conceivable catch attempt on Starship’s fifth flight. Elon Musk posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he thought there should be an effort to capture Aviation 5. A new communications license from the USA Federal Communications Commission (FCC) contains language that states.’ Both will be a comfortable sea landing like the last flight or a catch attempt on the orbital setting website.
Booster 14.1 scales up compared to Mekazilla and Setup Tower. (Credit score: BocaChicaGal for NSF/L2)
The most significant signal of SpaceX’s intentions for flight testing in the near future has been the rollout of a new test article called Booster 14.1. The B14.1 is a simulated mini methane tank, consisting of a booster front dome, an advective dome and a quad methane tank division.
The shredded booster article was once installed via crane into the orbital installation habitat, after which the probe was completed with new crusher caps and raised issues on the former Macy’s gun area, which is now a check website for the starbase. Is.
The 3 nearest highway closures listed for Starbase are: Tuesday, June 25 from 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm CDT (17:00 to 01:00 UTC, June 25/26), Wednesday, June 26 at 8 to 8:00 a.m. CDT (same time as 13:00 to 01:00 UTC, June 26/27 and Thursday, June 27, closing on June 26).
SpaceX, on the other hand, has canceled the closure on June 25 and June 27 and closed it for checkout only on June 26.
Ha! And now we all know why they use check tanks for those checks. #Slaphttps://t.co/fkcXWYv7Vv pic.twitter.com/EPalY02JGm
– Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) 26 June 2024
B14.1 was shut down on June 26 for testing, and SpaceX has shut down intermittently from 12 noon to 4 pm on June 27 for additional testing. On the other hand, unlike the previous concept, SpaceX did not lift the small test booster, nor was it filled with propellant or H2O.
In turn, SpaceX pressurized the check tank, and the north arm briefly shut down and the tank crashed. SpaceX is testing this through the uncaught catch operation, where the fingers must approach and contact the booster to get the touchdown rail under lift issues.
Day B14.1 is designed for testing with “chopstick” fingers, possibly as part of testing the machine’s response before any catch attempts, Optional Activities at Starbase Website Prepare for a busy and energetic time Is doing. Launch, at least when there is no storm within the branch.
SpaceX is now facing an additional brief shutdown from 10:00 pm to 2:00 am CDT June 26 (03:00 to 07:00 UTC June 27), 27/ With the same times for June 28 and June 28/29. , They were deployed to move the last of the tower categories from the port of Brownsville to the Sanchez Bay site, with the barge sporting the towers not scheduled to arrive in port until June 28. It’s not really going to hurt any of them to be shut down.

Overspill at starbase on June 20, 2024. (Credit score: Sean Doherty for NSF/L2)
On June 20, weather conditions inside the branch were so extreme that work at the facility had to be halted. The winds would no longer allow work on the tower to continue, Highway 4 was flooded due to heavy rains. Elements pressured to ban a boat carrying tower components in Tampa during a voyage from Port Canaveral to Brownsville.
A second orbital setup habitat is being built on the site of the previous suborbital setup pad, and a supporting underpinning has been prepared for the second tower. The massive concrete pillars are actually the eye, and the final tower section and the “Mechazilla” portion are actually in transit from Florida via the Gulf of Mexico. The pillars appear to be different from those protecting the primary orbital setup mount, and the new tower and setup mount design will lack certainty, explained through the Experience on Starbase Primary Orbital Setup website.

The pillars of the second orbital installation residence are noticeable in the pictures here. (Credit score: BocaChicaGal for NSF/L2)
The orbital tank farm, which can support each setting pad, has received a new tall horizontal tank this time to increase capacity and is being installed nowadays. The tank farm is being upgraded, the system using vertical tanks built long ago is actually being dismantled.
By now the entire cryogenic shells which were in the damaged vertical tanks had been removed. Damaged tank farms, consisting of tanks built into the same instrument as starship probe ships, would probably be too early to create instruments for alternative infrastructure indistinguishable to wave or new installation habitation.

Fresh parking storage is shown here along with tower areas for the installation of a second residence. (Credit score: BocaChicaGal for NSF/L2)
But apart from setting up the infrastructure, a lot of work has been done on structures like fresh parking storage and workplace construction in this system. Parking storage is almost complete, and will be activated when the number of people parking along Freeway 4 reduces. In the intervening period, a new locus of job creation has achieved alternative levels.
All the heat shields made up of over 18,000 tiles are being replaced for when Aviation 5 will fly, so that the game will be a part of it when flight is enabled. Damaged tiles are being replaced with the latest and more powerful tiles with the addition of an ablative heat shield beneath those tiles for additional thermal coverage.

Send 30 heat defense paintings in the walk. (Credit score: BocaChicaGal for NSF/L2)
Starship can now fly missions that have a profile very closely related to Aviation 4 with a current FAA license, although any catch effort requires a license modification. If Aviation 5 definitely goes all out with the catch attempt on the tower for Booster 12, the alternative bureaucracy might want to apply for this license modification.
Aviation 5 is also being inspected and painted on the orbital installation habitat and mount. Elon Musk has indicated the end of July as the target for the aviation of this project, although it is highly likely that this could sometimes slide to August or even early September. Regardless of when it takes off, it will be another case of “excitement guaranteed”, especially if trying to capture the tower.
(Official symbol: Booster 14.1 on Orbital Starting Mount on Habitat. Credit score: Bokachikagal for NSF/L2)