---
title: 'SpaceX Is Hiding Something! | Starship Update'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=sAyOu_OXbBM'
video_id: 'sAyOu_OXbBM'
date: 2026-08-05
duration_sec: 940
---

# SpaceX Is Hiding Something! | Starship Update

> Source: [SpaceX Is Hiding Something! | Starship Update](https://youtube.com/watch?v=sAyOu_OXbBM)

## Summary

This video provides a comprehensive update on SpaceX's Starship program, covering construction progress at Starbase, the new Gigabay, launch pad refurbishments, and testing activities. It highlights the removal of the launch tower arm at Pad 1, extensive deluge testing at Pad 2, and the installation of IB proofing at LC-39A, along with updates on Raptor engine testing and the mystery structure at McGregor.

### Key Points

- **Gigabay Construction** [00:39] — SpaceX is building the Gigabay, a large facility for assembling and refurbishing Starship v3 and Super Heavy boosters. The transfer aisle bridge crane will be installed to move vehicles between workstations, similar to Megabays. Roof trusses are being prefabricated on the ground for easier construction.
- **Pad 1 Launch Mount Upgrades** [02:09] — A new top deck panel for the orbital launch mount at Pad 1 was lifted, but not installed yet. The new design includes deluge water outlets to protect the mount, improving on the old steel-only design that eroded over time. This standardized design is being used across all new Starship pads.
- **Launch Tower Arm Removal** [03:52] — Aerial work platforms were spotted on the launch tower, indicating SpaceX is close to removing the old launch arm. The arm has served for 11 launches and has been retrofitted multiple times. The new arm for Pad 2 is designed for higher flight cadence, and removal was aborted once but is expected soon.
- **Pad 2 Chopstick Reinforcements** [05:25] — SpaceX is welding doubler plates on the chopsticks and carriage system at Pad 2 to strengthen them, similar to work done after Booster catch on Flight 5. The chopsticks were closed after work, and scaffolding was removed.
- **Deluge System Testing** [05:52] — Pad 2's deluge system saw 11 runs, including three back-to-back tests on one day. SpaceX is connecting water mains to refill the tank farm, and sump pumps will empty the trench. Two new tanks arrived from Brownsville, and an air separation unit is being installed to supplement commodity supply.
- **IB Proofing at LC-39A** [07:25] — IB proofing was installed on the orbital launch mount at LC-39A to verify hold-down clamp alignment and their ability to withstand 33 Raptor 3 engines' thrust. This testing is expected to take about 11 days, similar to Pad 2. Pad 39A is estimated to be 4-6 months from completion, with a potential launch this winter.
- **SLC-37 Tower Stacking** [09:10] — The second of nine modules for the first tower at SLC-37 was stacked using the LR13000 crane. This site will host the fourth and fifth Starship pads, but completion is unlikely before 2028, based on Pad 2's timeline.
- **Vandenberg LC-36 Demolition** [09:50] — SpaceX demolished historic Launch Complex 36 at Vandenberg, possibly to convert it into a Falcon 9/Heavy site or even a Starship pad. This follows the pattern of repurposing sites for Starship.
- **Florida Gigabay Progress** [10:30] — The Florida Gigabay is about 3 months ahead of Starbase's. The last tower crane is being dismantled, replaced by a Manitowoc MLC 650 crawler crane. Marmac 31 was moved to Port Canaveral to transport vehicles from Starbase until Florida production is ready.
- **Raptor Engine Testing at McGregor** [11:57] — Raptor 3 testing increased from 12 to 16 tests, including re-light tests and longer burns (~141 seconds) likely for boostback and landing. Raptor SN80 completed a fast test cycle, possibly validating upgrades. The mystery structure got a black tarp, possibly to hide testing of the Human Landing System.
- **Massey's Testing and Ship 39.1** [14:05] — Booster 20 rolled back after testing, and the cryo stand was stored. Ship 39.1 conducted its 16th cryogenic proof test. Booster 18.3 had actuators removed, possibly ending its testing career, but new actuators were welded on the super crusher for further tests.

### Conclusion

SpaceX continues to make significant progress across multiple sites, with Pad 2 deluge testing, Pad 1 refurbishment, and the Gigabay construction moving forward. The program is steadily marching towards Flight 13, with key infrastructure upgrades and testing activities paving the way for higher flight cadence and future Starship launches from Florida.

## Transcript

Starbase as SpaceX slowly but surely prepares for Starship flight 13, including a stupendous amount of deluge testing at pad two. Refurbishment is in full swing at pad one with proofing the launch mounted LC-39A. Slick 37's tower
is stacking and if that wasn't enough, we've seen some changes to the mystery structure at McGregor. What's going on inside? All of that and much more is inside? All of that and much more is coming up in this Starship update.
Gigabay, the huge building where SpaceX plans to assemble and refurbish its version three Starships and Super Heavy Boosters. We can see that SpaceX has transfer aisle bridge crane will be installed and where the roof trusses
will go. But, what does a bridge crane actually do? You might ask. As the Gigabay is divided into workstations to produce and stack both boosters and ships, you need to be able to move from their workstations or turntables across
to the transfer aisle. This is where the bridge crane comes into play. Just like we see inside both of the Megabays, it is a large crane mounted on the roof of the building. It can travel across to a turntable, lift a vehicle up to attach
another barrel section, or move a fully stacked vehicle over to a workstation or a transport stand for testing or flight. A fully stacked Super Heavy Booster with heaviest thing that a bridge crane will have to lift inside the Gigabay. When a
booster's methane tank is being stacked onto its liquid oxygen tank, we see that the bridge cranes inside Megabay one have to hand the methane tank over to cover both the turntable and the workstation where the liquid oxygen tank
is waiting. This is why SpaceX rolls out the liquid oxygen landing tank installation jig to put the methane tank on for a bridge crane swap. We expect the Gigabay, which should make the stacking process run a bit more
smoothly. SpaceX is prefabricating the roof trusses on the ground before lifting them up with the tower cranes. Prefabricating them on the ground allows for better access during construction and improves the whole process as well.
When the roof trusses are installed, SpaceX can then put the roof itself onto production part of the Gigabay, leaving only the penthouse, the doors, and all the panels to finish the outside of the building. Moving to Sanchez, there's
more construction, specifically with the new orbital launch mount for pad one. We saw another top deck panel being lifted this week following the previous lift at hard to see from a distance, it looks as though this top deck piece was lifted
and simply moved aside, probably to allow better access for work. Because the launch mount is not yet ready to receive the top deck, we will have to actually lifted onto the rest of the mount. The top panel for the launch
mount is where the deluge water will exit to protect the mount, including launches and landings. With the old design at pad one, the only protection on the top deck was steel, which would erode over time. The same applied to the
increased the refurbishment time needed behind us, we can see that the new design held up far better compared with the old. This standardized design, so to speak, is being duplicated across all of
SpaceX's new Starship pads, but more on that later. Stopping by Megabay 2, we can see ship 41 sitting on the bay's middle work stand. This time with no visible scaffolding surrounding it and only a few thermal tiles missing around
will protect Starship against the heat of re-entry, you can protect yourself own TPS beach towel at shop.nasaspaceflight.com. Speaking of future ships, it looks like ship 40 static fire campaign is not that
far off as a road delay is currently scheduled for the early hours of Tuesday morning. Fingers crossed all six Raptors will be lit up by next week's episode. Moving over to the launch site, aerial work platforms have been spotted working
one's launch tower. This suggests that SpaceX is getting close to finally removing the arm. Even the untrained eye can tell that it has done its time and served the Starship program well. It's ready for its long-awaited retirement to
design we've already seen in action at neighboring pad two. This arm has been basking in the salty Gulf air for all 11 launches at pad one with both block one and block two vehicles. As a result, it also needed to be retrofitted many times
to accommodate these changing vehicles from adding a hot stage ring to changing the fundamental design of the ship. One of those involved the removal of the SQD arm claw that used to stabilize the booster. I'd bet there's some newer fans
who may not even know what that is. SpaceX soon realized that the full stack was stable enough on its own and removed the claw from the arm many years ago. The SQD umbilical has also seen a few increases in height due to a taller
staging ring. With all these lessons in mind, SpaceX designed a new arm for pad two to allow for a higher flight cadence. The arm was almost removed the other day. The Buckner owned Liebherr LR 11,000 crane received a load spreader
and a crew was even spotted on the arm to help with attaching the load spreader to the umbilical. We expected the spreader to be attached further along the arm, but for whatever reason SpaceX aborted the removal and then detached
still undergoing reconfiguration for block three, pad two is also receiving some attention mainly to the chopsticks and the carriage system. SpaceX has by welding on some doubler plates. Adding these reinforcements to the
booster and the ship [clears throat] by strengthening those sections. In fact, booster catch on flight five, we saw SpaceX carrying out similar work on the chopsticks there as well. With this work now seemingly complete, the chopsticks
were closed once again and some of the scaffolding around the sticks was even deal of welding and grinding was also observed around the carriage system, possibly to add further reinforcements. However, the chopstick and carriage work
was not the main event at Pad 2 this week. That honor belongs to the deluge system, which saw a staggering 11 runs. Whilst none of them involved the top performed three deluge tests
back-to-back-to-back, which is a first. And on the 19th, back-to-back. [music] When everything is connected, SpaceX will be able to use the water mains to refill the deluge tank farm, replacing the need for the
not all. At the bottom of the trench, there are sump pumps to empty it of the water that would otherwise remain there, either because it's not been evaporated by the Raptor engine's exhaust or simply hasn't been blown out of the trench. To
factor at the tank farm, two new tanks have rolled from the port of Brownsville to the launch site. The removal of the older, smaller tanks and the relocation of the ribbed storage tanks has allowed SpaceX to move the two new tanks into
the freed-up space. So, we can expect more storage tanks to arrive at the port and be moved into their places once the groundwork is ready. With more tanks at the tank farm, more tanks need filling. Introducing the air separation unit.
This week, some more pipes have been installed around the compressor stage separation unit still has a long way to go, it is slowly but surely connecting more and more of the units together. Eventually, this machine or building or
facility will help supplement the commodity supply at Starbase. Over on carrying out some unique, but not entirely new testing at Launch Complex 39A. Just over a month ago, the testing jig IB proofing was delivered to LC 39A
Cape. It is now finally installed on the orbital launch mount, but what is IB proofing actually for? The first time we saw IB proofing was when it was being used to test Pad 2 at Starbase, where it was hooked up to each clamp in the
launch mount to ensure they were all aligned correctly. Although, this is not the only thing being tested. I be proofing is also used to verify that the hold down clamps can withstand the launch thrust from 33 Raptor 3 engines.
saw on flight 12 and during all the pre-flight testing just how powerful those engines are. This testing process should not take too long. At Starbase, I be proofing spent about 11 days connected to the pad back in November
2025. So, we shouldn't expect this time to be much different. Maybe I be proofing should be renamed to I keep proofing for obvious reasons. So, where are we now with the progress at 39A and what's next for the pad? Judging that
proofing, we can estimate that they're around 4 to 6 months away from the pad roughly how long it took for pad 2 at Starbase. That puts us in a good position for a potential launch from 39A this year in the winter, fingers
crossed. But, to reach that point, there is still a long list of items that SpaceX will need to complete once I be proofing has finished proofing. Starting with the two booster quick disconnects, they are not yet fully connected or
complete as the teams have not installed the QD hoods and haven't tested them. they have never moved up or down the tower since they were installed in 2022 along with load testing to ensure they can lift the dry mass of a booster or
ship. In between the various tests, SpaceX crews will also be fitting the structure and installing the hold down doors for all the clamps to protect them once they retract during the launch. But, SpaceX isn't just working on a
fourth? The launch infrastructure at Space Launch Complex 37A is growing quite literally as the LR13000 crane was hooked up to the second of nine modules for stacking onto the complex's first tower. Eventually, SLC-37 will be home
to the fourth and fifth Starship launch pads, although it is unlikely that even the first of these twin pads will be completed before 2028 judging by Starbase's pad 2 which started construction in mid-2024 and finally
supported a launch with flight 12 in May 2026. Now, this space coast segment is going to take a turn as we take a very rare trip over to California space coast, Vandenberg Space Force Base. Recently, SpaceX has demolished historic
launch complex 36 in preparation for converting it into a Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch site. However, there is a possibility that instead, SpaceX might process of turning the site into a Starship pad or pads. After all, they've
already removed one pad, 39A, from Falcon 9 operations, and it wouldn't be the first time a proposed Falcon launch site ends up supporting Starship. In an alternate timeline, Starbase may be called Falcon Base. Only time will tell
you'd already know all of this if you watched our weekly Friday news show, This Week in Space Flights. Back on the best coast, what is the point of having build the vehicles that will launch from it? The Florida gigabay is further ahead
in construction than the one at Starbase with a lead of roughly 3 months. Over dismantling each of the four tower cranes, and finally, the last one is coming down with the removal of the top section of the crane along with the
lower parts of the others. This means that the main operational crane now building the gigabay is the Manitowoc MLC 650, a mobile crawler crane sat next to the bay. It is replacing the four tower cranes and will be used to
because it's difficult to build a roof if you have four cranes sticking through [music] it. We are still a long way from producing vehicles in Florida, though, star factory yet, and until there is,
glorified storage facility. Until Starship production is ready at the Cape, and as we have discussed in previous weeks, Marmac 31, you'll thank me later, will be used to transport vehicles across to the space coast from
Starbase until the Cape's facilities are ready. This week, Marmac 31 was moved from the Kennedy Space Center turnbase into Port Canaveral, where it is now docked in the same location it occupied before it first headed to Starbase. A
facility will be a newly proposed car park. This will be needed to support the expected increase in workforce once a Star factory and gigabay are up and SpaceX built the multi-story parking garage in Starbase. Although, this
Florida plan is just normal surface parking. Starship in Florida is getting closer to reality, but until then, it's time to head back to Texas for a McGregor minute. Raptor 3 saw an increase in testing compared with last
week, rising from 12 engine tests to 16 as of early Saturday morning. Most of stand rather than the Raptor vertical stand, unlike last week. The 12 test firings on Raptor South included some re-light testing and four longer burns
of around 141 seconds. Based on the length of the longer burns and the shorter re-light burns of 10 to 20 seconds, it's likely these are booster boost back, and landing burns. Naturally, the booster requires far more
engines than a ship, 33 against only six. So, booster engines would be tested more frequently, especially right now when the production of ships and one. Of course, in the future, more ships will be built than boosters. So,
the engine testing ratio will change. Of the Raptor sightings this week, our cameras at McGregor spotted Raptor 123, which looks a little dusty and worse for wear, along with Raptors 145 and 149, finishing off with Raptor 80. There were
no serial number records this time around, sadly, but SN80 seems to be a test Raptor. It was going to fly on booster 19 as it was seen on the booster prior to its 33 engine static fire test, but for unknown reasons, it was replaced
and returned to McGregor. Since then, it seems likely SpaceX has been using it to check upgrades on the engine before rolling them out to the rest of the Raptor 3s. This might not be a record, but SN80 did complete [music] one of the
fastest test cycles at McGregor with an arrival and departure within 24 hours of intriguing non-Raptor related updates mystery structure where SpaceX has been testing unknown items? They recently
installed a black tarp over the top of the structure. Now, only SpaceX knows why, but we can speculate on the reasons behind it. It is possible that it's to remove the shadows we were able to see moving around inside when they are
testing things, although the shadows themselves are not very revealing as to what is going on inside. It is possible that something more obvious may be tested soon and they want to remove any hints. Alternatively, it could simply be
are installing as we have seen parts of the white tarp get damaged by the weather in the past. But, here's hoping it's related to the human landing system. Back to where we started over in Starbase, there's another test site,
Massey's. There has been a decent amount of activity. After Booster 20 conducted and then rolled back to the production site, the booster cryo stand was rolled back to Massey's for storage until the next booster in line is ready for
testing. Speaking of testing, ship 39.1, the block three ship after test article, conducted its 16th cryogenic proof test. It was loaded with liquid nitrogen to verify the structural integrity of the design, although it is likely testing
other aspects now rather than just the structure. Ship 39.1 is the only test meaningful recently as the landing tank was removed from the nose cone gel in a previous episode and booster 18.3 has not completed any testing since the
beginning of the month. While on the topic of B18.3, this week its actuators replicating what a vehicle might experience in flight and perhaps beyond. As a quick reminder, B18.3 is the booster forward and hot stage ring test
article and it has a ship after mock-up on top for testing the hot stage ring. B18.3 has completed 20 tests over the course of its time, but it is possible that with the actuator removal, it has wrapped up its testing career. We do not
another factor in play as well. Alongside the actuator removal, the super crusher, the cage that B18.3 is in, has had new actuators welded around potentially, SpaceX wants to test different areas of the test tank by
It's all part of the march towards flight 13, which is well and truly on the way, despite the quiet nature of Starbase this week. I've been Ryan Cactus for NSF. Thanks for watching, and goodbye.