Following the Loss of Ship 36, SpaceX now Focuses on Rebuilding Masseys

Date:
Wed, 25 Jun 2025 18:23:59 +0000

Description:
Following the loss of Ship 36 at Masseys and the cleanup operations now underway, SpaceX The post Following the Loss of Ship 36, SpaceX now Focuses
on Rebuilding Masseys appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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Following the loss of Ship 36 at Masseys and the cleanup operations now underway, SpaceX must rebuild the static fire stand. While crews work towards this goal, progress on Pad B continues, along with the development of next-generation hardware.





Masseys, Ship 36, and the Path Forward

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With Ship 36s anomaly at Masseys during the attempted six-engine static fire before launch, the safing of Masseys became the immediate focus. This took around another day or so before crews started to show up and assess the damage, and begin cleaning up the debris. Most of the larger chunks of Ship
36 strewn about have been quickly cleaned up so far; however, cleaning out
the trench might take a bit longer since the static fire stand is still in
the way.

As far as damage to Masseys, the gantry that the Ship Quick Disconnect (QD) was attached to is a mangled mess, along with all of the Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and Liquid Methane (LCH4) piping going past the methane tank farm back
towards the LOX part of the tank farm.

All of the vaporizers that are used to pressurize the LCH4 tanks are destroyed, and at least one of the Methane pumps appears damaged. The static fire stand structure itself is likely fine, but all of the clamps and piping on the stand will need to be redone.

Inside the trench is another story; so far, there have been no pictures of the damage to the inside of the trench. But based on debris on the outside, most of the aft section and Raptors are likely inside the trench and might have damaged the flame deflector itself. Ship 36s rapid unscheduled disassembly at Masseys Test Site on June 18. (Credit: D Wise for NSF)

Of all the items that might take the longest to replace is the control
bunker that was burned out next to the trench. This structure controls the Methane tank farm and the static fire stand itself, and it is a requirement
to get this test stand operational again.

Just to the north of the static fire, a storage tent and shipping containers were completely burnt out and destroyed due to the fireball created from the explosion. This also damaged some of the siding of the workshop building located at Masseys.

As for the rest of Masseys, the Booster cryogenic proof stand area got a bit burnt, but it seems ok. The Ships cryogenic proof stand had some of its LOX and Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) lines burnt, so its unclear if those are still safe to use. Booster 18.1 test tank, which is the test article for the Booster Block 3 aft, appears unscathed, which bodes well for continuing preparations to test and build the new Booster. Masseys After Ship 36s RUD (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)

Due to the anomaly, pieces of Ship 36 are scattered throughout Masseys as crews have already begun to clean the mess and store the pieces to one side for analysis. According to SpaceXs update page, the initial failure mode
seems to be a Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV) that was holding Nitrogen in the payload bay. As far as is public, the root cause as to why
the COPV failed is still under investigation, and it could take SpaceX some time to determine the initial cause.

It will be helpful to have all the parts of the Ship to examine, as this incident occurred on the ground and not in space, which would have made the investigation much more challenging. No static fire testing of Ships or flights will likely happen until the root cause is found, although that
doesnt matter since SpaceX has no way to even static fire a Ship should crews want to. Whats Left of Ship 36s Common Dome Sump (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)

The most resource-efficient path forward for SpaceX is to repair Masseys for Blocks 2 and 3, while still being able to use it for Block 2 of the ship. Then, static fire Ship 37 and Ship 38. Once those are completed, then finish the conversion of Masseys over to Block 3 of Ship in time for Ship 39 to complete its static fire. Ship 39 is still just a nose cone in the
Starfactory and has yet to start getting heat shield components installed.

After all of the dust has settled on this anomaly, SpaceX might still have the capability to cryogenic proof test both Boosters and Ships, but its ability to static fire Ships could take a couple to several months to get back. SpaceX has consistently proven resilient in situations like these, and it is expected to only cause a short-term stand-down, with SpaceX hopefully flying the last two Block 2 Ships by the end of the year. Sanchez and the
Bays (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)

Sanchez & Production Site

Over at the Sanchez site, SpaceX is continuing to work on hardware for
Launch Pad B. There are two pieces of Booster QD hardware currently getting worked on and may be sent to the launch site within a month or two, as progress on Pad B continues at a steady pace. The Ship QD arm for Pad B has been progressing, slowly, although work could soon start to ramp up as other parts of Pad B are nearly finished.

There is a new assembled flame diverter ridge out in the open at Sanchez; this is likely built from the parts that showed up a few months ago. The destination for it is likely LC-39A, which will likely need it within the
next few months, compared to Pad A at Starbase, which wont need it for 18 to 24 months.

After the demolition of High Bay and the Stargate building, SpaceX has been working on getting the Gigabay Foundation set up for piles, which will help stabilize the foundation. So far, though, the process hasnt started yet. Eventually, at least four tower cranes will arrive to begin building the bay; however, this is likely not to happen until early next year. There is also a new attachment being built on the back side of the Starfactory, this appears to be a new interior shipping and receiving building. New Starfactory
Addition and Apartment Complex Construction (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)

Launch Site

Over the last several months, incredible progress has been made on Pad B. With the launch mount installed, SpaceX has now been able to install the
final two water plate manifolds on the mount, along with some of the hardware for both Booster QDs. There has been significant progress on the ground support equipment structure that was built to the side of the launch mount, known as the gantry. Inside this structure are all of the high-pressure, electrical, and main cryogenic propellant lines for supporting the launch mount itself.

The flame trench itself has also seen lots of progress as crews have begun installing steel plates that will form the floor and ramps of the trench.
This means that there will be no exposed concrete to damage, and that in the future, SpaceX can just fix cracks and damage by either replacing floor
plates or welding cracks on the walls. Progress on Orbital Launch Pad B (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)

Although damage wont be as much of a concern for this pad as SpaceX intends to use water on just about every portion of the mount and the trench itself, this will require around 450,000 gallons of water flowing through and out of Pad B every launch. To get all of this water to the pad, SpaceX is using a different pressurization system than at Pad A or at Masseys.

This system is designed to utilize nine methane and oxygen turbopumps to vaporize Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) before pumping it into the tanks. Once in the tanks, the massive pressure will force the water through the pipes and out of the mount and flame deflectors at the pad. This is to ensure quick turnaround times by keeping launch pad hardware protected from 33 Raptor engines during liftoff. Pad B LOX Pump Testing (Credit: Ceaser G for NSF)

As for other parts of Pad B, the trench for the propellant lines to the
tower is now being dug out. This will house the primary LOX and LCH4 lines that connect to the tower, which will connect to the Ship via the QD once installed.

Recently, SpaceX has begun testing the eight LOX pumps already installed for Pad Bs tank farm; there is still one more to be installed, making a total of nine. This testing included flowing LN2 through the pumps to purge and
perform operational checks on them. Teams also leak-checked the LOX
subcoolers by flowing LN2 through them. This marks a big step in getting the system operational before SpaceX tests all of Pad B once it is completed.

As for Pad A, SpaceX had been planning on launching Flight 10 from it within the next few days. But with the loss of Ship 36, Pad A is set to sit unused until either Booster 15-2 rolls out for a static fire or Flight 10.

(Featured Image: Masseys Static Fire Damage After Ship 36 Failure Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF. All phone, and hundreds per month in downloadable hi-res are available for all L2 members)



The post Following the Loss of Ship 36, SpaceX now Focuses on Rebuilding Masseys appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/06/following-ship-36-spacex-rebuilding-ma sseys/


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