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SpaceX stacks seven Mechazilla tower sections in Florida
SpaceX has raised seven sections of the Starship Mechazilla tower at Cape Canaveral’s Pad 37A, with an eighth module ready for installation.
Image: ITzine
SpaceX has moved ahead with Starship launch infrastructure at Pad 37A at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Based on photos and social media posts, seven sections have already been lifted into place on the Mechazilla tower, and an eighth is ready for installation. If weather cooperates, the next lift could happen as soon as this weekend.
Once the eighth module is installed, only the top section will remain. That final piece will house the crown block and pulley system needed for lifting equipment to handle the rocket and ground support hardware.
Mechazilla has long been a defining part of the Starship system in Texas, at SpaceX’s main Starbase site. Now the company is bringing the same approach to Florida as it prepares a second base for the super-heavy rocket, which the source describes as having no direct rival in either size or stated payload capacity.
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The tower is being assembled with a Liebherr LR 13000 crawler crane, rated to lift up to 3,000 tons. The job is more about precision and pace than spectacle, though the images are striking all the same.
Starship remains SpaceX’s most ambitious project, and the company is building dedicated launch infrastructure at two sites rather than relying on a single base. Other US companies are also developing heavy-lift launch vehicles, but in the scale and speed of construction, SpaceX is still operating on its own track.
When the tower is complete, SpaceX will move on to installing the “chopsticks” arms, servicing systems, and the rest of the equipment needed for future testing. That will give the company another hub for Starship launches — and a clearer sign of how quickly the Florida site can catch up with Texas in actual flights.
Frontier Editor
Dan is our resident futurist, covering electric mobility, space exploration, and the smart home. He's interested in atoms just as much as bits. Whether it's a new battery chemistry, a reusable rocket, or a protocol that finally makes IoT devices talk to each other, Dan breaks down the engineering that pushes humanity forward.
via ITzine
