SpaceX's Massive Booster And Starship Will Return To The Launchpad

Recently, SpaceX has been working hard to join its massive Starship spacecraft and the gigantic Super Heavy Booster and placed them on the launchpad. However, not long after the two were joined together for the first time, Starship was removed from the launchpad and taken back to a facility known as high bay. Speculation swirled about the reasoning for removing the spacecraft from the launchpad so quickly after it was assembled there.

SpaceX removed Starship 20 from the launchpad on August 12, but Super Heavy Booster 4 remained there for several more days. Speculation suggested the booster remain on the launchpad due to high winds. Recently SpaceX CEO Elon Musk replied to a tweet that showed a video of the Super Heavy Booster 4 being taken back into its production site earlier this week. In that tweet, Musk said that the booster and starship would return to the orbital launch pad Monday, depending on the winds.

As for why booster and Starship were removed from the launchpad, Musk says that SpaceX needed to finish small plumbing and wiring tasks and that those tasks were easier to complete in high bay. SpaceX did remove the six Raptor engines from Starship 20 after it returned to the manufacturing facility in preparation for a test campaign that could start on Monday.

Super Heavy Booster 4 had 29 Raptor engines stuffed inside, which SpaceX began removing once it returned to high bay. As you might imagine, removing 29 Raptor engines from the booster is quite an undertaking. Reports indicate that about 12 hours after the removal process began, technicians had removed 14 engines from the booster.

Technicians are also inspecting the heatshield on Starship 20 and preparing or replacing broken, chipped, loose tiles. The removal of defective or damaged tiles began on August 12. The process is arduous due to the need to prevent damage to adjacent tiles.