🚀 SpaceX News №46
Hello, cosmic greetings to everyone! You’re tuned into Rocket Hub, and this is another edition of SpaceX news.
- A “Skyscraper” at Starbase?
- New SpaceX Vacuum Raptor Engine
- Progress on Starship Launch Pads
- Let’s not keep you in suspense—let’s get started!
A “Skyscraper” at Starbase?
On April 16, the FAA website finally published details about the Giga Bay at Starbase. The application describes a steel… ahem… “skyscraper” standing 117 meters tall. Direct your questions to the FAA. Of course, it’s not really a skyscraper but an assembly hall—but the image is amusing. It’s two meters taller than the Florida “Giga Bay” approved this past winter.
“Wait—why is this document even going through the FAA? They’re not planning to launch these towers into space, right?”
Here’s the deal: any structure in the U.S. over 60 meters must be evaluated for potential hazards to aviation and radio lines. Since the filing is marked Work in Progress, it’s merely a heads-up: SpaceX is notifying regulators of its plans and “reserving” the height. What we’re looking at is just an electronic placeholder, not a looming steel silhouette over the South Texas marshes. In practice, final approval usually takes one to one-and-a-half months; the Florida Giga Bay process wrapped up in about 40 days. If that pace holds—and if eco-activists or competitors don’t throw a wrench into the works—we could see the green light for Starbase’s new building by early summer.
In SpaceX speak, “Bay” has long been synonymous with a vertical assembly building. First came the High Bay (85 m), then the Mega Bay (100 m). Yet even their combined volume is no longer sufficient. The company is dead set on moving to a “Starship per day” assembly rate. By erecting these monstrous halls, SpaceX edges closer to its long-term goal: serial production of Starships, not one-off builds.
New SpaceX Vacuum Raptor Engine
At SpaceX’s McGregor test site in Texas, a third-generation vacuum-optimized Raptor—dubbed the RVac 3—made its debut. Delivered on a trailer the morning of April 25, its distinctive white bell nozzle and absence of a protective “sock” immediately set it apart from the atmospheric Raptor-3.
SpaceX plans to put the RVac 3 into service by the end of this year. Elon Musk himself tweeted after its unveiling:
Falcon 9 Launches
In just five days, SpaceX flew four Falcon 9 missions.
- April 20 (Vandenberg SLC-4E): A Falcon 9 lofted 22 Starshield satellites. Starshield is essentially Starlink for government use, with reconnaissance capabilities. The booster B1082 flew its 12th mission.
Dragon C209 delivered three tonnes of cargo to the ISS—experimental gear, food, and spare parts. After the Cygnus NG-22 failure, this resupply became critical; NASA literally jettisoned some experiments to make room for provisions. Notably, C209 tested strengthened parachutes of a new design, which, if successful, will be adopted fleet-wide.
Two days later, while B1092 (fresh from the ISS run) cooled on Landing Zone 1, B1090 returned to the “reserve” Landing Zone 2 (closed for almost a year) to prepare for its next flight. That mission marked the 300th launch from SLC-40, carrying just three payloads: a South Korean military satellite, a commercial radar-weathercraft for hyper-local forecasts, and PHOENIX-1—a prototype German Atmos Space Cargo capsule with a deployable heat-shield doughnut, designed to return cargo without parachutes.
Final act of the week: On April 25, veteran booster B1069 (with 23 flights under its belt) launched 28 “mini” Starlink satellites, then gently touched down on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas. That was SpaceX’s 47th Falcon 9 launch of the year and the 95th consecutive flawless booster return—a feat that seemed like science fiction just three years ago.
Not all went smoothly, though. On April 15, the Bahamian government suspended all future Falcon 9 landings in their waters pending a full environmental review—two months after the first “Bahamian incident.”
SpaceX keeps turning low Earth orbit into a commuter highway where rockets fly to a schedule, and a booster landing elicits not awe but a routine “Well, they did it again.” Expect more of the same next week.
Progress on Starship Launch Pads
At Starbase, work never stops—journalists can barely keep up with the “here’s another piece that wasn’t there yesterday” posts. On Pad B, where the second tower is rising, the missing central flame-deflector segment arrived overnight.
While welders work on that piece, six supports for the second launch table (OLM B) are already being unloaded. NASASpaceflight reports that unlike welded Pad A, the new table will be removable—rolling out in one piece for maintenance.
Separately, twenty updated supports for first-stage fixation rolled into Starbase. They’re simpler than the ones on OLM A—fewer parts mean fewer failure points. If April’s pace holds, Pad B could host its first full-stack Starship this fall.
Which update caught your attention the most? This was the RocketHub team—see you in a week!