🚀The NEW Starship Pad Is Coming Together at Kennedy Space Center!

Momentum is building up on the Space Coast towards an epic 2025 closeout, as well as setting the stage for 2026. SpaceX’s Florida Gigabay is rapidly taking shape in addition to Starship’s launch pad at LC 39A.

New Glenn’s second flight is nearly upon us, and SLS has finally been fully stacked with Orion ahead of Artemis 2 inside the VAB. Things are about to get really exciting around here, so we’ll be covering all of that and more coming up on this month’s Space Coast Update, sponsored by boot.dev.

Death. Literally as busy as I think I’ve ever seen. It’s only going to get busier from here, guys. [Music] [Applause]

As is tradition, I won’t be alone here as I’ll be joined by both Alex and Marty this time around to help explain more on the latest news here. Let’s begin by checking in on SpaceX’s Roberts Road facilities, their main hub for activity here in Florida.

Unlike our previous flights, we were fortunate enough to catch LC 39A’s Starship launch mount in full view as it was exposed from its construction tent. Most of the time, the launch mount is fully protected and covered by the tent, which prevents inclement weather and harsh sunlight from affecting the workforce constantly buzzing around it.

But whenever something larger has to be lifted with cranes, the tent has to open to let that hardware inside. In this case, we can see that one of the cranes was working on installing one of the four manifolds that will provide water for the launch mount’s top deck.

Unlike the first launch mount in Starbase, both this mount and that of pad 2 in Starbase feature a water-cooled steel deck right on top of it. This design ensures much greater protection from the force of 33 Raptor engines on Super Heavy’s version 3 variant during launch.

The manifold being installed during our flyover is actually located where ships and boosters will be staged prior to lift and stacking operations. Just like the mount at Starbase’s pad 2, this one is designed with a small kink in its structure to help clear the ship’s aft flaps without any contact.

We can also see that there was another crane on the opposite side lowering a piece of hardware. Taking a closer look here, it appears to be an actuator for one of the hold-down arms. This is part of the system that helps to release or retract the arms that connect to and stabilize Super Heavy boosters.

In Starbase, SpaceX had installed four hold-down arms on the launch mount prior to rollout and then used them to lift them out onto the pad with two super heavy-duty cranes. And super heavy, that wasn’t an actual pun. That was completely unscripted.

We don’t know if SpaceX will utilize a similar method of lifting again, but this could be in preparation to install said arms ahead of rollout and lift at LC 39A.

Also now visible are the future locations of the twin BQDs or booster quick disconnects as their supports have been welded onto the top deck. In fact, the quick disconnect carriages can already be seen staged here just a few meters away.

Teams have also used the tent protection to work on other hardware inside, including the methane QD’s lower hood assembly. To give you some idea of where this would go, it would be facing the hangar X2 as it sits here. Its function is to cover the pipes coming from the pad service structure around the mount and up to the methane quick disconnect.

Now, the whole reason we have confidence in our analysis here is because we’ve already seen this in Starbase. So, we know what this will look like once it’s in a more complete state. This also means that we can anticipate what’s next. And right now, everything is pointing towards an imminent rollout.

Not only is the launch mount seemingly almost ready, but we’ve also seen SpaceX preparing the land directly to the south of the tent for rollout. Additionally, three SPMTs have already been staged nearby, and we know SpaceX used this exact method for Pad 2’s launch mount relocation.

So, who knows, maybe in a few days’ time you might see it rolling past the VAB on our Space Coast Live 24/7 cameras.

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Aside from the launch mount progress, SpaceX is quickly assembling the chopstick arms for the new tower being built at Robert’s Road. While these arms were in pieces on our last flyover, they’ve now been almost entirely welded together.

Brackets have already been installed on the chopsticks that will hold all of the plumbing and cables that will be used with their hydraulics and electrical systems. SpaceX is also making great progress on the next Starship launch tower’s modules. The structures for modules 1 through 7 are now complete, and some of the earlier sections are being outfitted with hardware before their eventual relocation.

Modules 1, 2, and 3 have also been outfitted with the internal stair system, serving as an emergency backup in the event of any elevator malfunctions. It would also make a lot of sense to have as much hardware pre-installed on them before rollout. Just like we saw for the 39A tower and Tower 2 in Starbase, we can also see two columns staged next to module 7 for what we presume is module 8. They are also shorter than those for modules 1 through 6, as expected.

At this pace, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if by our next flyover, we see all of the tower’s nine modules fully assembled and awaiting further outfitting.

Now, if we move north a little bit, SpaceX’s Florida Gigabay has been receiving a lot of love. Since our last flyover just five weeks ago, two tower cranes have been put together at the site and have started putting together beams and columns for the bay. However, we can’t help but notice that only one half of the building is currently getting attention. All of the walls and floors going up now are on the western side of Gigabay, which should eventually be wall-to-wall with the future Star Factory 2.0, as we call it, if SpaceX’s renders are accurate.

Meanwhile, in Starbase, SpaceX is putting together all four tower cranes needed at once to build a gigabay there. Compared to the Space Coast, they’ve only set up two of them and only those on the west side. Additionally, it doesn’t seem like the eastern hab’s floor has been completed yet.

Now, this is only a theory, and I could be completely wrong here, but it almost seems like SpaceX wants at least half of the building to be operational before the other. This is so that they can begin using it for operations here in Florida sooner than it would otherwise make sense. Unlike in Starbase, we currently don’t have any base for boosters or ships of any kind. SpaceX is aiming to initially transport boosters and ships from Starbase to Florida by barge so that they can be launched from 39A as soon as possible.

That being said, it would be nice if there was at least some storage location to process vehicles before they’re flown. So, if they had half of Gigabay completed, maybe it could be used for such. As I said, it’s just a theory, and we’ll likely know more in due time.

Now, with all of that out of the way, I’m going to go ahead and hand this over to Marty to dive into another hub of activity here at the Kennedy Space Center: Blue Origin’s Exploration Park campus. Blue Origin has been working hard to expand their facilities at Exploration Park. And from the air, the extent of their ambitions is abundantly clear. Literally. Oh yeah, that’s a lot of new clearing. I can’t even fit all this in frame.

Since we last had a look from above, the company has cleared a large area to the south of the campus. From planning permission applications posted earlier this year, it seems that the company wants to use the new space to erect more buildings for manufacturing, assembly, and even vehicle storage. Work on these facilities is set to last from 2026 through 2028, but I guess they just started making space ahead of time.

In the lot adjacent to this new clearing, we spotted a yellow bridge crane being staged for installation in one of the buildings. Perhaps it’s destined for the metal fabrication facility, the progress of which we’ve been following throughout the last episodes. The building is now mostly enclosed, with a couple of doors having been installed since last time.

Meanwhile, foundation work is still progressing over at the hardware integration facility. This will be one of the last stops for many New Glenn parts before they’re heading over to the launch site. For now, it appears that Blue is still excavating, drilling, pouring concrete, and doing other foundation tasks. But the footprint of the building is already obvious, and it might not be too long before we see a building rise from the ground here.

Speaking of which, walls are now going up at the expansion of the main factory building. Last time they were still working on the foundations, but the building is really starting to take shape now. The final part of the building’s floor is being prepared for concrete, and there are also some rebar and forms coming up for reinforced concrete walls.

Blue plans to use this facility for composites manufacturing, perhaps for new launch fairings or other composite structures. And finally, there is also some foundation work being done in an area marked as the test processing area in the aforementioned planning permission documents. We didn’t see any space hardware while flying over the site, and the second stage that was being tested in the two-cat facility last time has since evacuated the building. But there will be some vehicle action coming soon.

So, let’s head over to Blue’s Launch Complex at the Cape, LC36. There wasn’t much to see at the time we flew over and it seems pretty quiet out there. But don’t be mistaken, a lot happened inside the hangar. And thanks to our new “X-ray vision,” we know exactly what was going on. Okay, just joking. We can’t see through walls and roofs just yet, but Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp has been posting videos on social media of everything that went down in the last few weeks.