Providers of internet broadband solutions, SpaceX, announce the launch of the first Mechazilla arm on Starship launch tower
HongKong - September 8, 2021 /MarketersMEDIA/ —
SpaceX has installed the first arm on what amounts to the backbone of ‘Mechazilla.’ This comes just a month after the company stacked Starship’s South Texas ‘launch tower’ to its full height. SpaceX workers and contractors installed the final prefabricated section of a ~145m (~475 ft) tall tower meant to support orbital Starship launches, with the company preparing grounds for several massive, mechanical arms that will accomplish the actual tasks of servicing and catching Starships and Super Heavy boosters.
The CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, has described all three of the arms as “Mechazilla,” a project that has been visibly underway since June, with a small army of welders carefully assembling dozens of sections of heavy-duty steel pipe into house-sized frames. SpaceX has also installed the first of those three arms on the exterior of Starship’s skyscraper-sized launch tower.
Popularly known as the tower’s quick-disconnect or QD swing arm, the structure is reportedly designed to help in accomplishing a few different tasks. One of such tasks as the name suggests, is to hold a quick-disconnect umbilical connector that will temporarily attach to the base of Starships to load them with fuel, oxidizer, and other consumables and link them to ground power and networking. Reports have suggested that SpaceX planned to fuel Starship upper stages through their Super Heavy boosters, allowing them to connect umbilical panels on a table-like launch mount that sits beside the tower.
The intention of SpaceX became clearer after work began on Starship S20, the first potentially space-capable prototype, indicating that the company sacrificed the umbilical plate normally installed at the base of Starship skirts and moved that connection to the ship’s lower back. Elon Musk eventually revealed the longstanding plans to dock Starships aft to aft for in-space refueling were also up in the air in a series of interviews and posts on Twitter.
Most recently, in addition to the reiteration that the launch pad itself (“Stage Zero,” per Musk) is even more complex and difficult than Starship or Super Heavy, SpaceX’s CEO also repeatedly stated a desire to offload as many systems as possible onto the launch pad – seemingly regardless of the complexity of the alternative.
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