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by bryanlarsen 962 days ago
Why not ship by barge? It'll be far cheaper than the fees, costs and labour costs associated with a rocket launch. Both Brownsville and Cape Canaveral are well set up for barge shipping.

Also, they're expanding their factory in Florida, so they could be built on site.
2 comments
cryptoz 962 days ago
There's that protected-from-open-ocean barge lane (I forget what it's called?) that I think runs right from Brownsville to Cape Canaveral, or close enough, I think they plan on using that.

Edit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intracoastal_Waterway

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greedo 962 days ago
Sure you could ship by barge. It's just that SpaceX has never said that's the plan. Looking at the expanding factory footprint at Boca Chica, it's obvious that this isn't just a test facility, but a production facility. My hunch is that the current limits of 5 per year will be expanded once they prove it "safe" to launch from the site. They'll boil that frog slowly.
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cdash 962 days ago
While you maybe be right, I just want to note that SpaceX isn't just expanding factory footprint at Boca Chica. They will be manufacturing Starship in Florida as well and have already started expanding there too.
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Robotbeat 962 days ago
They will be barging ships to Florida, and long term when you have multiple launches per day, they will be launching the ships from barges.
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greedo 962 days ago
They've pretty much scrapped their initial plans to use old oil platforms for launches, and the size of a barge needed to launch (and retrieve the first stage) would be tremendous. That idea is a complete non-starter.
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Robotbeat 962 days ago
They did scrap their initial plans, because they won’t need that capability until they’re launching like 1000 times per year. That might not be until one or two decades from now. Would it make sense to try to maintain that capability starting now and then just let it rest for two decades.

They have mentioned recently that they do still plan to go to barge launching when they get to 1000 flights per year.

The idea is not crazy, at least not any more than anything else related to Starship. But it is not needed right now.

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