Starbase Explained - Masseys

Are you a new Starship enthusiast looking to familiarize yourself with Starship’s iterative development program? Or are you an avid Starbase watcher looking to learn something new? If you’re either of these or somewhere in between, you’ve come to the right place. In our new Starbase explained series, we’ll introduce each site’s facilities one by one, starting from the most rudimentary level of knowledge to the most advanced. In this first article, we will cover the former gun range turned cryogenic testing and tank torture facility known as Massey’s structural testing site. Without further ado, welcome to Starbase Explained Part 1: Massey’s.

 

 

Before beginning our tour of Massey’s test site, we'll first give you a brief historical overview of the site. 
Nestled against the banks of the Rio Grande River and surrounded by a natural moat, this site previously served the greater Rio Grande Valley as a recreational sports shooting range. This valley also lends its initials to the RGV Aerial Photography brand.

On June 14th, 2021, Matt on X (formerly Twitter) first reported that SpaceX recently closed the purchase of Massey’s Gun Shop and Range, with the business relocating to a new location east of Highway 4. It was first speculated that this site would be used to repair, rebuild, and test the Raptor engines that power SpaceX’s giant Starship SuperHeavy rocket. 

 

Just over a year later, testing started. 

In this photo, we can see test tank S26.1 On top of the can crusher stand, with test tank B7.1 lurking to the lower left.

 

It wasn’t until early 2023 that we saw preparations for building ship and booster testing stations.

Speaking of testing stations, this is how they work.

Starting our tour of Massey’s with a look at the Booster Cryo Station and the Ship Cryo Station, where SpaceX tests boosters' and ships' ability to hold cryogenic liquid nitrogen under pressure, also known as cryo proofing. 

 

 

(Keep in mind that we'll select images that best represent what we're talking about from our comprehensive gallery, and they may not be the most recent.)

Before launch, both the Super Heavy booster and Ship must be filled with liquid methane and liquid oxygen, or LOX for short, these are cryogenic liquids super chilled to densify them for improved volume and engine performance.

To verify these vehicles’ capability to hold cryogenic liquids, testing at Massey’s is first done with liquid nitrogen in both tanks, then a second test with liquid oxygen in the LOX tank. This is the first critical test of either stage of the stack, it allows SpaceX to not only verify if the vehicle can hold cryogenic propellants under pressure but allows them to check for leaks and also flush any contaminants from the propellent tanks, as well as harden the steel with cryogenics, specifically with liquid nitrogen. 

 

 

Here is the completed Starship Puck Shucker testing station. This station took over cryo testing operations adjacent to the Orbital Tank Farm and from Test Stands A and B at the Launch site by mid-2023. It uses hydraulic rams to push up and simulate the flight loads on the vehicles Thrust Puck while the station holds down the test article.

 

 

If you are wondering why these are called Puck Shuckers, it comes from a tweet by Elon Musk on March 2, 2020, after SN1 launched itself up into the air. He said “There’s a puck at the base that takes the engine thrust load.” and joked ”Don’t shuck the puck!" stating this in hopes to stave off other structural failures during structural verification of the aft dome of the ship. And so far, it’s been successful.

 

 

Next up is the booster cryo testing station.

Thanks to Owe from SpaceX 3D Creation Eccentric for this render that shows how the booster thrust puck works. It’s worth mentioning that the render depicts the older 9 inner-engine booster design instead of the current 13 inner engines, also the design of the puck shucker at Massey’s varies slightly from this video.

 

 

The 13 hydraulic thrust rams we mentioned earlier will be used to press against the thrust puck of the booster. That is the structure where the raptor engines are attached and is responsible for transferring the thrust from the raptors to the rest of the vehicle. If it ever lost structural integrity in flight, the entire Starship vehicle would likely be destroyed, hence its importance in the booster testing campaign. We can expect these 13 thrust rams - consisting of a cylinder tube, piston, and contact surface, to be installed and extended to press against the thrust puck of the booster in what is referred to as a puck shucker test. The outer 20 engine mounts are not tested in this part of the test campaign.  

 

 

After completing cryogenic testing each stage of the stack goes off to the build site to receive engines, be sure to stay tuned for the next article for a full walkthrough of that site.

Our next area of focus is a gray ring otherwise known as the “Can Crusher”, this is used to test test tanks to verify if they are structurally stable, this is commonly done when a design change is made to either ship or booster.

Thanks again to Owe from SpaceX 3D Creation Eccentric for allowing us to show you a detailed diagram explaining how the Can Crusher works. The Can Crusher tests the structural integrity of test articles by pulling down on top of them using a cap that's connected to 20 hydraulic pistons on the base of this stand via straps. 

 

 

Hydraulic rams are also often used to push up against engine mounts on the test articles whilst the articles are being pulled down, simulating both upward and downward forces on the test articles. Again, these test articles are filled with liquid nitrogen during the tests.

Most notably, the hot staging ring was previously tested in this contraption sandwiched in between Booster 11’s old load head to simulate the top of a booster and S26.1’s aft skirt to simulate the bottom of a ship. 

 

 

To the right is a cage-like structure, commonly known as the “nosecone jail” It’s used to stress test tanks or nosecones to verify their structural integrity under certain loads during flight. Due to its extension to account for the longer payload bay test article, we’ll call it the structural test cage from now on.

In case you don’t know how the structural test cage works, it uses pistons, highlighted here on top of this render by the Space Engineer, to pull laterally on test articles. The pressure created by this effectively simulates and exceeds the loads faced during Max-Q and re-entry portions of the flight. The structural test cage is not only responsible for simulating flight loads by pulling from the top but also the aerodynamic forces by these pistons surrounding the test article, mimicking forces coming from all sides. These include the sideways forces induced by drag as well as torsion or twisting forces. An earlier version of the structural test cage also included parts to test the flap mounts. 

 

We’ve explained S24.2 in depth before, so all you need to know for this video is the large gap that makes the door of Starship’s Starlink payload bay left structurally unverified until mid-November 2023. This rigorous testing is to ensure the door of the Starlink Pez dispenser will stay structurally stable not only during launch but also during reentry

 

 

The picture above is the tank farm area of the site. This is where SpaceX stores the cryogenic liquids needed for testing each stage of the stack. 

 

 

First, we will start with the nitrogen tanks which are the leftmost tanks in the picture above, they hold the nitrogen needed for testing both the first and second stages of the starship vehicle. The 3 tanks above the nitrogen tanks store the liquid oxygen required for booster and ship cryogenic proof tests.

Liquid Oxygen tanks are being installed to the right of the topmost set of tanks. Why are additional liquid oxygen tanks being added?

Moving to the ship static firing station. This is where SpaceX will test each of the ship's 6 raptor engines to ensure they are healthy and can run for a short duration ahead of flight, this is the last major test to verify all systems are working ahead of launch.

 

 

In support of this new test area, we can see LOX and Methane GSE or ground support equipment including methane tanks, kettle boilers, pumps, and plumbing. 

This new building on the right has offices and amenities at the front and a GSE workshop to the rear including a bridge crane.

 

 

Finally, adjacent to the new building mentioned above is the structural testing area of the site where SpaceX is currently building a new structural test stand to verify upcoming test articles. To the right sits a cage like structure known as the "nosecone jail", it was used to verify the structural integrity of test articles. It is being decommissioned in favour of the new test stand currently under construction.

 

 

As you can see, this site continues to be transformed into an important addition to the Research and development phase as well as the vehicles’ test regimes including Ship static fires. The development of Massey’s frees up the entire suborbital area over at the launch site for what will eventually become part of the 2nd orbital launch tower which we’ll cover in a future episode of Starbase Explained...    

So that's it for the first article in this series. I hope you all enjoyed the tour. If you liked what you read today, please come back for more articles and content so you can get all the new information each week.