Building a Future for Space 🇺🇸
Pensacola, FL
Joined September 2022
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JETLAB-X retweeted
Starbase Louisiana Week in Review - Issue 1
I'm starting something new! Every week I'll round up the jobs, permits, events, and community news from Starbase Louisiana in one place, plus a spotlight on a local business or event. Here's what happened this week.
Permits
• Day 33 for @SpaceX's big coastal permit for the road, bridge, and wharf. The state asked for more information on Oct 1. Once it's marked complete, a 25-day public comment period opens.
• The FAA comment period on new US spaceport sites closed Oct 26 with well over 240 comments, many from Louisiana.
Big Number: 20+
• Elon said on the earnings call that Starbase Louisiana could eventually have 20+ launch towers, up from "more than a dozen" in August.
• Overnight, Elon said "10k Starship launches/year is just from Starbase Louisiana."
Pecan Island
• The UL System Board approved the lease that brings SpaceX to the old Pecan Island School.
Jobs
• A new Principal Construction Project Engineer role starts at Starbase Texas and moves to Pecan Island in early 2027.
• The Sr. Counsel, Real Estate posting came down this week.
• There are 8 open Starbase Louisiana roles right now. Apply at spacex.com/careers and search "Pecan Island."
Community
• SpaceX joined the Vermilion Chamber of Commerce at the Champion's Circle level, the highest membership tier.
• @Teslarati featured our Bayou Gumbo Launch, where Starbase Texas fans and Louisiana locals came together over gumbo and zydeco.
• Vermilion Parish home sales are the highest since at least 2018.
In case you missed it
• UL Lafayette is adding an Aerospace Engineering concentration and Space Computing Systems programs starting Fall 2027.
• Rocket Farm, a new family-owned RV park planned near Kaplan, is taking reservations from crews working on Starbase Louisiana. It's about 30 miles from the site, with 17 full-hookup spaces and Phase 1 targeted for 2027. therocketfarm.com
Local Spotlight
• Abbeville's 42nd Giant Omelette Celebration is Nov 7 and 8 in historic downtown. On Sunday afternoon, chefs cook a 5,000-egg omelette in a 12-foot skillet, with Cajun music, arts and crafts, and a kids area all weekend. SpaceX is a sponsor this year! giantomelette.org
Luke and Lena cover the Halloween headlines in this week's Haunted Marsh Edition: youtube.com/watch?v=s7i4ISW-…
#StarbaseLouisiana
JETLAB-X retweeted
The first successful static test firing of all five F-1 engines on the Saturn V first stage (S-IC) took place on April 16, 1965, at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
The primary objective of these static firings was to safely push the booster's systems to their limits before flight. (Video link below.)
🗝️Key Technical Facts & Testing Logistics
The Powerhouse
The S-IC first stage stood 138–140 feet tall, measured 33 feet in diameter, and generated an unprecedented 7.5 million pounds of thrust from its five F-1 engines.
Overcoming Instability
A primary hurdle for the engineering team, was conquering combustion instability ("chugging"). These massive, violent vibrations had previously ripped engines apart during isolated component tests.
Massive Infrastructure
Testing was executed on massive concrete and steel structures. The facilities required bedrock-anchored stands, 1,900-ton steel-plated flame deflectors, and high-pressure deluge systems pumping over 270,000 gallons of water per minute to protect the stands from melting.
Data Collection
Technicians hooked up over 1,200 data channels to monitor structural integrity, propellant flow, and ignition timing, routing all telemetry to a heavily protected, distant blockhouse.
𝗡𝗘𝗨𝗥𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞:
Brain signals to text and voice at 75 words per minute. One participant with ALS hit that in their first week, at a 5.8% word error rate across a 125,000-word vocabulary. 🧠⚡ #Neuralink
🤖 Made with AI
JETLAB-X retweeted
SpaceX says Ship 42, the ship for Flight 15, has completed its static fires: a full-duration fire on all six engines, and a single Raptor firing to simulate a deorbit burn.
Booster 22 finished its static fire earlier, as NASASpaceflight showed on 25 October, so both Flight 15 vehicles are now through static fire. The post gives no launch date.
On 25 October I said November looked realistic if the ship was ready as fast as the booster. I still say November.
JETLAB-X retweeted
Instant Ice With Fire.
No Electricity Needed.
You do not need any electricity to freeze water artificially. One effective approach relies on a surprising source: a strong fire.
In the 1920s, before rural regions gained power, inventor Powel Crosley Jr. introduced the Icyball, a portable absorption refrigerator built for off-grid use. The unit features two large metal spheres linked by a thick steel pipe. A sealed blend of water and ammonia sits inside.
A Crosley Icyball refrigerator from the 1920s. The device relies on a sealed ammonia-water mixture to create ice without electricity. Photo by Jeremy Mikesellis licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
To operate it, someone sets the “hot” sphere over a kerosene heater or wood fire for roughly 90 minutes. The heat drives ammonia from the water. This gas moves through the pipe and turns into liquid in the “cold” sphere, which stays chilled in a water bucket during heating.
After heating ends, the unit leaves the fire, and the cold sphere goes into an insulated cabinet holding a water tray. As the hot sphere cools to room temperature, internal pressure falls. The liquid ammonia in the cold sphere then evaporates and returns through the pipe to mix with the water. This quick evaporation absorbs enough heat to drop the cold sphere below freezing, turning the tray’s water into ice cubes.If you lack a vintage appliance, you can freeze water through chemistry.
Dissolving ammonium nitrate—the active ingredient in instant cold packs and many fertilizers—in water breaks chemical bonds and absorbs ambient heat. Mixing equal parts by weight in a large bucket can drop the slush to 5°F (-15°C). A smaller metal cup of fresh water placed in this bath can freeze solid within minutes.
A third approach uses the cold vacuum of space. Ancient Persians constructed shallow pools behind tall walls to block sun and desert winds. On clear, dry nights, water radiated thermal energy into the sky. Because the atmosphere does not block this infrared radiation easily, water can freeze even when air reaches 41°F (5°C). The ice was stored in large, insulated domed structures called yakhchals to supply ice during blistering summer months.
JETLAB-X retweeted
Meet NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe 🎙️
An open-weight, promptable 30B MoE model with ~4B active parameters that brings transcription in 40 languages, speaker attribution, translation, contextual prompting and audio understanding into one checkpoint.
Watch it keep track of who said what when everyone’s talking at once.
1/ 🧵
JETLAB-X retweeted
10k Starship launches/year is just from Starbase Louisiana
In a comment to the FAA, SpaceX says it wants to launch 10,000 times per year.
The FAA asked for input on where to build new spaceports and how to give rocket launches priority in US airspace. They're preparing for 10,000 launches a year by 2035.
SpaceX replied that rockets aren't the bottleneck anymore, the FAA's outdated air traffic processes are. They created their own airspace tool (Cleared) that most major US airlines already get for free.
They also noted that Starbase Louisiana is designed for ~30 launches and reentries PER DAY (!!)
