Shadowing Practice: SpaceX Is HIDING Something! | Starship Update - Learn English Speaking with Video

It's the calm before the storm at Starbase as SpaceX slowly but surely prepares for Starship Flight 13, including a stupendous amount of deluge testing at Pad 2.

Refurbishment is in full swing at Pad 1, we're proofing the launch mounted LC-39A, Slick 37's tower is stacking, and if that wasn't enough,

we've seen some changes to the mystery structure at McGregor.

What's going on inside?

All of that and much more is coming up in this Starship Update.

We're going to start this week at the Giga Bay, the huge building where SpaceX plans to assemble and refurbish its version 3 Starships and Super Heavy boosters.

We can see

that SpaceX has finally reached the stage where the transfer aisle bridge crane will be installed

and where the roof trusses will go.

But what does a bridge crane actually do, you might task.

As the Gigabay is divided into workstations to produce and stack both boosters and ships, you need to be able to move the vehicles from their workstations or turntables across to the transfer aisle.

This is where the bridge crane comes into play.

Just like we see inside both of the Megabays, it is a large crane mounted on the roof of the building.

It can travel across to a turntable, lift a vehicle up to attach another barrel section,

or move a fully stacked vehicle over to a workstation or a transport stand for testing or flight.

A fully stacked super heavy booster with Raptor engines will probably be the heaviest thing

that a bridge crane will have to lift inside the Gigabay.

When a booster's methane tank is being stacked onto its liquid oxygen tank, we see that the bridge cranes inside Mega Bay 1 have to hand the methane tank over to each other,

as one bridge crane cannot cover both the turntable and the workstation where the liquid oxygen tank is waiting.

This is why SpaceX rolls out the liquid oxygen landing tank

installation jig to put the methane tank on for a bridge crane swap.

We expect that this issue will be resolved inside the Giga Bay, which should make the stacking process run a bit more smoothly.

SpaceX is prefabricating the roof trusses on the ground before lifting them up with the tower cranes.

Prefabricating them on the ground allows for better access during construction and improves the whole process as well.

When the roof trusses are installed, SpaceX can then put the roof itself onto the trusses, which will complete the production part of the Giga Bay,

leaving only the penthouse, the doors and all the panels to finish the outside of the building.

Moving to Sanchez, there's more construction, specifically with the new orbital launch mount for pad 1.

We saw another top deck panel being lifted this week, following the previous lift at the end of May.

And while it's a bit hard to see from a distance, it looks as though this top deck piece was lifted and simply moved aside, probably to allow better access for work.

Because the launch mount is not yet ready to receive the top deck, we will have to wait a little while before it is actually lifted onto the rest of the mount.

The top panel for the launch mount is where the deluge water will exit to protect the mount, including both booster quick disconnects for launches and landings.

With the old design at Pad 1, the only protection on the top deck was steel, which would erode over time.

The same applied to the booster quick disconnect as well, which increased the refurbishment time needed after each launch.

Now that Flight 12 is behind us, we can see that the new design held up far better compared with the old.

This standardised design, so to speak, is being duplicated across all of SpaceX's new Starship pads, but more on that later.

Stopping by Mega Bay 2, we can see Ship 41 sitting on the bay's middle work stand, this time with no visible scaffolding surrounding it and only a few thermal tiles missing around the flap aero covers.

And while these will protect Starship against the heat of re-entry, you can protect yourself against the sand of the beach with your own TPS beach towel at shop.nasaspaceflight.com.

Speaking of future ships, it looks like Ship 40's static fire campaign is not

that far off as a road delay is currently scheduled for the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Fingers crossed all six Raptors will have lit up by next week's episode.

Moving over to the launch site, aerial work platforms have been spotted working on the ship quick disconnect arm on Pad 1's launch tower.

This suggests that SpaceX is getting close to finally removing the arm.

Even the untrained eye can tell that it has done its time and served the Starship program well.

It's ready for its long-awaited retirement, to be replaced with the much-improved design we've already seen in action at neighbouring Pad 2.

This arm has been basking in the salty Gulf air for all 11 launches at Pad 1, with both Block 1 and Block 2 vehicles.

As a result, it also needed to be retrofitted many times to accommodate these changing vehicles, from adding a hot stage ring to changing the fundamental design of the ship.

One of those involved the removal of the SQD arm claw that used to stabilise the booster.

I'd bet there's some newer fans who may not even know what that is.

SpaceX soon realised that the full stack was stable enough on its own

and removed the claw from the arm many years ago.

The SQD umbilical has also seen a few increases in height

due to a taller booster with the addition of a hot staging ring.

With all these lessons in mind, SpaceX designed the new arm for Pad 2 to allow for a higher flight cadence.

The arm was almost removed the other day, the Buckner-owned Liebherr LR11000 crane received a load spreader

and a crew was even spotted on the arm to help with attaching the load spreader to the umbilical.

We expected the spreader to be attached further along the arm, but for whatever reason SpaceX aborted the removal and then detach the load spreader.

While Pad 1 is still undergoing reconfiguration for Block 3, Pad 2 is also receiving some attention, mainly to the chopsticks and the carriage system.

SpaceX has added reinforcements to the chopsticks by welding on some doubler plates.

Adding these reinforcements to the sticks will help with catching both the booster and the ship by strengthening those sections.

In fact, when Pad 1 was being prepared for a booster catch on Flight 5, we saw SpaceX carrying out similar work on the chopsticks there as well.

With this work now seemingly complete, the chopsticks were closed once again and some of the scaffolding around the sticks was even removed.

Along with the sticks, a good deal of welding and grinding was also observed around the carriage system, possibly to add further reinforcements.

However, the chopstick and carriage work was not the main event at Pad 2 this week.

That honour belongs to the deluge system, which saw a staggering 11 runs.

Whilst none of them involved the top deck, on Thursday the 18th, SpaceX performed three deluge tests back to back to back, which is a first.

And on the 19th, SpaceX carried out two deluge tests back to back.

When everything is connected, SpaceX will be able to use the water mains to refill the deluge tank farm, replacing the need for the hundreds of water trucks.

But that's not all.

At the bottom of the trench, there are sump pumps to empty it of the water that would otherwise remain there,

either because it's not been evaporated by the Raptor engine's exhaust or simply hasn't been blown out of the trench.

To prevent storage from becoming a limiting factor at the tank farm, two new tanks have rolled from the port of Brownsville to the launch site.

The removal of the older smaller tanks

and the relocation of the ribbed storage tanks has allowed SpaceX

to move the two new tanks into the freed up space

so we can expect more storage tanks to arrive at the port

and be moved into their places once the groundwork is ready.

With more tanks at the tank farm more tanks need filling.

Introducing the air separation unit.

This week some more pipes have been installed around the compressor stage and the rest of the ASU.

While the air separation unit still has a long way to go, it is slowly but surely connecting more and more of the units together.

Eventually, this machine or building or facility will help supplement the commodity supply at Starbase.

Over on the other side of the Gulf, SpaceX is carrying out some unique but not entirely new testing at Launch Complex 39A.

Just over a month ago, the testing jig IB Proofin was delivered to LC39A after its journey from Starbase to the Cape.

It is now finally installed on the orbital launch mount, but what is ibuproofin actually for?

The first time we saw ibuproofin was when it was being used to test pad 2 at Starbase, where it was hooked up to each clamp in the launch mount to ensure they were all aligned correctly,

although this is not the only thing being tested.

Ibuproofin is also used to verify that the hold down clamps can withstand the launch thrust from 33 Raptor 3 engines.

This is very important of course, we saw on Flight 12 and during all the pre-flight testing just how powerful those engines are.

This testing process should not take too long.

At Starbase, IB Proofin spent about 11 days connected to the pad back in November 2025, so we shouldn't expect this time to be much different.

Maybe IB Proofin should be renamed to iKeep Proof-In for obvious reasons.

So where are we now with the progress at 39A and what's next for the pad?

Judging that they're only just now using IB Proof-In, we can estimate

that they're around four to six months away from the pad

being ready for a vehicle as that's roughly how long it took for pad two at Starbase.

That puts us in a good position for a potential launch from 39A this year in the winter, fingers crossed.

But to reach that point, there is still a long list of items that SpaceX will need to complete once IB Proofin has finished Proofin.

Starting with the two booster quick disconnects, they are not yet fully connected or complete as the teams have not installed the QD hoods, let alone tested them.

Next we'll be testing the chopsticks as they have never moved up or down the tower since they were installed in 2022,

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along with load testing to ensure they can lift the dry mass of a booster or ship.

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In between the various tests, SpaceX crews will also be fitting the rest of the shielding on the service structure

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and installing the hold down doors for all the clamps to protect them once they retract during launch.

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But SpaceX isn't just working on a third Starship pad, what about the fourth?

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The launch infrastructure at Space Launch Complex 37A is growing,

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quite literally, as the LR13000 crane was hooked up to the second of nine modules for stacking onto the complex's first tower.

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Eventually, Slick 37 will be home to the fourth and fifth Starship launch pads, although it is unlikely that even the first of these twin pads will be completed before 2028,

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judging by Starbase's PA-2, which started construction in mid-2024 and finally supported a launch with Flight 12 in May 2026.

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Now, this Space Coast segment is going to take a turn

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as we take a very rare trip over to California's Space Coast, Vandenberg Space Force Base.

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Recently, SpaceX has demolished historic Launch Complex 36 in preparation for converting it into a Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch site.

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However, there is a possibility that instead, SpaceX might change their mind and go through the process of turning the site into a Starship pad, or PADS.

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After all, they've already removed one pad, 39A, from Falcon 9 operations, and it wouldn't be the first time a proposed Falcon launch site ends up supporting Starship.

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In an alternate timeline, Starbase may be called Falcon Base.

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Only time will tell what they decide to do, but of course, you'd already know all of this if you watched our weekly Friday news show This Week in Space Flight.

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Back on the best coast, what is the point of having a pad

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if you do not have a Giga Bay to build the vehicles that will launch from it?

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The Florida Giga Bay is further ahead in construction than the one at Starbays, with a lead of roughly three months.

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Over the past few weeks, SpaceX has been dismantling each of the four tower cranes, and finally the last one is coming down with the removal of the top section of the crane, along with the lower parts of the others.

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This means that the main operational crane now building the Gigabay is the Manitowoc MLC-650, a mobile crawler crane sat next to the bay.

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It is replacing the four tower cranes and will be used to complete the rest of the building, because It's difficult to build a roof if you have four cranes sticking through it.

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We are still a long way from producing vehicles in Florida though, as there is not even a suggestion of a Star Factory yet,

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and until there is, the Gigabay is going to be more of a glorified storage facility.

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Until Starship production is ready at the Cape, and as we have discussed in previous weeks, MarMAC-31, you'll thank me later,

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will be used to transport vehicles across to the Space Coast from Starbase until the Cape's facilities are ready.

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This week, MarMAC-31 was moved from the Kennedy Space Center Turn Basin to Port Canaveral, it is now docked in the same location it occupied before it first headed to Starbase.

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A new addition to SpaceX's Roberts Road facility will be a newly proposed car park.

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This will be needed to support the expected increase in workforce once the Star Factory

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and Gigabay are up and running at the site, similar to how SpaceX built the multi-story parking garage in Starbase, although this Florida plan is just normal surface parking.

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Starship in Florida is getting closer to reality, but until then, it's time to head back to Texas for our McGregor Minute.

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Raptor 3 saw an increase in testing compared with last week, rising from 12 engine tests to 16 as of early Saturday morning.

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Most of these took place on the Raptor South stand rather than the Raptor vertical stand, unlike last week.

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The 12 test firings on Raptor South included some relight testing and four longer burns of around 141 seconds.

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Based on the length of the longer burns and the shorter relight burns of 10 to 20 seconds, it's likely these are booster engines being verified for the ascent, boost back and landing burns.

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Naturally, the booster requires far more engines than a ship, 33 against only six, so booster engines would be tested more frequently,

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especially right now when the production of ships and boosters is running at roughly one-to-one.

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Of course, in the future, more ships will be built than boosters, so the engine testing ratio will change.

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Of the Raptor sightings this week, our cameras at McGregor spotted Raptor 123, which looks a little dusty and worse for wear, along with Raptors 145 and 149, finishing off with Raptor 80.

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There were no serial number records this time around sadly, but SN80 seems to be a test Raptor.

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It was going to fly on Booster 19 as it was seen on the booster prior to its 33-engine static fire test, but for unknown reasons it was replaced and returned to McGregor. Since then,

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it seems likely SpaceX has been using it to check upgrades

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on the engine before rolling them out to the rest of the Raptor 3s.

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This might not be a record, but SN80 did complete one of the fastest test cycles at McGregor with an arrival

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and departure within 24 hours of each other.

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There are some other intriguing non-Raptor related updates from McGregor as well.

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Remember the mystery structure where SpaceX has been testing unknown items?

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They recently installed a black tarp over the top of the structure.

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Now, only SpaceX knows why, but we can speculate on the reasons behind it.

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It is possible that it's to remove the shadows we were able to see moving around inside when they are testing things,

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although the shadows themselves are not very revealing as to what is going on inside.

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It is possible that something more obvious may be tested soon and they want to remove any hints.

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Alternatively, it could simply be an added layer of protection that they are installing, as we have seen parts of the white tarp get damaged by the weather in the past.

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But here's hoping it's related to the human landing system.

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Back to where we started over in Starbase, there's another test site, Massey's.

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There has been a decent amount of activity.

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After Booster 20 conducted its cryo testing a couple of weeks ago and then rolled back to the production site,

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the booster cryo stand was rolled back to Massey's for storage until the next booster in line is ready for testing.

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Speaking of testing, Ship 39.1, the Block 3 ship aft test article, conducted its 16th cryogenic proof test.

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It was loaded with liquid nitrogen to verify the structural integrity of the design, although it is likely testing other aspects now rather than just the structure.

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Ship 39.1 is the only test article that has done anything meaningful recently, as the landing tank was removed from the nosecone jail in a previous episode,

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and Booster 18.3 has not completed any testing since the beginning of the month.

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While on the topic of B-18.3, this week its actuators were removed.

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These applied the forces replicating what a vehicle might experience in flight, and perhaps beyond.

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As a quick reminder, B-18.3 is the booster forward and hot stage ring test article, and it has a ship aft mock-up on top for testing the hot stage ring.

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B18.3 has completed 20 tests over the course of its time, but it is possible that, with the actuator removal, it has wrapped up its testing career.

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We do not know for sure, however, and there's another factor in play as well.

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Alongside the actuator removal, the Super Crusher, the cage that B18.3 is in, has had new actuators welded around the bottom of the structure.

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So, potentially, SpaceX wants to test different areas of the test tank by applying forces in a different location.

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It's all part of the march towards Flight 13, which is well and truly on the way, despite the quiet nature of Starbase this week.

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I've been Ryan Caten for NSF, thanks for watching, and goodbye.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing Practice: SpaceX Is HIDING Something! | Starship Update - Learn English Speaking with Video

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