From Steel Rolls to Starship at the Starfactory

As SpaceX accelerates its ambitious goal of sending humans to the Moon and Mars, the company’s Starship production complex at Starbase, Texas, has undergone a dramatic transformation, highlighted by the construction of Starfactory and the GigaBay.

Starfactory:

In early 2022, SpaceX broke ground on a massive new facility known as the Starfactory at its Starbase site in South Texas.

This permanent, high-volume manufacturing building replaced the temporary tents once used for assembling Starship barrel sections, representing a pivotal upgrade that enabled far greater production efficiency and scale.

Today, as SpaceX ramps up production of Block 3 (V3) Starship hardware—the upgraded design set to debut with Flight 12 in the coming weeks—the Starfactory stands as the beating heart of the program.

From the outside, its sleek, futuristic exterior encompasses the vast, intricate network of specialized work stands, jigs, and automated systems that transform massive stainless steel coils into the components of the world’s most powerful rocket ever built and flown.

Central to the Starfactory’s operations are advanced automated systems that handle critical fabrication tasks.

These include robotic cutters for shaping stainless steel, high-accuracy robotic welders—now standard for Block 3 vehicles to achieve lighter, stronger, and more consistent seams—and specialized installers for the Thermal Protection System (TPS) tiles, which protect the vehicle during reentry.

Much of this sophisticated equipment, along with supporting infrastructure, remains out of public view from outside the building.

Once processed, the stainless steel components undergo rigorous multi-stage quality control inspections at checkpoints throughout the line. These verifications ensure structural integrity, dimensional accuracy, and defect-free surfaces before advancing to final assembly.

Fabricated rings then diverge along dedicated production paths: one side focuses on Super Heavy booster components, fabricating the massive cylindrical sections and structural elements for the first stage; the other handles Ship components, including payload bays, nosecones, and aft sections.

This parallel workflow optimizes throughput as SpaceX scales toward higher flight cadences.

Much of the Starfactory’s interior remains hidden from view, but the public is fortunate to catch regular glimpses of one key assembly: the production of Starship’s nosecones. These distinctive forward sections are often visible through the facility’s large windows or open bays.

The nosecone forms the very top of the Starship upper stage and houses the two header tanks—one for liquid oxygen (LOX) and one for liquid methane (LCH4).

These smaller, insulated tanks provide propellant for critical burns—such as landing, in-space maneuvers, or contingency operations—that cannot reliably draw from the main tanks due to settling, boil-off, or attitude constraints.

Ships

With production underway inside the Starfactory, stacking can finally begin—starting with the Ships.

A single Ship consists of seven separate barrel sections, thousands of TPS tiles, two forward flaps, and two aft flaps. At the very start of the line, nosecones begin just like everything else: as a roll of stainless steel.

After entering the factory and progressing through the initial fabrication steps, the material arrives in the dedicated nosecone fabrication area, where it is bent, shaped, and formed into the precise sections needed to assemble a complete nosecone.

Once a nosecone has been initially stacked, it can then be moved to the header tank installation area, where the two header tanks—mentioned earlier—are fitted.

Alongside these header tanks is a set of Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPVs) that typically hold high-pressure gases to assist in pressurizing each header tank during flight.

After the header tanks are properly installed, the nosecone is moved to a TPS pin installation stand, where the individual pins that secure the TPS tiles to the vehicle are attached. This is a critical step for the Ships; if the pins are not installed correctly, the TPS tiles may not sit in the proper positions or maintain integrity during reentry.

Next in the process is the installation of the aerocover, flaps, and ablative layer.

The aerocovers ensure that no additional heating can penetrate below the flap hinges and damage them. The flaps control the vehicle while it descends through the atmosphere, while the ablative layer is a new secondary layer beneath the TPS tiles that serves as a backup in case a tile falls off during flight.

Throughout the entire process described, TPS tiles can also begin to be installed on top of the ablative layer.

After nosecone fabrication is complete, the nosecone can be stacked atop the payload bay section inside the factory, creating a section referred to as the nosecone three (N:3) or nosecone plus three rings. This process was debuted on Block 2 ships to save time in the stacking process.

Furthermore, the N:3 can now be rolled out of the Starfactory and into Megabay 2, where all of the ship stacking and work takes place. After the N:3 has made it to the bay, the forward dome section (FX:4) can be rolled out and double lifted using cables attached to the bottom of the N:3 to the turn table for welding. 

Through the rest of the stacking, the same process is followed.

The Common dome section (CX:3) is next, then the first LOX tank section (A2:3), followed by another LOX tank section (A3:4), and finally the aft barrel section (AX:4), all of which are typically outfitted with all of the required tiles.The AX:4 is not initially outfitted with flaps, as the flaps also need to be mounted on the A3:4 section. For this reason, that process is deferred until the Ship is fully stacked and positioned on a work stand inside the bay. However, because flaps are not required for initial testing, the exact timing can vary.

Now that ship stacking is complete, the designated ship can enter its testing campaign.

Boosters

Just like the ships, boosters often take a relatively similar approach. The main difference being the stacking order and location.

To start with a booster, the CX:3 is rolled out of the Starfactory and into Megabay 1, where all booster stacking and work takes place.

Following the CX:3, five LOX tank barrel sections are rolled out and stacked individually over the course of a few weeks. During this time, the improved transfer tube can be installed, bringing the currently stacked booster to 23 rings tall. An additional tank is then mounted; this extra tank holds LOX for the booster landing burn.

To complete the stacking of the LOX tank, the aft section (AX:2) is rolled out and stacked below the LOX tank barrel sections.

The process for this is a little less straightforward. To start, the AX:2 is rolled into the bay, where the 23-ring-tall booster can be lifted using a bridge crane over the AX:2. Both sections can then be lifted to the opposing turntable. SpaceX does this because there are only two turntables, and only one of them can support an AX:2.

Now that the LOX tank has finished stacking, the LCH4 tank can begin.

To start the LCH4 tank, SpaceX rolls out the brand-new and improved staging ring, which also houses the forward dome—or the top—of the LCH4 tank. Fortunately, the LCH4 tank requires only two more barrel sections below this one, which are rolled out in the following days and weeks.

After all of these barrel sections are welded together, a ring stand is moved into the middle of the bay, and the LCH4 tank is moved to the ring stand, where the two bridge cranes inside the bay can swap positions and continue the lift, where the LCH4 tank and LOX tank are hand-welded together.

What’s next?

Following the stacking of both vehicles, each one must undergo proof testing. This involves stacking the vehicle on the designated thrust simulation stand and rolling it to the Masseys test site, where every vehicle receives its initial structural verification.

Although the vehicles differ, the testing process is largely the same for both.

First, they are connected to the quick-disconnect systems, allowing SpaceX to load an unknown amount of ambient pressure into all the COPVs and propellant tanks. This step initially verifies the structural integrity of the vehicle.

After each vehicle passes this test, SpaceX can then load liquid nitrogen (LN2) into the tanks to verify each tank can hold a cryogenic liquid. The order has varied for these tests, but they usually come in a set of two or three. One test for the LOX tank, one test for the LCH4 tank, and one test filling both tanks.

Finally, if the vehicles pass these tests, they can be rolled back to the production site, where they receive all of their engines and missing hardware not needed for cryogenic proof testing. Next, the vehicles roll back out for static fire testing.

The boosters static fire at the launch site atop the launch mount, and the ships static fire at a designated spot at the Masseys test facility.

Following static fire testing of both vehicles, they are rolled back to the production site for final pre-flight checkouts and preparations.

They can then look forward to becoming partners at the launch site ahead of launch.

Featured Image: Starfactory from the air, as Booster 19 headed to Pad 2 for the first time (Credit: SpaceX)

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