SpaceX appears to have ordered a brand new toy.
Piece by piece
A Twitter user was able to spot an unusual piece of machinery that was heading down the German Autobahn highway.
They tweeted that the machinery looked like a pair giant tank treads with the SpaceX logo and was heading to either Hamburg, Germany, or Rotterdamn, The Netherlands.
After much speculation and jokes about Cybertruck upgrades, NASASpaceFlight managing Editor Chris Bergin pointed out that SpaceX had apparently purchased a huge construction vehicle called a crawler crane made by Liebherr. Although details are not available, it is likely that the track will be shipped overseas to Texas to be used at SpaceX's Boca Chica facility.
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, later confirmed the purchase via Twitter.
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There's a good chance Musk is serious about this crane. This is a far cry from the tweet Musk sent last year about a new crane. SpaceX's Texas facility already uses huge construction cranes to build the structures that it uses to assemble its massive rockets.
@TeslaratiTeam Hello, I saw this car on the German Autobahn (A2 in Magdeburg) this morning. It could be coming from Austria, and may be headed to Hamburg or Rotterdam port. It looks like part of a future transport vehicle to get Starship to the launchpad. Do you have any other ideas? pic.twitter.com/nLkkFLp3CM Max._. (@Max9907826460 September 1, 2021
Dual Construction
Ironically, the driver of the crawler cranes track to port could have waved goodbye as it passed another Musks construction site. Musk visited Germany in August to see the location of his Tesla Gigafactory. Reuters reports that multiple delays have caused delays.
Although the factory is expected to open by the end of 2011, a pending environmental review could push it into next year. Progress in Texas is moving a little faster.
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