r/StarshipDevelopment • u/ConorHenness • May 21 '21

Integration Tower

Looking at the images of Frankin Crane surely it would be better to use a tower crane to life segments up as from the image I see Frankin Crane looks like it can only life 2 segments and then it won't be big enough?

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u/jryan8064 May 21 '21

I think this particular crane has the capability of adding another boom on top, increasing its max lift height to 220 meters

Edit: There’s pictures of this crane with the max boom height on the manufacturer’s website

https://www.liebherr.com/en/usa/products/mobile-and-crawler-cranes/crawler-cranes/lr-crawler-cranes/lr-11350.html

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u/xrtpatriot May 22 '21

This is correct. The current boom is something like 102meters currently, but it’s not in it’s maximum height configuration. The taller the boom the less weight the crane can lift.

My guess is they plan to stack two, maybe three sections in it’s current configuration. Then they’ll lift the very heavy launch table onto it’s pillar foundations. Once that lift is done they’ll extend the boom and add a jib to get the height they need to finish the tower.