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This 1,000-Ton Crane Is What Gets the Massive SpaceX Starship Erect

Back in May, Elon Musk’s SpaceX finally nailed a test flight of a Starship prototype, ending a rather long streak of failures and spectacular explosions. It was an exciting sight seeing the thing come down in an orderly fashion, one that gave us a glimpse of how the future of interplanetary travel could look.
Liebherr crane lifting Starship into position 7 photos
Photo: Liebherr
For us mere mortals not directly involved with these efforts, a space launch generally comes down to the rocket lifting off and doing its thing, but for the people engaged in such endeavors, there’s a lot of hard work to be done from idea to completion.

We’ve seen SpaceX Starships taking off and landing, but have you ever wondered how they get into position for their time under the spotlight? The answer is simple, borderline rudimentary: cranes.

SpaceX is presently getting ready for another test flight, the important orbital flight, and that means work on getting the next prototype ready is underway. The latest news on this front from Boca Chica, Texas, does not come from SpaceX, however, but a German-Swiss company called Liebherr.

Back in April, the company says, it was contacted by Buckner Heavy Lift Cranes to have a special LR 11000 crawler crane configured to be able to erect a spaceship on a launch pad. Two months after that moment, Liebherr shared images of the mighty LR 11000 maneuvering a shiny Starship into position.

The crane is a configurable one, as it can be fitted with a number of booms depending on requirements. For the SpaceX application, it wears its main one and an F2 jib that allows it to lift 253 tons at the jib head.

At the moment, aside from the crane seen in the main photo of this piece lifting the final components of the Starship into position, there are two others on site, providing support for construction work.
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Editor's note: Gallery shows cranes from the same family at other jobs as well.

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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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