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New image of SpaceX’s third droneship shows more detail of the deck

On Sunday we saw new images of what will become SpaceX’s third droneship. The eventually named “A Shortfall of Gravitas” seems to be trending well on the construction timeline.

In a new image given to Space Explored, we can see a better view of the deck on ASOG. This image was taken by an onlooker on a passing ship and you can see the bare deck that has been worked on the past few weeks. Also, we can see much clearer now that all four thrusters for the droneship.

With ground observations on Sunday, a day after this photo was taken, we can confirm that they are in the process of attaching the final thruster to the barge. It is unsure how far along they are in the rest of the construction process but most likely still early. The extension wings have not been seen anywhere and the build-up of the support equipment on the deck has not started.

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The design, most likely close to Just Read The Instructions, needs large amounts of storage containers, generators, and blast shields. This allows the droneship to operate independently for small amounts of time and have its equipment stay protect from the elements. The design does look to be changing to be a more streamlined version. Possibly fewer storage units and more fabricated structures.

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Avatar for Seth Kurkowski Seth Kurkowski

Seth Kurkowski covers launches and general space news for Space Explored. He has been following launches from Florida since 2018.