In article ,
says...

On 2018-03-13 18:40, Jeff Findley wrote:

They built a full scale composite tank and pressure tested it to
destruction a couple years ago.
http://www.businessinsider.com/space...nk-ocean-ship-
test-2016-11

But correct to state that the destructive test was only a few months
ago? I seem to recal some tank video that was much more recent than 2016.

The prototypes had better be close to BFR/BFS in many ways, or it
wouldn't be very useful would it?


Depends on the goal of that test flight. It could very well be that a
real BFS ship is ready to be built with the structural aspects all done,
but will go without payload (the crew compartment)

On the other hand, there maty be PR/marketing pressres to have a flight
early, at which point engineers are told to focus on engines/tanks and
just build a epty shell around iot that looks like BFS. (the real
structsures/shell can be designed/built later).

Or, we could see naked engines/tanks go up and down. It really depends
on how far they are in the design.

The article was dated November 16, 2016 and said:

SpaceX announced on Wednesday that it had successfully completed
a critical test of a huge piece of its Mars spaceship ? a giant
and potentially explosive black orb.

Also, the Twitter video of them loading the tank on the barge is dated
16 months ago. That is consistent with the news article being put out
in November 2016.

So, it was only 16 months ago, not two years. Still, the tank was built
and was tested. That "retired" much of the risk of using such large
composite tanks. At least their shape is simple compared to the failed
X-33 tanks (which was a geometrically complex multi-lobed design).

Jeff
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