$200,000 streaming rigs and millions of views: inside the cottage industry popping up around SpaceX - CNN

Beyer, a Los Angeles-based photographer and contributor to the space news site NASASpaceflight.com, had by that point been staying at a South Texas hotel for a month, watching and waiting and filming as SpaceX prepared to launch the prototype — an early iteration of Starship, the spaceship that company founder Elon Musk envisions will one day land the first humans on Mars — on a doomed test flight.

On this particular day, Beyer had his camera up on his car roof, pointed at engineers and construction workers as they tinkered with the rocket or prepared to pour concrete to expand the vast launch site.

"I really do believe, not to sound like I've drunk the Kool-Aid or anything, but, like, I really do believe that what we are witnessing right now is history in the making.

Their recordings and online updates serve as promotion for SpaceX, and sometimes even allow Musk to keep tabs on South Texas operations when he's out of town.

As a lifelong space fanatic, Beyer said, he would rather be in a dusty Texas town watching rocket prototypes explode than anywhere else on the planet.

He's now set up a new studio space just a few miles from SpaceX's South Texas launch pad, where a rear balcony gives him a clear view of SpaceX's prototypes glinting in the sun.

He's won the support of Musk himself, who frequently replies to Dodd's questions on Twitter, has been repeatedly photographed wearing Everyday Astronaut merchandise, and has sat for interviews for Dodd's channel.

Musk has also tuned into a 24/7 livestream of SpaceX's South Texas operations that was set up by Louis Balderas, an IT consultant who lives on South Padre Island in South Texas, Balderas told CNN Business.

He uses them to stream an endless picture of SpaceX's launch and manufacturing facilities on his YouTube channel, LabPadre.

"[Musk] said it's easier for him to get an update on what's going on rather than to pick up the phone," Balderas said of what Musk told him about his stream during a 2019 meeting.

(SpaceX has not responded to interview requests or inquiries from CNN Business in nearly a year.)

Last month, Balderas said, SpaceX employees took down a key camera — the one capturing the closest view of the launch pad — just before SpaceX's SN10 rocket prototype was slated to lift off.

Within a day, SpaceX had given him his camera back and replaced the rig he used to keep it elevated, and the feed was back up, Balderas told CNN Business.

SpaceX and Musk rarely share their own updates about what's happening at their South Texas facilities, which lie less than half a mile from a public beach called Boca Chica.

They go live hours before launch — long before SpaceX publicly confirms such tests are even happening.

Dodd, Beyer and other NASASpaceflight contributors keep their feeds filled with nearly constant analysis.

Even without guidance from SpaceX, they're able to post estimated countdown clocks ahead of launch solely by tracking observable changes to SpaceX's fueling tanks and ground systems.

Unofficial livestreams of the SN10 prototype launch, which saw the vehicle soar about six miles high before landing upright on a nearby ground pad, wound up being key.

SpaceX had wrapped its official livestream before the rocket exploded just a few minutes after landing, while independent streamers kept rolling, capturing the sudden eruption.

Musk himself said nothing until hours later, cryptically acknowledging the blast by posting a tweet that read "RIP SN10, honorable discharge."

If it weren't for the webcasters, the public — and many journalists who routinely cover SpaceX — might not have known until Musk tweeted that SN10 had exploded.

The cottage industry of SpaceX observers have gained new prominence on social media platforms at a time when the space community — mirroring political Twitter — is more divided than ever.

Philip Bottin, who lives in Washington State, said he drove practically from the top of the country to the bottom — his second pilgrimage to SpaceX's South Texas launch site — to get a glimpse at the SN11 rocket and the remaining scraps of SN10, which were still visible near the landing pad.