Space X does not seem to be slowing down on its way to improving its rocket-catching skills. The company made spaceflight history last Sunday (October 13) when the first-stage booster of its Starship Megarocket was caught by the “chopstick arms” of the launch tower when it came back down to its launch mount about seven minutes after liftoff.
Successful Test Launch and Catch of Super Heavy Booster
According to company founder and CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX plans to execute the same with the 165-foot-tall upper-stage spacecraft as well. In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) Musk said on Tuesday, “Hopefully early next year, we will catch the ship too.”
On Sunday (13 October 2024) at 7:25 am CT, SpaceX launched its fifth Starship test – a rocket on a 71 metre-tall ‘Super Heavy’ booster from the company’s launch facilities in Boca Chica, Texas.
The Super Heavy booster sent the Starship rocket toward space before separating at an altitude of 70 km for the booster’s return to the launch site, re-lighting three of its 33 Raptor engines to slow its speedy descent.
The launch and catch tower Mechazilla caught the booster mid-air and hooked it into place, while the two-stage top half of the Starship rocket itself cruised at more than 27,000 km per hour at a height of 143 km up in space and directed towards the Indian Ocean near Western Australia for a controlled splashdown 90 minutes into flight.
Also Read: SpaceX Caught The Starship Rocket Booster In Mid-Air With ‘Chopsticks’!
Significance of the Catch Landing
Reports of Starship’s preparations pointing to a possible tower catch attempt on the fifth flight attempt had hit the news earlier this year in June after the successful ocean soft landing in the fourth attempt, which for Starship had marked a complete flight test for the first time without blowing up. The attempt before that had resulted in the rocket reaching space for the first time, but exploding during re-entry.
The catch landing on Sunday marked a significant achievement in engineering and mechanics and placed a stepping stone on the road towards designing reusable rockets to eliminate the need for traditional landings. The next stage of the project will be catching Starship’s upper stage which could prove to be a challenge due to its size and speed.
Starship is the largest and most powerful space vehicle ever built, and designed to carry both humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and possibly beyond. The combination of the reusable Starship and the Mechazilla catch system could mean drastic reductions in the costs of space launches, with Musk aiming to lower the costs to about $2-3 million per mission.
Advancing the Mechazilla and the Starship catch mechanism could potentially accelerate plans for manned missions to the Moon and Mars while also keeping space travel and exploration sustainable.
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Future Testing and Cost Reductions
In Q4 for SpaceX, the next test phase will involve ramping up Starship testing including an attempt to catch the upper stage using Mechazilla. Plans to refine the catching mechanism to ensure full reusability of all components of the Starship system are imminent, highlighting the space tech giant’s ambition to make human spaceflight and interplanetary missions more frequent and cost-effective at the same time.
