For the first time, Starship’s mega rocket booster gets caught in SpaceX’s “chopstick”

This still image taken from a SpaceX broadcast shows Starship’s superheavy booster being “caught” mid-air on its way back to its launch pad near Boca Chica, Texas.
SpaceX on Sunday successfully “captured” the first stage booster of its Starship megarocket as it returned to the launch pad after a test flight, a world first in the company’s quest for rapid reusability. It was about.
The “superheavy booster” was launched a few minutes earlier while attached to a Starship rocket, and then returned to the same launch pad in Texas in picture-perfect control, where a pair of giant mechanical “chopsticks” ” extended from the launch tower and carried a rocket. According to Elon Musk’s livestream from SpaceX, the booster slowly descended and came to a stop.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a day that will go down in technology history,” a SpaceX spokesperson said in a voiceover on the company’s livestream after the booster was safely in the tower and cheers from the company’s staff.
“The tower captured the rocket!!” SpaceX founder Musk posted on X.
The launch took place at 7:25 a.m. (12:25 GMT) under clear skies. While the booster returned to the launch pad, Starship’s upper stage was scheduled to splash down in the Indian Ocean within an hour.
On its last flight in June, SpaceX achieved the first successful splashdown with Starship, the prototype spaceship that Musk hopes will one day take humans to Mars.
NASA is also eagerly awaiting an improved version of Starship to serve as a lander for manned flights to the moon under the Artemis program later this decade.


SpaceX’s Starship will be 397 feet (121 meters) tall with both stages, about 90 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.
SpaceX said its engineers “spent years and months of testing preparing the booster capture program and tens of thousands of hours building the infrastructure to maximize the chance of success.” said.
The team was monitoring the Super Heavy Booster to ensure that “thousands” of criteria were met on both the vehicle and the tower before returning it.
If the conditions had not been met, the booster would have been diverted for a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, as in previous tests.
Instead, after being given the go-ahead, the returning booster decelerated from supersonic speed and powerful “chopstick arms” cradled it.
“Fail fast and learn fast”
The large mechanical arm, which Musk called the “Mechazilla,” has caused a lot of excitement among space enthusiasts.
Together, Starship’s two stages are 397 feet (121 meters) tall, about 90 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.


SpaceX’s Starship sits on the Starbase launch pad near Boca Chica, Texas, ahead of the Starship 5 test.
The 233-foot-tall superheavy booster generates 16.7 million pounds (74.3 meganewtons) of thrust. This is approximately twice as powerful as the Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo program.
SpaceX’s “fail fast, learn fast” strategy ultimately accelerated development and contributed to the company’s success through rapid iterative testing, even when the rocket spectacularly exploded.
Founded in just 2002, the company quickly overtook aerospace industry giants and now not only offers the only U.S. spacecraft authorized to carry astronauts, but also a leader in the world of orbital launches. He has become a leader.
We have also built the world’s largest constellation of internet satellites, invaluable in disaster and conflict areas.
But that founding vision of humanity becoming a multiplanetary species is increasingly at risk of being overshadowed by Musk’s support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his alignment with right-wing politics. .
The company has been in a public spat with the Federal Aviation Administration in recent weeks over launch licenses and alleged violations, with Mr. Musk accusing the agency of overreach and calling for the resignation of its administrator, Michael Whitaker.
“If Donald Trump becomes president, he’s going to try to minimize regulatory interference with SpaceX,” said Mark Hass, a marketing expert and professor at Arizona State University. “But if things go the other way, it’s a calculated gamble.”
© 2024 AFP
Citation: First, Starship megarocket booster caught in SpaceX’s ‘chopstick’ (October 13, 2024), from https://phys.org/news/2024-10-starship-megarocket-booster-caught-spacex Retrieved October 13, 2024. html
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