Image: SpaceX
SpaceX’s successful test comes after several failed attempts at creating a reusable rocket design over the years.
In a huge leap forward for space exploration, SpaceX ‘caught’ its Starship booster mid-air on its 122-metre tall ‘Mechazilla’ tower, one successful step toward the space company’s quest to build a reusable moon and Mars vehicle design.
SpaceX launched its fifth Starship test – a rocket on a 71 metre-tall ‘Super Heavy’ booster – yesterday (13 October) at 7:25 am CT (1:25 pm Irish Time) 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 70km to commence its return to the launch site.
The booster re-lit three of its 33 Raptor engines to slow its speedy descent to the launch site and in a a mechanical feat, it was successfully caught by the “chopstick arms” of the launch and catch tower Mechazilla, hooking the booster into place.
“Thousands of distinct vehicle and pad criteria had to be met prior to the catch attempt,” SpaceX said.
“The tower has caught the rocket!!” Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO wrote on his social media platform X.
The catch-landing method marked the newest innovation in SpaceX’s test-to-failure development campaign with the aim of creating a fully reusable rocket designed to carry more cargo into orbit and ferry humans to the moon and Mars.
Meanwhile, the Starship rocket, the two-stage Starship’s top half, cruised at more than 27,000 km per hour, 143 km up in space and headed for the Indian Ocean near Western Australia to demonstrate a controlled splashdown 90 minutes into flight.
The SpaceX livestream showed the rocket reaching its target in the Indian Ocean in the nighttime waters. Musk said the ship landed “precisely on target!”.
Space X’s successful flight test yesterday comes after some positive and several failed attempts over the years.
In June, on its fourth attempt, the Starship rocket completed a full flight test for the first time without blowing up, while in its previous attempt, the rocket reached space for the first time, but exploded during re-entry.
Starship had its first successful launch and landing in August 2020, but this was followed by the SN8 prototype exploding during a test run in December of the same year.
When launched for its first test in April 2023, Starship exploded minutes after taking off, which SpaceX politely referred to as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly”. The second test launch saw Starship successfully conduct its “hot-stage separation” technique for the first time, before exploding in a second “rapid unscheduled disassembly”.
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