By: Daryn Stack
This Sunday marked a milestone for SpaceX completing its first ever successful “catch” of the Starship booster. The mission’s success is an advance in the company’s quest in developing a fully reusable rocket system, paving the way for more cost-effective and efficient space travel.
The catch involved the Super Heavy booster, which launched from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, facility, propelling the Starship into space. After the booster itself from the starship, it returned back to earth where it was caught by a mechanical arm dubbed “Mechazilla,” attached to the launch tower. This is a unique method in order to avoid the traditional ocean landing used by previous missions which resulted in the recovery of those boosters by drone. In this case the goal is to preserve the booster and allow quick turnaround in between flights.
This test represents a great success for SpaceX allowing the ambitious visions for reusing technology to continue. Elon Musk, as always spoke upon the potential benefits for developing reusable space technology and this launch technology is the first steppingstone In lowering cost of space travel, and eventually enabling interplanetary missions. The Starship system, composed of the Starship upper stage and the Super Heavy booster, is intended to carry out a variety of missions, from lunar landings to Mars exploration.
Elon Musk himself exclaimed the importance of changing From having landing gear on the boosters to catching the boosters in Mid air “Catching the booster instead of landing it eliminates the need for legs, which saves weight and cost,” said Musk in a statement. “It also allows us to re-launch much faster.”
The mission signifies a new phase in SpaceX’s testing program, bringing the company closer to its goal of launching a manned Starship mission to Mars in the coming decade. With this success, SpaceX is now setting its sights on a full-scale orbital test of the Starship system, which is expected to take place in the coming months.
