SpaceX caught its Starship rocket with mechanical tower arms in Texas after a 22-hour orbital flight on Saturday the first time the aerospace company has done so (VG).
The 124-meter-tall spacecraft returned to the launch site following its 15th test flight, which began on Friday.
The successful landing is considered an engineering feat and an important step toward Elon Musk’s goal of developing a fully reusable launch system. While previous tests achieved booster recoveries, SpaceX successfully retrieved the upper-stage ship after a complete orbit for the first time (VG). The uncrewed vessel landed at 22:20 on Saturday night, NRK reported.
“We have caught Starship, and it changes all,” said Dan Huot, spokesperson for SpaceX (The Norwegian newspaper).
The mission lifted off from the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, South Texas (The online newspaper). Minutes after launch, the Super Heavy booster separated from the Starship spacecraft. SpaceX directed the booster toward the Gulf of Mexico, where it broke apart upon impact with the water. Meanwhile, the spacecraft continued its ascent and reached Earth orbit about 27 minutes after liftoff.
During its 14 orbits around the planet, the uncrewed vessel deployed 26 satellites for the Starlink internet network. The vehicle then reentered the atmosphere, traveling at roughly 27,000 kilometers per hour (VG). It approached the launch site belly-first before flipping into an upright position (Bloomberg).
Two mechanical arms on the launch tower, often called chopsticks, clamped onto the descending vehicle to halt its fall (VG). If SpaceX had been unable to catch the spacecraft, the backup plan was to shorten the journey and have Starship land in the Pacific Ocean.
“The launch was partially successful,” said Kjellmar Oksavik, professor and head of the space physics group at the University of Bergen (VG). “They managed to catch Starship, which had gone in orbit around the Earth, but the booster was lost. So it wasn’t 100 percent success for the entire launch, but for the project, it was 100 percent success.”
NASA selected a modified variant of Starship to serve as the lunar lander for the Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon (VG). Before crewed lunar missions take place, SpaceX must demonstrate the ability to transfer propellant between spacecraft in orbit.
“We are dependent on such launches to get to the moon,” Oksavik told VG.
SpaceX must still prove that retrieved craft can fly again rapidly and affordably without extensive repairs (VG). The ultimate goal is to reuse both stages shortly after landing to make launches cheaper and more frequent.
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