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In its most daring test flight ever, SpaceX launches a massive rocket and catches the returning booster with a mechanical arm back to the pad.
SpaceX has launched its fifth spacecraft test flight from Texas and returned the rocket’s towering first stage booster to land for the first time, achieving a new recovery method using large metal weapons.
The rocket’s Super Heavy first stage booster lifted off from the SpaceX launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas, at 7:25 a.m. (12:25 GMT) on Sunday, sending the second stage Starship rocket on a space path toward the Indian Ocean. It will attempt an atmospheric re-entry followed by a water landing in Western Australia.
The Super Heavy booster separated from the Starship booster at an altitude of about 45 miles (74 km) and then returned to the same area where it was launched to attempt a landing with the help of two robotic arms attached to the launch pad.
Standing nearly 121 meters (400 feet) tall, the empty Starship arched over the Gulf of Mexico like four previous Starships that were eventually destroyed shortly after liftoff or while crashing into the ocean. The final flight in June was the most successful, completing the flight without exploding.
This time, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has upped the challenge and the stakes. The company landed its first stage booster back on the pad it had ascended from seven minutes earlier.
“Are you kidding?” SpaceX’s Dan Huot observed excitedly near the launch site. “I’m shaking right now.”
“Today is a day of engineering history,” added SpaceX Kate Tice of SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
It was up to the flight director to decide whether to attempt a landing in real time with manual control. SpaceX said both the booster and launch pad must be in good and stable condition. Otherwise you will end up in the bay like before. Everything was judged ready to catch.
After the boosters were released, the retro-looking stainless steel spacecraft on top continued to circle the globe, aiming for a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The June flight fell short at the end after pieces fell off. SpaceX upgraded the software and reworked the heat sink to improve thermal tiles.
SpaceX has been recovering the first stage booster for its small Falcon 9 rocket for nine years after sending satellites and crews into orbit from Florida or California. But they land on offshore platforms or concrete slabs miles away from the launch pad.
Recycling Falcon boosters boosts launch speeds and saves SpaceX millions of dollars Musk plans to do the same with Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket in history, with 33 methane-fueled engines in the boosters alone. NASA ordered two spacecraft to land astronauts on the moon in late 2010. SpaceX plans to use Starship to send people and supplies to the moon and eventually to Mars.
