SpaceX “catches” megarocket launch vehicle with metal arms – DW – October 13, 2024

In its fifth Starship test flight on Sunday, SpaceX captured the rocket's massive first-stage booster after it floated back to the launch pad and was secured by giant metal arms.

It represents a novel engineering achievement in SpaceX's ambitions to build a reusable lunar and Mars vehicle.

At nearly 400 feet (121 meters) high, the empty spacecraft lifted off at sunrise from the southern tip of Texas toward the Gulf of Mexico.

At the start on Sunday, the risks were even higher than in the previous four tests. The company used mechanical arms called sticks to bring the 232-foot (71-meter)-long booster back to land on the pad.

“The tower caught the rocket!!” Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Science fiction without the fictional part.”

He later wrote: “Today a great step has been taken towards the realization of multiplanetary life.”

“Splashdown confirmed!” the official X account for SpaceX published. “Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting fifth flight test of Starship!”

“Even today, what we just saw is magical,” SpaceX’s Dan Huot observed from near the launch site. “I’m shaking right now.”

“Folks, this is a day for the tech history books,” added SpaceX’s Kate Tice from SpaceX headquarters in California.

The novel catch-landing approach is the latest advance in SpaceX's test-to-failure development campaign for a fully reusable rocket that will carry more cargo into orbit, carry people to the moon for NASA and carry the ultimate mission to Mars should.

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Tensions between FAA and Space X

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave the green light to SpaceX's launch license for the Starship test on Saturday. The FAA's approval came after weeks of wrangling between the space exploration company and its regulator over the pace of launch approval and financial penalties related to Space X's work rocket, the Falcon 9.

First unveiled by Musk in 2017, Starship exploded several times in various stages of testing, but successfully completed a full flight for the first time in June.

The two-stage rocket's Super Heavy booster lifted off near the Mexican border in Texas and about 90 minutes later sent the second stage – Starship – into a near-orbital path toward the Indian Ocean, where it completed an explosive hypersonic re-entry.

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jsi/dj (AP, AFP, Reuters)