SpaceX makes world first recovery of booster section
October 14, 2024
On its fifth flight, the SpaceX team managed to land the two-stage Starship vehicle’s Super Heavy Booster back next to its 146m-high (480ft) ‘Mechazilla’ Launch Tower.
Starship is a fully reusable space transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, or to the Moon, or even to Mars and beyond, making the human race ‘multi-planetary’.
SpaceX claim that Starship is the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever, capable of carrying a payload of up to 150 metric tonnes (fully reusable) or 250 metric tonnes (expendable). Starship consists of the Starship Spacecraft and the liquid methane-powered, 71-metre (233ft) Super Heavy Booster – which is said to be twice as powerful as NASA’s Artemis rocket.
Instead of landing the booster in the ocean, as is usual, SpaceX slowed it from a speed in excess of 17,000 mph (27,350 km/h), before guiding the booster back to the launchpad. There it was ‘caught’ in a pair of giant mechanical ‘chopstick’ arms attached to the Mechazilla Launch Tower.
This had never been done before, and promises to allow the rapid reuse of the booster, thereby significantly reducing the cost (and timescale) of any future missions.
Prior to the launch, the SpaceX team indicated that the booster might be directed to land in the Gulf of Mexico.
Starship lifted off from the Boca Chica starbase in Texas at 0725 am local time (1325 BST) on Sunday. The Ship and booster separated at an altitude of about 40 miles (65km) above the Earth’s surface, about two and three-quarter minutes after launch. At this point the booster began to head back towards the launch site at Boca Chica, while the upper stage fired up its own engines and continued to an altitude of nearly 90 miles, orbiting the planet at 17,000 mph before splashing down in the Indian Ocean as planned, around forty minutes later.
The Starship Spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere horizontally, and onboard cameras showed that its 18,000 heat-shielding tiles than during the last test. Starship reignited one of its six engines to bring itself into an upright position for the ocean landing. The craft then toppled over before appearing to explode.
Musk said the ship landed “precisely on target!” It was said that SpaceX had managed to preserve some of the vehicle’s hardware, which had not been expected.
As the Super Heavy booster re-entered the atmosphere three of its 33 Raptor engines were reignited, slowing its descent and allowing it to be steered towards the launch tower. After final checks were carried out it was decided that an attempt would be made to land back at Boca Chica.
