the essential
It’s an unprecedented and spectacular maneuver: SpaceX, the company of billionaire Elon Musk, managed on Sunday October 13 to catch up with the first stage of a rocket using giant articulated arms.
Successful bet: SpaceX managed on Sunday during a spectacular maneuver to catch up with the first stage of its Starship megarocket during a test flight, a first which could represent a decisive step towards the reuse of this heavy launcher.
“Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster!”, the company enthused on its X account after a flight of around nine minutes, in reference to the nickname of its launch tower. The two stages of the rocket – the largest and most powerful in the world – must at the end of its development be recovered and reused after each flight. A strategy aimed at being able to launch more machines more quickly, and for much less money.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s company aims to use Starship to colonize Mars. The development of the spacecraft is also closely monitored by NASA, which is counting on it to bring its astronauts back to the surface of the Moon. Takeoff of this 5th Starship test flight took place at 7:25 a.m. local time (12:25 p.m. GMT) from the company’s Starbase space base, in the far south of Texas in the United States.
“Years preparing the attempt”
The rocket consists of the Super Heavy first stage and, above it, the Starship, which by extension gives its name to the entire launcher. Super Heavy alone is some 70 meters tall (the complete rocket is 120). During each flight, Super Heavy detaches from the ship after propelling it using its 33 powerful engines.
BREAKING: SpaceX just successfully caught its Super Heavy rocket booster in mid-air on its first try! This is the first time anyone has accomplished such a feat, marking one of the most significant engineering achievements in human history.
Congrats @SpaceX team! ud83dude80 pic.twitter.com/Ho7DIUap23
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) https://twitter.com/SawyerMerritt/status/1845442808733368754?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Until now, it was going to end its journey in the sea, but SpaceX this time managed to get it back on its launch pad, from the first attempt of this delicate maneuver, around nine minutes after takeoff. Before the Super Heavy stage could touch the ground, mechanical arms installed on the launch tower, nicknamed “the wands”, closed on it and immobilized it, we could see on the stream SpaceX video.
“SpaceX engineers spent years preparing for the capture attempt,” the company wrote ahead of the launch. “Tens of thousands of hours” have been devoted by technicians “to setting up the necessary infrastructure to maximize our chances of success,” she added.