SpaceX lands booster with giant arms in breakthrough test
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The news: SpaceX successfully caught its "Super Heavy" booster using giant arms, dubbed chopsticks, in a test flight of the Starship rocket at its Texas launch pad, a major engineering achievement and key milestone towards the company’s goal to build reusable rockets.
The numbers: It was the fifth Starship rocket test flight after the previous four experienced varying degrees of failure, with explosions occurring either shortly after liftoff or during re-entry.
The booster is 233 feet (71 metres) tall and powered by 33 Raptor engines, while the total rocket height is nearly 400 feet, making it the world’s largest and most powerful rocket.
The test flight, launched at 7:25am CT (11:25pm AEST) on Sunday, saw the booster lift off, separate at an altitude of roughly 70 km, and then relight its engines for descent.
It returned safely to the pad, with flames rising along one of its sides as it landed with precision in the tower's arms.
The empty spacecraft launched on top of the booster also successfully landed in a designated location in the Indian Ocean, as planned.
The context: The successful catch of the Super Heavy booster means it could be reused for future flights, a key step in SpaceX's goal to reduce costs and increase the frequency of space missions as it aims to eventually transport cargo and people to the Moon and Mars.
The Federal Aviation Administration, the US body responsible for regulating air and space travel, had approved SpaceX’s launch licence for the test just a day before, following weeks of tensions over approvals and fines related to SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
It is a major win for founder Elon Musk, coming two days after the launch of his long-awaited robotaxi project, which disappointed investors and sent Tesla shares down 8.78% on the day.
It also comes as Musk has become more vocal and provocative in US politics, publicly and financially supporting former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris. Last month, he said, “we will never reach Mars if Kamala wins.”
What they said: “The tower has caught the rocket!!” Musk wrote on X after the catch attempt.
“Ship landed precisely on target! Second of the two objectives achieved,” he said after the spacecraft that had been launched on top of the booster landed in the Indian Ocean.
“My house shook on liftoff and re-entry, all the way in Harlingen, 40 miles away,” said Justin LeClaire, a wildlife biologist with the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program, which monitors the SpaceX launches, told The New York Times. “It genuinely felt like a minor earthquake, had I not known a rocket was launching.”
Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, posted: “Congratulations to @SpaceX on its successful booster catch and fifth Starship flight test today! As we prepare to go back to the Moon under #Artemis, continued testing will prepare us for the bold missions that lie ahead -- including to the South Pole region of the Moon and then on to Mars.”
The sources: SpaceX flight test footage , The New York Times , Reuters
