This Sunday SpaceX successfully completed the fifth test flight Starship. However, the real stars of the show were the rockets. Super Heavy and tower Mechazilla. This is due to the fact that Elon Musk’s company for the first time managed to capture amplifier in the air after he separated from the ship and began his return journey to the launch pad.
SpaceX relaunched Starship after receiving approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) yesterday. North American authorities were expected to give the go-ahead for takeoff only in November, but the aerospace company has accelerated preparations for its completion ahead of time.
The Starship took off from Boca Chica, Texas at 8:25 am ET (2:25 pm Spanish time) and the most shocking moment came after breaking up with the Heavyweight. The rocket began its re-entry procedure and, less than 7 minutes after takeoff, achieved what had seemed unthinkable until recently: it slowed its descent and approached Mechazilla, SpaceX’s launch and capture tower. who caught her in the air with two mechanical armschristened by the company as chopsticks or chopsticks.
Mechazilla caught the super-heavy accelerator! pic.twitter.com/6R5YatSVJX
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024
The scene instantly spread throughout the world. On its first try, the aerospace firm was able to capture a huge super-heavy rocket in mid-air. This is impressive not only in itself, but also because tests of this caliber and complexity are highly prone to critical failures the first time they are conducted. Without going into too much detail, Starship itself exploded when SpaceX attempted its first orbital flight in 2023.
Super Heavy and Mechazilla Tower steal the show at Starship launch
Although the descent and capture of the Super Heavyweight using Mechazilla’s tower got all the attention, SpaceX has completed a round of testing for its fifth Starship launch. The ship managed to maintain its trajectory and fly under its own power before re-entering the atmosphere and proceeding to a soft landing in the Indian Ocean. This happened at 9:30 Eastern Time. Seconds after the car sank, a livestream showed it exploded.
Capturing Super Heavy during descent is essential for SpaceX’s future and the next step in its launch vehicle and vehicle reuse strategy. Let’s keep in mind that the Mechazilla tower was designed not only to catch missiles before they landed, but also to catch starships. It is likely that the company intends to test this feature in the coming months.
Elon Musk showed off a finished version of Mechazilla in early 2022, although its robotic grippers had not been tested until today. It’s important to keep in mind that the Super Heavy rocket does not have landing legs like the Falcon Heavy, and neither does Starship. This allowed SpaceX to save weight on launch, but also forced it to create a slightly more complex solution with this capture tower.
Another important aspect to consider is that with Mechazilla, SpaceX hopes to speed up the launch and return process of the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket. As Musk predicted then, This can reduce the wait time between takeoffs to less than an hour..
Source: Hiper Textual
