SpaceX catches booster rocket, taking step toward Musk’s Mars dream

SpaceX made major progress on its way to building rockets capable of flying to the Moon and Mars, completing a journey into space with its Starship that involved holding the vehicle’s booster onto a launchpad using giant mechanical arms.

The successful test underscores the astonishing progress SpaceX is making with its launch capabilities, while Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is making headlines for feuding with regulators and facing fresh opposition over expansion plans. The company has won key approvals for two of its rocket systems in recent days, while the global growth of its Starlink satellite-internet business continues.

Recovering Starship’s booster after launch was a significant milestone as SpaceX prepared the rocket for commercial operations. The vehicle is the centerpiece of Musk’s ambitions to send people to the Moon and Mars. But it still has a long road to go before it can transport crew and cargo to distant destinations.

The largest and most powerful launch system ever developed was launched at 8:25 a.m. New York time on Sunday. After carrying Starship into space, the Super Heavy booster returned to its launch site on Earth, where it restarted its engines to slow down as it came in for landing. Two arms emerging from the starship’s launch tower “grabbed” the booster, prompting cheers and applause from Mission Control.

“Folks, this is a day for the engineering history books,” SpaceX’s Kate Tice said during a live webcast.

SpaceX engineer Jesse Anderson also said, “I’m still in disbelief.” “I’m trying to hold back my tears like the chopsticks held Booster.”

Musk has long said the vehicle will be fully reusable. The company is known for recovering its workhorse Falcon 9 rockets after launch, but those spacecraft are only partially reusable, with a portion of the vehicles destroyed or left unused even after the mission ends. Is.

With Starship, SpaceX’s ultimate aim is to fully recover the two main parts of the vehicle: the Starship spacecraft – which will carry the satellites and eventually passengers – and the Super Heavy booster.

By recovering both of these pieces after flight, SpaceX hopes to rapidly reuse and relaunch the hardware after takeoff, making multiple Starship flights possible in the same day. The company also hopes that full reusability will significantly reduce the cost of launching Starships.

Like the Falcon 9, Starship’s Super Heavy booster returned to Earth using wings to help guide it through the atmosphere. It reactivated its engines to help it slowly descend to the ground. But unlike the Falcon 9 – which lands on a hard surface with a set of legs – the Super Heavy relies on its launch tower to stop its fall.

Sunday’s flight was the first time SpaceX attempted the feat with a Super Heavy. In Starship’s fourth flight in June, the company attempted to “land” Super Heavy in the Gulf of Mexico by aiming for a precise target in the ocean.

The mission comes against the backdrop of Musk openly criticizing the speed at which the FAA approves commercial space launch licenses. SpaceX has been raising concerns in recent years as it repeatedly tries to launch Starship. In September, the company said the FAA informed it that a license for this mission would not be granted until the end of November – a timeline SpaceX said was slow and inefficient.

Apart from the booster catch, Starship’s flight looked largely identical to the June flight. SpaceX launches Starship and Super Heavy booster simultaneously. The starship circled most of the globe before plunging into the atmosphere, its body awash in the reddish-orange glow of plasma as it returned to Earth.

According to the webcast, some of its flaps – which help steer it – appeared to burn slightly as the vehicle landed. But the Starship appeared to survive sinking, before restarting its engines to capsize and fall into the Indian Ocean. After this it seemed that it exploded.

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During the last flight, Starship largely survived the landing on Earth, but began to break up during the fall and eventually burned up completely before hitting the ocean. SpaceX said it reworked the heat shield on Starship for this flight to help it withstand the intense heat it experiences while falling into the atmosphere.

As with each of these Starship test flights, SpaceX does not necessarily consider the loss of its vehicles a failure. The company aims to continue improvements with each subsequent test flight. So far, the company has been successful in achieving more targets with every new launch.

“Congratulations to SpaceX on its successful booster catch,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a social media post. “Continued testing will prepare us for the adventures ahead – including to the Moon’s south pole region and then to Mars.”

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.