Super Heavy Booster Successfully Returns to Landing Structure

SpaceX launched the fifth test flight of its Starship rocket on October 13. It was considered a massive success, with the ship and its Super Heavy booster both making it back to Earth exactly as planned.

The Super Heavy rocket booster and uncrewed Starship spacecraft lifted off from SpaceX’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas, at 8:25 am. After burning off some fuel, the booster detached and made its way back to the launch site. Starship then powered on its own six engines and continued towards space before letting gravity work its magic. It reentered the atmosphere 50 minutes after launch.

This was the first time SpaceX attempted to land its 232-foot-tall booster precisely. The company mastered this trade with its Falcon 9 rocket, which has completed the maneuver more than 330 times. Starship, however, is a whole new ball game.

The Starship Super Heavy booster has 33 engines, generating 10 times more thrust than the Falcon’s nine engines at liftoff. The SpaceX team knew that landing the booster would take more than just landing legs… so, they built a chopstick-like landing structure intended to catch the booster mid-air. This is also meant to shorten turnaround time for the booster, allowing it to be refueled and takeoff as little as 30 minutes later.

It’s a bold plan, but Musk assures that “success is one of the possible outcomes here.”

The Super Heavy booster return was a victory, with it falling straight into “Mechazilla’s” arms. The Starship spacecraft also showed significant improvements from the previous flight test.

In test four, which launched in June, the spacecraft experienced extreme heat damage during its descent. It shed several of its heat shield tiles and was unable to maneuver properly for landing, leading it to splash down nearly 6 miles off target.

“The forward flaps were so melted it was like trying to control it with little skeleton hands,” Musk commented.

However, after 12,000 hours of work, Starship is back in the air with an entirely new thermal protection system. It performed a short belly flop, diving horizontally towards the ground, then used its engines to turn upright and splash down “precisely on target.”

FMI: www.spacex.com