SpaceX has achieved an impressive feat as a Super Heavy booster was caught using mechanical arms as it returned to its launchpad.
Creating rockets and launching them into space is an expensive and time-intensive business. SpaceX has been working on reusable rocket systems, landing rockets vertically on their launchpads safely for reuse. While plenty of successful landings of boosters have taken place, the firm set its sights on something even more ambitious: capturing their Super Heavy booster using mechanical arms, dubbed “Mechazilla”. Catching the booster, used to launch Starship, would allow boosters to be refueled and reused more quickly, as well as reduce the need for hardware necessary for landing on the ground.
In the fifth test of Starship on Sunday, SpaceX made its first attempt at using the system to capture the Super Heavy booster. Prior to the launch, it was not clear that the test of Mechazilla would go ahead, with options for the booster to instead “soft-land” in the Gulf of Mexico. During the flight, engineers made the call to go ahead with the test – and the result was pretty impressive.
“On our first try, Mechazilla caught the booster,” SpaceX explained after the test. “Following a successful liftoff, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and coast, the Super Heavy booster performed its landing burn and was caught by the chopstick arms of the launch and catch tower at Starbase.”
Systems like this could enable much faster reuse times as we continue to explore space. It is no easy task, involving very precise burns to slow and maneuver the booster – but one that appears to have been successful on the first try.
“Just inspected the Starship booster, which the arms have now placed back in its launch mount. Looks great! A few outer engine nozzles are warped from heating & some other minor issues, but these are easily addressed,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk added on X (Twitter). “Starship is designed to achieve reflight of its rocket booster ultimately within an hour after liftoff. The booster returns within ~5 minutes, so the remaining time is reloading propellant and placing a ship on top of the booster.”
SpaceX is planning further tests of the reusable launch vehicle systems, which may one day be used for human spaceflight to the Moon, or maybe even Mars.
