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SpaceX’s engineers performed two significant feats on Saturday: catching Starship’s Super Heavy Booster with mechanical arms on the rocket’s launch tower, and achieving a pinpoint landing of Starship itself in the Indian Ocean.
The flight was the fifth for SpaceX’s monster rocket, which comprises the Super Heavy Booster and the payload-carrying Starship itself. It came a day after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a license modification authorizing the launch from SpaceX’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
The license authorized a mission that would see Starship reach sub-orbital altitude, before re-entering and making a water landing in the Indian Ocean, and the catch attempt by arms dubbed Mechazilla on the launch tower. It also included exceptions if things didn’t go well – such as Starship failing to handle the heat of re-entry, under which circumstance SpaceX was allowed to conduct an uncontrolled landing provided the FAA was notified first.
However, the exceptions were not needed. To the clear surprise of SpaceX staffers, Mechazilla caught the spent Super Heavy Booster. The excitement caused by the sight of the Super Heavy Booster descending for an unprecedented first catch was reminiscent of the early Falcon 9 landings.
The Super Heavy Booster used 33 Raptor engines during the launch phase, then throttled back to use just three as Starship fired its own engines. Ten Raptors were then briefly relit to send the Booster back towards solid ground, and 13 blazed to slow the rocket for the catch. Three engines fired up to fine-tune the trajectory before Mechazilla grasped the 70-meter, 270,000kg booster.
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SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell was left speechless by the feat. In between praising SpaceX and its engineers, Elon Musk also used the event to criticize regulators – commenting that getting the license “was the limiting factor” and “it will get far worse, potentially impossible, if the slow strangulation by overregulation continues!”
The Super Heavy Booster appeared in good shape as it hung from the mechanical arms of the launch tower. Musk noted: “Some of the outer engine nozzles are a little warped from high heating & strong aero forces. Easily fixable.”
Having demonstrated that catching the Super Heavy Booster was possible, SpaceX then demonstrated the improvements made to the heat shielding and controllability of Starship as the spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and made a soft landing in the Indian Ocean.
On the previous mission, flaps used to control the vehicle were damaged. While there were still issues on this flight, they appear to have been far smaller – the Starship appeared to fare much better and splashed down in its target area. The accuracy was underlined by the capturing of the event (and subsequent expected explosion) by a buoy at the site. Musk posted: “Ship landed precisely on target! Second of the two objectives achieved.”
The FAA’s license for Flight 5 includes authorization for Flight 6 – although the regulator warned that it may need to revisit the approval if plans for the next mission change.
Considering the success of Flight 5, it seems likely that the SpaceX team will continue to push the envelope. One of the commentators mentioned a possible recovery of Starship in the near future.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson offered his congratulations on the achievement. The US space agency is depending on SpaceX and Starship for the first crewed lunar landing attempt of the Artemis program. ®
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