SpaceX plans to attempt for the first time to land the Starship spacecraft using the mechanical arms of the launch tower. On the eve of the attempt, the vehicle was successfully placed into orbit during the 15th test flight, but the company failed to recover its Super Heavy booster.
This is reported by Bloomberg.
If the landing goes to plan, Starship is expected to descend over SpaceX’s Starbase spaceport in South Texas after 15:00 local time. The spacecraft will initially descend horizontally, then flip into a vertical position before touchdown.
After that, two mechanical arms on the launch tower are meant to catch the spacecraft and halt its fall.
SpaceX has previously demonstrated the ability to bring the Super Heavy booster back to Earth using the tower’s mechanical arms. However, the attempt to catch the booster during the current test flight was called off. Even so, Starship reached orbit and deployed a batch of Starlink satellites.
Recovering the spacecraft itself is a more complex task. It must slow down from orbital velocity and withstand extremely high temperatures while passing through the atmosphere.
At present, SpaceX’s main Falcon 9 rocket is only partially reusable, as part of its structure is destroyed after launch.
Starship, according to the company, is the tallest and most powerful rocket ever built. SpaceX plans to use it to launch upgraded Starlink satellites, as well as to create a constellation of up to one million spacecraft that would operate as data centres for artificial intelligence.
In the longer term, the vehicle is intended to carry people to the Moon and become the foundation for future exploration of Mars.
No other company has yet managed to return all components of an orbital rocket to Earth. A successful Starship landing would be an important confirmation that a fully reusable space transport vehicle is feasible.
For SpaceX’s business model, reusing Starship is crucial: the company expects that, once a mission is complete, the rocket will be able to return to Earth and quickly head out on its next flight.
- The American company SpaceX carried out a test launch of the Starship rocket that was meant to be historic. The manufacturer intended, for the first time, to bring both parts of the vehicle back to Earth for further use: both the booster and the spacecraft itself.