SpaceX was more than ready for the 5th Starship launch and landing test as it received the license on Saturday and performed the test on Sunday morning.
The iconic scenes of the Starbase launch tower arms (Chopsticks) catching the Flight 5 Super Heavy booster will not get old anytime soon.
No government or private space companies have attempted this maneuver before in the history of spaceflight. SpaceX did it right the first time. Catching a giant 70-meter steel structure mid-air is a phenomenal achievement by the SpaceX team led by Elon Musk.
Talking about Elon Musk, who could be happier or more proud than him on our planet after the success of the Flight 5 test? Hours after the Starship Flight 5 Super Heavy RTLS (return to launch site), Elon Musk paid a visit to the Starbase launch site.
As Musk reached the Mechazilla launch tower, SpaceX teams had already brought down the Flight 5 Super Heavy rocket (Booster 12) from the top of the tower’s catch position. SpaceX left the rocket booster hanging for while to cool down the booster’s engine bay by depressing out cold gasses.
At the time of Musk and his team’s inspection, the Flight 5 Booster 12 was already mounted on the orbital launch mount (OLM). SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared the initial findings of his inspection on X (Twitter), he wrote:
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.
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.
Looking at the intensity of the landing catch operation, the damages expected were far more than what Elon Musk described in his inspection notes. However, the damages are minimal and Starship reusability is imminent from this test.
The ultimate goal of the Starship program is to achieve maximum reusability in a limited timeframe. The current era example of such reusability is airplanes, they get ready for re-flight from 30 minutes to an hour. The same timeframe for Starship will make it a truly reusable rocket and spaceship.
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The harder they fall