What To Know
- Last week, Elon Musk‘s company shared a sixty-second animation on the X platform that shows the first stage of the giant Starship rocket, called Super Heavy, returning to Earth after a launch.
- Instead of traditionally landing, the massive rocket’s Super Heavy booster will be captured in mid-flight a few meters from the ground by the mechanical arms of a huge tower, nicknamed “Mechazilla”If successfully implemented, this innovative method will make it possible to recover and restart the vehicle much more efficiently.
- The mission will mark a critical milestone in humanity’s efforts to establish a sustainable presence on the moon and beyond.
A new video from SpaceX reveals a fascinating glimpse into the future of spaceflight, and that future may be closer than we think. Last week, Elon Musk’s company shared a sixty-second animation on the X platform that shows the first stage of the giant Starship rocket, called Super Heavy, returning to Earth after a launch.
A new approach to landings
SpaceX has already turned rocket landings into routine thanks to its first stages of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets which regularly return to Earth to be reused. With the Starshipthe company wants to operate differently. Instead of traditionally landing, the massive rocket’s Super Heavy booster will be captured in mid-flight a few meters from the ground by the mechanical arms of a huge tower, nicknamed “Mechazilla”If successfully implemented, this innovative method will make it possible to recover and restart the vehicle much more efficiently. Elon Musk has expressed his ambition to achieve this type of capture as early as the next launch. SpaceX has already begun testing this technology. On June 27, a video actually showed us the arms of the launch tower closing around a stationary Super Heavy, thus laying the foundation for future real-world tests. The capture procedure should ultimately look something like this:
Starship’s ambitions
So far, Starship has had four test flights, in April and November 2023, and March and June 2024. Each mission has improved performance and taught valuable lessons. For example, on the first flight, Starship’s two stages failed to separate, resulting in a failure after less than four minutes of flight. However, on the most recent flight, both stages, Super Heavy and the upper stage known as Starship or simply Ship, met their primary objectives with successful splashdowns in their intended areas. SpaceX is developing Starship with ambitious goals: transport passengers and cargo to remote destinations like the Moon and Mars. Note that both vehicles (the booster and the ship) are designed to be rapidly reusable, which reduces costs and increases the frequency of space missions, making space exploration more accessible and sustainable. SpaceX’s Starship is already scheduled for a historic mission. NASA has in fact selected it as first manned lander for its Artemis lunar program. If all goes according to plan, Starship will drop astronauts near the moon’s south pole on the Artemis 3 mission, scheduled for late 2025. The mission will mark a critical milestone in humanity’s efforts to establish a sustainable presence on the moon and beyond.
