With its fifth Starship test flight, SpaceX achieved a significant milestone by successfully launching the huge spacecraft and capturing the Super Heavy booster using a special “chopsticks” mechanism. The test, which was carried out Sunday morning at SpaceX’s Starbase in southeast Texas, was intended to support NASA’s Artemis missions to the moon and demonstrate the reusability of the entire Starship system, which is essential to the company’s long-term objective of making life multi-planetary.
The top Starship and the Super Heavy booster are the two stages that make up the roughly 400-foot-tall Starship. A significant step towards rapid versatility is SpaceX’s goal to swiftly recover and restore both stages for further flights. A controlled splashdown of the Starship upper stage in the Indian Ocean and the first-ever “catch” of the Super Heavy booster at the launch site were the two main goals of Sunday’s mission.
This mission was the first successful booster capture, although the Starship upper stage had already accomplished a controlled reentry and splashdown in a prior test. After hovering over the launch pad, the Super Heavy rocket positioned itself inside the tower’s two large chopstick-like arms. The booster’s engines were switched off, and these arms secured it.
The Starship upper stage reached orbit and splashed down as intended, but SpaceX made no attempt to retrieve it. In spite of earlier reports that licensing would not be completed until November, the test was accepted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Software upgrades and thermal protection are only two of the enhancements that SpaceX engineers have been working on for the vehicle. With the goal of achieving speedy, complete reusability in subsequent missions, the corporation intends to eventually return both Starship stages back for reuse.