In a spectacular test flight today, Elon Musk’s company succeeded in recovering the first stage of its mega rocket, taking a crucial step towards the reuse of this heavy launcher.
On Sunday October 13, 2024, SpaceX achieved a major feat in the space industry, successfully catching up with the first stage of its Starship rocket during a test flight. This maneuver, of unprecedented complexity, marks a decisive turning point in the development of this giant launcher and paves the way for its complete reuse.
A spectacular capture
After a successful lift-off at 07:25 local time from Starbase in Texas, the first stage of the rocket, dubbed Super Heavy, detached from the Starship as planned. About nine minutes later, in a perilous maneuver, Super Heavy returned to its launch pad. Mechanical arms, nicknamed “the chopsticks”, installed on the launch tower, then grabbed the stage in mid-air, bringing it to a precise stop. “Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster!” enthused the company on its X account, using the nickname given to its launch tower.
A giant step towards reusability
This technical feat represents a significant step forward in SpaceX’s strategy to make its launch vehicles fully reusable. The aim is to be able to launch more vehicles faster and at lower cost, an approach that is essential to the company’s ambitions in space exploration.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk has made no secret of his ambitions to colonize Mars with Starship. NASA is also closely monitoring the development of this launcher, which it intends to use to return its astronauts to the Moon.
Technical challenges met
This fifth Starship test flight also provided an opportunity to test improvements to the spacecraft itself. Following the previous test, which revealed weaknesses during atmospheric re-entry, SpaceX carried out a “complete redesign of the heat shield” using “new generation” tiles.
The Starship is due to continue its flight to a planned water landing in the Indian Ocean, repeating the successful performance of the previous test four months ago.
Controversy in the background
Despite these technical successes, Starship’s development is not going smoothly. SpaceX recently expressed its frustration at the administrative delays encountered by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) in obtaining flight authorizations.
The company is also facing accusations of environmental pollution, notably linked to the water deluge system used during launches to attenuate acoustic waves. Associations have also denounced the potential impact on local wildlife, as the space base is located near a protected nature reserve.
Despite these challenges, the success of this test flight marks an important milestone in the development of Starship, and reinforces SpaceX’s position as a major player in the space industry.
The tower has caught the rocket!!
pic.twitter.com/CPXsHJBdUh— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 13, 2024