SpaceX in its fifth Starship test flight returned the rocket’s towering first stage booster back to its Texas launch pad for the first time using giant mechanical arms, achieving another novel engineering feat in the company’s push to build a reusable moon and Mars vehicle.
The engineers of all disciplines around the world are in awe praising Elon Musk, SpaceX team and it’s engineers. They quoted the abilities of men who “play god” pushing the humanrace forward.
The rocket’s first stage “Super Heavy” booster lifted off at 7:25 a.m. CT (1225 GMT) from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas launch facilities, sending the Starship second stage rocket toward space before separating at an altitude of roughly 70 km (40 miles) to begin its return to land - the most daring part of the test flight.
You can learn every single thing that made this possible. https://t.co/iPk12NQEyr
— Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 (@pmarca) October 13, 2024
The Super Heavy booster re-lit three of its 33 Raptor engines to slow its speedy descent back to SpaceX’s launch site, as it targeted the launch pad and tower it had blasted off from. The tower, taller than the Statue of Liberty at over 400 feet, is fitted with two large metal arms at the top.
With its engines roaring, the 233 foot (71 metres)-tall Super Heavy booster fell into the launch tower’s enclosing arms, hooking itself in place by tiny, protruding bars under the four forward grid fins it had used to steer itself through the air. “The tower has caught the rocket!!” CEO Elon Musk wrote on X after the catch attempt. SpaceX engineers watching the company’s live stream roared in applause. The novel catch-landing method marked the latest advance in SpaceX’s test-to-failure development campaign for a fully reusable rocket designed to loft more cargo into orbit, ferry humans to the moon for NASA and eventually reach Mars - the ultimate destination envisioned by Musk.
The SpaceX live stream showed the rocket touching down in the nighttime waters far off Australia’s coast, then toppling on its side, concluding its test mission. A separate camera view from a vessel near the touchdown site then showed the ship exploding into a vast fireball, as SpaceX engineers could be heard on the live stream screaming in celebration. It was unclear whether the explosion was a controlled detonation or the result of a fuel leak.
Musk said the ship landed “precisely on target!”
Starship rocket booster caught by tower pic.twitter.com/aOQmSkt6YE
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 13, 2024
Be around 100 years from now.
— Bryan Johnson /dd (@bryan_johnson) October 13, 2024
The future will be mind-bending.
We will surpass all sci-fi imaginations.
Do the hard work.
Prioritize health.
Revolt against Die culture.
Dare to believe that now is the very beginning. pic.twitter.com/Oibx7CA9fc
I can’t even wrap my mind around how insane it is that SpaceX successfully launched the biggest rocket ever made and caught it in midair on the way down.
— Austen Allred (@Austen) October 13, 2024
On the first try. pic.twitter.com/ECsF3HCcO4
