TECH - SpaceX Preparing To Catch Starship Booster At Starbase During Next Test Flight Instead Of Splashing It Down: 'Just Karate Kid At Scale' Musk Laughs At Test Video | Benzinga
Elon Musk‘s SpaceX is now preparing to catch the booster of its ambitious Starship launch vehicle at Starbase during the next launch rather than having it splash down in the Gulf of Mexico like last time.
What Happened: During Starship’s last flight test in early June, the two stages of the vehicle- the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster- separated and the booster subsequently had a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
The spacecraft ignited its engines and went into space, made a controlled re-entry to Earth, and had a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The entire flight lasted one hour and six minutes from launch. The key object of the flight was to re-enter Earth and the mission achieved it while withstanding damage to the vehicle.
The goal for the next test flight, however, is to catch the booster back at Starbase using the launch tower’s mechanical arms.
SpaceX on Thursday posted ...