SpaceX successfully plucked the booster stage of its new Starship spacecraft out of the air using a giant pair of mechanical ‘chopsticks’ during its fifth test flight on 13 October 2024.
The company, founded by Elon Musk, hopes the successful recovery will take them one step closer to a fully reusable spacecraft capable of carrying humans to the Moon and perhaps even Mars.
Starship is a heavy launch vehicle currently under development at SpaceX, consisting of a payload bearing upper stage, which is lofted into space by a booster stage.
Together the stack measures 71m (233 feet), making it the tallest spaceflight system ever created.
To reduce the costs of spaceflight, the aim is to make each element of the system as reusable as possible.
A key element in this plan is the ability to return the two major components of the spacecraft to Earth relatively unscathed, so they can be refuelled and reused as soon as possible.
The new system for returning the booster stage involved using onboard thrusters to slow and guild the boosters descent back to Earth until it was hovering by the launch tower it initially took off from.
The SpaceX tower is equipped with a pair of mechanical arms – nicknamed the chopsticks – which were able to recapture Starship booster out of the air approximately seven minutes after it first took off.
It was the first time such a manoeuvre had ever been attempted.
The landing wasn’t completely successful, however, as several flames were seen billowing around the bottom of the booster stage, indicating more work is needed before the design is ready for a completely reusable service.
Read more about the first test flight of Starship, which ended in a ‘rapid disassembly’.
Why does SpaceX’s Starship use chopsticks?
On previous SpaceX spacecraft, such as the Falcon launch vehicle, the booster stage has been equipped with special landing legs that are deployed just before landing.
The Starship booster is much heavier, however, and so would need much more substantial legs if it were to land in this way.
Along with the control mechanisms needed to deploy them, this would considerably add to the weight of the spacecraft, and by removing them and using the chopsticks instead SpaceX has greatly increased the mass of payload Starship is able to lift.
Using the chopsticks also sets SpaceX’s Starship conveniently back on the launch pad, where it can be easily checked for damage, refuelled and reused.
Currently, Falcon boosters typically land on barges in the middle of the ocean, which then have to be returned to land.
Having the Starship boosters already on the launch pad would dramatically reduce the turnaround time between missions, with Elon Musk hoping to get the time down as low as 30 minutes.
What happened to the Starship payload spacecraft?
The booster didn’t fly into space alone. It lifted the main body of the Starship payload vehicle to an altitude of 40 miles (70km), before separating.
While all eyes were on the booster, the main Starship spacecraft continued its flight reaching an altitude of 143km (89 miles), cruising at a speed of around 23,000 km/h (17,000mph).
After a 90-minute flight, it then had a controlled splash down in the Indian Ocean.
The onboard cameras revealed the spacecraft being surrounded by a pink haze of superheated gas during re-entry and it was during this phase on the previous flight in June that one of the wings burned through.
The company has since reassessed the spacecraft’s heat shielding, and this time the spacecraft made it to sea level, seemingly intact.
The spacecraft ran through the procedures it would need to perform for a controlled landing in order to practice the manoeuvre, but it did so over open ocean.
With no landing barge or chopsticks to catch Starship, the SpaceX vehicle crashed into the water and will not be recovered.
What is the purpose of Starship?
SpaceX hope Starship will be used as a general-purpose heavy launch vehicle for both robotic and human missions.
The vehicle has already been commissioned by NASA to help support its Artemis III mission which aims to return humans, including the first ever woman, to the surface of the Moon.
The spacecraft will transport the Human Landing System, also being developed by SpaceX.
The spacecraft will also be large and powerful enough to transport components for future space stations.
It could even be possible to configure the spacecraft to facilitate a future human mission to Mars.
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