SpaceX to try catching Starship and Super Heavy — The Verge

SpaceX will next month attempt for the first time to catch the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster using mechanical arms on the launch tower. The company’s CEO Elon Musk said this during its third-quarter report, The Verge reports.

Attempt to fully recover the system

According to Musk, a successful attempt would mark the first complete recovery of an orbital launch vehicle in history. At the same time, he acknowledged that success during the first such flights is not guaranteed.

Musk noted that, in his view, the next flight has a better chance of succeeding than failing. If the attempt is unsuccessful, SpaceX plans to conduct Starship flights through the end of the year and increase their frequency next year.

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How the system works

Starship is a two-stage system consisting of the Super Heavy booster, which is the first stage, and the Starship spacecraft, which is the second stage. It is approximately 120 to 124 meters tall and nine meters in diameter. The system uses Raptor engines running on liquid methane and liquid oxygen.

Starship was unveiled in 2018. The system was designed to return to the launch site, where a launch tower with mechanical arms is intended to catch the vehicle in midair. During last month’s launch, Starship for the first time placed a spacecraft into Earth orbit and delivered several dozen larger V3 satellites to the Starlink constellation.