SpaceX successfully catches returning Starship rocket

[Zorro]

Source: Washington Post

A SpaceX Starship rocket successfully landed upright Sunday alongside a massive metal landing tower as it was caught by two converging “chopstick” arms — another historic engineering breakthrough for the world’s largest and most powerful rocket.

Sunday’s launch marked the fifth test flight for Starship, which stands nearly 400 feet tall and is composed of the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft. The system is central to founder Elon Musk’s hopes to eventually colonize Mars and to NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon. Musk has said he plans to launch about five uncrewed Starship missions to Mars in the next two years, with possible crewed missions to follow.

SpaceX said the spacecraft itself also experienced a successful flight and splashed down “precisely on target.” But it was the booster’s safe landing that marked not only a historic feat of aeronautical engineering but also a major milestone for SpaceX’s goal of full reusability for its rockets. The company hopes this innovation will enable more ambitious space missions, and with greater frequency.

“Big step toward making life multiplanetary was made today,” Musk posted on X after Sunday’s launch.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/13/spacex-starship-rocket-booster-launch/

[BumRushDaShow]

1. The capsule had one of those "rapid dissemblys" after it hit the water and was bobbing around

Watching that "chopstick capture" was wild though!







And that is the "super heavy" rocket too.

[Igel]

4. Yeah, it did.

But somebody pointed out over a year ago (with the first big booms) that NASA wouldn't have had such "failures," but would have eventually have taken 10x the money and 5x the time to achieve the same thing.

Musk is "failing forward," as I'm constantly lectured when one of my students screws up and has an opportunity to learn from mistakes.

[yaesu]

2. fuck that tRump ass kissing putin licking musk

and that goes for anything he owns.

[ChazInAz]

3. The Muskrat should reflect on something.

He did not design or build any of these spacecraft. A huge team of extremely knowledgeable engineers did.
He is expendable, and can be replaced.

[Mz Pip]

5. I wish Musk

just stayed doing the cool science and technology stuff. I used to think he was forward thinking with his innovative projects. But ever since he bought Twitter he’s turned into a right wing nut job with his support of Trump and conspiracy theories. He’s ruined his legacy IMHO.

[Polybius]

6. He's a right-winger who loves the environment and science

Rare, but I guess they exist.

[GenThePerservering]

7. The Musk fanbois on YouTube are going nuts

they appear to want to sleep with him (yuck).

I remain skeptical that he had anything to do with any of it - he's got a good COO Gwynne Shotwell who runs things, and a team of brilliant engineers. Apparently there is also a whole team to contain and handle Musk so he doesn't interfere with operations.