SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced last week that his company is making plans to attempt to catch its reusable Super Heavy rocket with the arm of the launch tower. Currently in development, the Super Heavy is the first stage of the company’s Starship system. While SpaceX hasn’t yet tried anything quite like the launch tower catch, it routinely lands its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets on the ground and on autonomous drone ships.
“We’re going to try to catch the Super Heavy booster with the launch tower arm, using the grid fins to take the load,” Musk said via Twitter. “Saves mass & cost of legs & enables immediate repositioning of booster on to launch mount—ready to refly in under an hour.”
The Super Heavy rocket will be paired with SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft, which is currently being tested. The Starship system is designed to take crew and cargo to Earth’s orbit and the Moon with an eye toward Mars. Powered by 30 Raptor engines, it is expected to be capable of carrying more than 100 metric tons (about 220,500 pounds) to orbit.
A ONE HOUR TURNAROUND? THAT would be progress!
Kudos to Space-X for announcing and keeping goals. Those of us who grew up in the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo era applaud your goals and transparency.