When SpaceX first launched the Starship, it blew up soon after liftoff. Since then, the world’s most powerful rocket has flown seven more times, with each test flight showing huge improvements in some areas of the vehicle’s design, but issues in others.
One of the major achievements so far has involved the launch tower catching the first-stage Super Heavy booster as it returned to the launchpad shortly after deploying the upper-stage Starship spacecraft to orbit.
It’s an astonishing feat to witness, with the 71-meter-tall (232 feet) rocket firing around a dozen of its 33 Raptor engines to steady itself in readiness for the clutches of the launch tower’s giant mechanical arms.
The system allows SpaceX to reuse the booster for multiple missions, enabling it to save on launch costs.
The plan is to do the same with the Starship spacecraft, and SpaceX chief Elon Musk said this week that his team is hoping to attempt the maneuver “this year.”
Responding to a post on X that showed footage of a Starship spacecraft firing its engines in a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean at the end of an earlier Starship test, Musk wrote: “Later this year, if fate smiles upon SpaceX, the ship will be caught by the tower, just like the booster.”
Pulling this off would be a major achievement for the company, as it doesn’t even do this with the second-stage of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX has already shown that it can bring home the Super Heavy, and that it can perform a controlled final descent (into the Indian Ocean) with the spacecraft, and so the foundations for the maneuver are clearly in place.
The long-term plan is to use the Starship spacecraft to transport crew and cargo to the moon and even Mars, before bringing it back to Earth. With that goal in mind, SpaceX will be keen to see if it can return the vehicle in the same way it does with the Super Heavy booster, securing it with mechanical arms. However, it first needs to ensure the reliability of the spacecraft after the vehicle suffered midflight failures in the seventh and eighth missions.
SpaceX is now getting ready for the ninth test flight of the Starship following its last one in March. Musk recently said that it will take place next week, however, a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Thursday indicated that, at the time of publication, SpaceX has not yet received permission to launch.