Three years since the first flight of Starship, the next generation is here. New ship. New booster. New engines. New pad and new test site. SpaceX engineers are working to solve one of the most difficult engineering challenges in history: developing a fully, rapidly reusable rocket
Elon Musk explains exactly how Space X's Mechazilla can catch the Super Heavy booster.
On Sunday morning, Space X successfully caught a 20+ story tall rocket booster.
"This is a custom-built tower with arms that are designed to catch the largest flying and heaviest flying object ever made and pluck it outta the air."
"It'll weigh about 250 tons. We'll make that lighter over time."
"So you got a couple hundred tons plummeting at more than half the speed of sound. So this thing is still coming in really fast."
"When the engines land... it's gonna drop the velocity to basically zero and come in between the arms."
"The arms will be wide, and as it's coming in, the arms will, will close, go flush against the side of the vehicle, and the vehicle will be descending through the arms."
"The probability is uncertain, but it is above zero."
Insane.