ELON: THE PROBABILITY OF MECHAZILLA CATCHING STARSHIP IS ABOVE ZERO
“It'll weigh about 250 tons.
We'll make that lighter over time.
So, you got a couple of hundred tons plummeting more than half the speed of sound.
So, this thing is still coming in really fast.
Pretty much down in a downward direction.
So then, they light the engines, so it's got to slow itself down very fast and correct any errors.
Whatever the X-Y error is when the engines land, it's got to take out that X-Y error and then drop the velocity to basically zero, come in between the arms.
The arms will be wide, and as it's coming in, the arms will close, go flush against the side of the vehicle, and the vehicle will be descending through the arms.
And those tiny little, you can barely see them, the little knobs, those kinds of lifting lugs will touch the top of the arms, and then it will hopefully not shear off and crumple.
Success is one of the possible outcomes.
The probability is uncertain, but it is above zero.”
Source: @elonmusk, @Erdayastronaut, May 2022
OK Boomers
In this iPhone video by @JCyrier from our vantage point to the south, you can see the sonic boom in the air at 20 seconds and hear it BOOM at 47 seconds. Incredible body feel.
“A sky scraper went into space, returned to earth, and parallel parked” - Sylvia Smith