While we were struggling to make catches in our Thanksgiving pickup football game, SpaceX managed to snag a booster rocket bigger than the fuselage of a Boeing 747.
What happened: SpaceX successfully returned the booster of its Starship craft to a launchpad, securing it with large mechanical arms it described as “chopsticks.”
- The “Super Heavy” booster first propelled the Starship vehicle to an altitude of more than 60 km before detaching and falling back to Earth.
- Around a kilometre above the planet, the booster relit some of its engines and navigated back to its launchpad.
Why it matters: The mission was a key test of SpaceX’s plan to dramatically increase the amount of cargo it can bring into space while also cutting costs by re-using boosters and spacecraft.
- Until now, rockets launched into space have been mostly single-use, but launches could get much cheaper and more frequent if they can be reused.
- SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which is partially reusable, has brought down the cost of a launch by a factor of ten, according to Citigroup. A fully reusable rocket would make launches even cheaper.
What’s next: SpaceX now needs to repeat the same feat with the Starship craft before it can begin testing the system with astronauts in preparation for a planned return of humans to the moon.—TS