By Joey Roulette
(Reuters) -SpaceX, on its fifth Starship test flight, on Sunday returned the rocket's towering first-stage booster to its Texas launch pad for the first time using giant metal arms, achieving another novel engineering feat in the effort. of the company for building a reusable moon and Mars rover.
The rocket's first-stage “Super Heavy” booster lifted off at 7:25 a.m. CT (12:25 GMT) from SpaceX's launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas, sending the Starship second-stage rocket into space earlier. separating at an altitude of approximately 70 km (40 miles). ) to begin their return to land.
The Super Heavy booster reignited three of its 33 Raptor engines to slow its rapid descent back to the SpaceX launch site, while aiming for the launch tower from which it had taken off. The tower is provided with two large metal arms.
With its engines roaring, the 233-foot (71-meter)-tall Super Heavy booster fell into the arms of the launch tower, locking into place by its four forward grille fins that it used to steer through the air.
“The tower has caught the rocket!!” Musk wrote in x after the capture attempt.
The novel landing and capture method is the latest advance in SpaceX's test-to-fail development campaign for a fully reusable rocket designed to put more cargo into orbit, transport humans to the Moon for NASA, and eventually reach Mars. , the final destination planned by the CEO. Elon Musk.
The US Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday approved SpaceX's launch license for the Starship test, following weeks of tension between the company and its regulator over the pace of launch approvals and fines related to the rocket. SpaceX's battleship, the Falcon 9.
Starship, first unveiled by Musk in 2017, exploded multiple times in various test stages on previous flights, but successfully completed a full flight in June for the first time. The two-stage rocket's Super Heavy booster lifted off from Texas and sent the second stage, Starship, on a near-orbital trajectory bound for the Indian Ocean about 90 minutes later, triggering a fiery hypersonic reentry.
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