This article is published in Aerospace Daily & Defense Report part of Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN), and is complimentary through Oct 21, 2024. For information on becoming an AWIN Member to access more content like this, click here.
The booster on approach to the mechanical arms.
A SpaceX Super Heavy booster flew itself back to its Boca Chica Beach, Texas, launchpad where it was caught by a pair of mechanical arms on the gantry 7 min. after liftoff, nailing one of the primary goals of the fifth Starship-Super Heavy integrated flight test (IFT-5).
After separating from the Super Heavy first stage, the Starship upper stage flew at near-orbital speeds around the planet and landed intact in the Indian Ocean 65 min. after liftoff, successfully demonstrating its remodeled ceramic heat shield. “That was the best ending we could have hoped for,” said SpaceX mission commentator Kate Tice, manager of Quality Systems Engineering.
The Super Heavy’s 33 methane-fueled engines ignited at 8:25 am. EDT (7:25 a.m. local time) on Oct. 13, sending the 397-ft.-tall Starship Super Heavy vehicle out over the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX received clearance from the FAA just one day earlier to conduct IFT-5. The agency had previously said reviewing the changes SpaceX proposed for IFT-5 would likely take until late November. SpaceX publicly and repeatedly rebuked the FAA for what it called unnecessary delays.
Three min. 40 sec. after liftoff, the Super Heavy rocket separated, flipped around and restarted 13 of its Raptor engines to head back toward the Gulf of Mexico. With the boost-back burn successful and the launch gantry catch system performing as planned, SpaceX mission control sent the rocket a command to divert from a default splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico and attempt the launchpad return.
The 233-ft.-tall booster slowed and positioned itself above the launchpad while the gantry’s arms—a system SpaceX calls “Mechazilla”—closed to grasp the rocket, which then shut down its engines, completing one of the primary goals of IFT-5. “That looked like magic,” said SpaceX mission commentator Dan Huot.
Tice added, “This is a day for the engineering history books.”
SpaceX considers the launchpad capture system key for rapid re-flights of Starship Super Heavy vehicles. Currently, returning Falcon 9 boosters touch down on landing pads near the Florida and California launch sites, or land on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean.
The other goal of IFT-5 was to demonstrate Starship’s upgraded ceramic tile heat shield, needed to protect the vehicle during reentry temperatures that reach as high as 2,600F. During IFT-4 on June 6, extreme heating nearly caused one of Starship’s four steering flaps to detach. The ship was able to make a controlled descent into the Indian Ocean, although it missed its targeted splashdown site.
“One of the key upgrades on Starship … was a complete rework of its heat shield, with SpaceX technicians spending more than 12,000 hr. replacing the entire thermal protection system with newer-generation tiles, a backup ablative layer and additional protections between the flap structures,” SpaceX wrote in a mission update before launch. “This massive effort, along with updates to the ship’s operations and software for reentry and landing burn, will look to improve upon the previous flight.”
Ultimately, SpaceX plans to return both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship for reuse.
With 16.7 million lb. of thrust at liftoff, the Super Heavy is the most powerful rocket ever flown, with twice the power of NASA’s Apollo-era Saturn V Moon rocket and the agency's current Space Launch System rocket.
While SpaceX is developing the Starship Super Heavy transport to colonize Mars, NASA has bought Starship flight services to ferry astronauts to and from lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon as part of the Artemis program.
"Congratulations to SpaceX on its successful booster catch and fifth Starship flight test today!” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wrote on social media. “Continued testing will prepare us for the bold missions that lie ahead, including to the south pole region of the Moon and then on to Mars.”
Related Content
