On Sunday, SpaceX marked a groundbreaking achievement by successfully catching its Super Heavy booster, which stands at an impressive 70 meters tall, using a pair of enormous mechanical arms. This moment came just minutes after the booster released the Starship spacecraft into orbit during its fifth test flight.
SpaceX is not stopping here. In its mission to develop a fully reusable spaceflight system for Starship, which includes the first-stage Super Heavy booster and the second-stage Starship spacecraft, the company plans to enhance its recovery efforts by aiming to catch both the booster and the spacecraft.
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, shared this ambitious plan in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, stating, “Hopefully early next year, we will catch the ship too.”
Before this can happen, SpaceX will conduct more test flights of the Starship. During these flights, they will continue to catch the Super Heavy, while the Starship will be landing in the ocean, just like it did during the recent test.
Successfully catching the Starship at the launch site would significantly expedite turnaround times between missions, as the spacecraft would only require inspection, refurbishment, and refueling before being reassembled with a Super Heavy for its next flight.
Moreover, SpaceX needs to refine a landing system for the Starship, which involves vertical landings. This capability is essential for future missions to other celestial bodies such as the Moon and Mars, until any necessary launch and landing infrastructure is established.
SpaceX previously demonstrated this sort of landing through Earth-based tests several years ago, which included shorter atmospheric “hops” instead of the more challenging orbital operations.
It’s an exhilarating time for SpaceX engineers as they focus their efforts on advancing Starship’s technology.
Nasa plans to utilize SpaceX’s spacecraft to land two astronauts on the Moon as part of the Artemis III mission, currently set for 2026, underscoring the pressing need for SpaceX to continue its development efforts.