This is not investment advice. The author does not own any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.
As SpaceX awaits approval of the flight profile for the fifth Starship test from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the company is busily testing its launch pad and tower arms to recapture the 230-foot-tall Super Heavy rocket booster after Flight 5. The upcoming Starship test will be the first to attempt the risky tower capture attempt, and SpaceX said in its most recent Starship update earlier this month that the company would continue to refine this procedure during the time it takes the FAA to evaluate its test application for Starship Flight 5.
SpaceX conducts multiple capture simulations with the arms of the Starship launch tower before Flight 5
SpaceX began testing the launch tower arms for a booster catch in June as it transported a piece of a rocket booster to the launch pad. In those tests, the tower arms, also called chopsticks, repeatedly banged against the sides of the cylinder as teams tried to simulate a successful catch. After that test, one of the tower arms was replaced, according to footage obtained by local media, and testing slowed as SpaceX shifted its focus to the Starship’s second stage.
Now, as SpaceX awaits FAA clearance for Starship Flight 5, the company has resumed testing of the tower arms for the risky capture attempt. The booster section was delivered to the launch pad earlier this week and tested with the arms before being removed from the tower and returned to the production and assembly facilities early this morning.
Footage obtained by local media shows that the tower arms were tested at least six times during the final attempt. Several of these attempts simulated the test while above the booster, and other tests involved the arms closing as tightly as possible around the cylinder without hitting it.
En route to the fifth Starship test, which could occur later this month or early September, the rocket’s second stage has undergone several static burns. Although SpaceX has flown the entire stack four times, the company has yet to demonstrate an in-orbit engine ignition with the second stage. Starship flight 5 could also see that crucial test, and if both the turret capture and engine ignition are successful, SpaceX will have passed several checkpoints in its rocket development.
In the recent tower capture tests, SpaceX also tested the vertical movement of the arms by moving them up and down while the booster section was placed between them. In other test runs where the arms closed around the rocket section, in some tests both moved at the same time and in others only one arm approached the cylinder.
Starship Flight 4 marked the first time that both the Super Heavy Booster and the second stage craft successfully made a soft splashdown in water. This means that SpaceX could return the second stage to the launch site after Flight 6 if the craft repeats this on Flight 5. The second stage is the world’s first rocket of its kind to be fully reusable. This is part of SpaceX’s effort to dramatically reduce launch costs and increase the speed of back-to-back launches to fulfill its plans to colonize Mars.
The tests seemed to go well. pic.twitter.com/xCqGZRfJIl
— LabPadre Room (@LabPadre) 16 August 2024
