Elon Musk unveils ‘catch and quick release’ plan for SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster

Elon Musk is known for announcing ambitious plans, and the latest indicates that Startship’s Super Heavy booster will not land, but will be captured when he returns to Earth.

The CEO of SpaceX shared on Twitter that the heavy-duty amplifier, which is still under development, will be detected by the launch tower arm used to stabilize the vehicle during its pre-launch preparations.

The proposed method will immediately reposition the booster on the launch pad so that it can fly again within an hour.

SpaceX is working on the Super Heavy rocket at its Boca Chica, Texas test facility, but plans to run more test flights of its Starship prototypes, without the enormous amplifier.

Starship consists of two – the Super Heavy booster and the rocket ship that Musk designed to transport up to 100 people to Mars simultaneously.

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Now that SpaceX has launched three of the Starship prototypes, it looks like the firm is starting to devise plans for how the process will work when the booster is added.

Musk’s ambitious plan would be a way to cut costs and mass by eliminating the need for the booster to have legs to land.

However, if the CEO wants to achieve his goal by sending one million people to Mars by 2025, SpaceX will have to launch several Starships within one day.

When the tower arm catches the booster, it is immediately put back into ‘ready’ mode so that it can take off again in less than one hour.

Serial number 8 (SN8), which has the last duration of a test flight, is considered the most successful launch – but it was also the most devastating.

The world agreed on December 10 to see the massive rocket take off from Boca Chica with the aim of plunging 41,000 feet into the air – the highest ‘hop’ of any Starship.

The climax of the prototype spacecraft took about six minutes before the engines were switched off and SN8 started again to the starting point.

The world sat on the edge of their seats as the rocket approached the ground – wondering if Musk’s prediction of a bumpy landing would turn out to be correct.

When Starship finally touched it, it caught fire – and as soon as the fire and smoke cleared, all that was left was a heap of debris left over by the remaining nose cone.

Musk shared his excitement of the launch on Twitter and wrote: “Successful ascent, conversion to head tanks and precise valve control to landing point!”

‘The fuel tank’s pressure was low during the landing, which caused the touch speed to be high and RUD, but we had all the data we needed! Congratulations SpaceX team hell yes !! ‘

The CEO later thanked South Texas for their support in a separate tweet, followed by another one saying ‘Mars, here we come !!’

Just last year, SpaceX completed two low-altitude flight tests with SN5 and SN6 and more than 16,000 seconds of running time during the start of the ground engine.

‘In addition, SpaceX has built ten starships of Starship, while production accelerates and fidelity increases. SN9 is almost ready to move to the road, which now has two active sites for rapid development tests, ” the firm said.

The landing is one of the most important aspects – as it must be completely reusable to achieve the objectives and price per flight set out by the SpaceX team.

There are a number of potential uses for Starship – including the deployment of hundreds of satellites in orbit and the astronaut on the Moon and Mars land.