Not long after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reaffirmed his plan to capture Super Heavy boosters – and possibly Starships – with a tower and giant arms from the air, regulatory documents suggest the weapons even will have more use.
A recent “aviation study” completed by the FAA has finally concluded that SpaceX’s plans to build a 146-meter (479 ‘) Starship launch tower at its Boca Chica launch site will not pose a threat to aircraft does not, and this ensures at least one of the many regulatory approvals SpaceX will have to take much further. Whether the additional details are accurate or rather an error on behalf of the FAA employee managing the process, it is noteworthy that the FAA document indicates that ‘the tower will be built of structural steel strips to enable the mechanical arms to move vehicles on too light. ‘
It is unclear whether ‘lifting vehicles’ implies that the arm design that SpaceX pursues includes a degree of vertical mobility, which effectively necessitates the creation of a custom elevator that carries at least the weight of Starship (100-200 tons) can equal. On its own, the design, construction and qualifying mechanical arms that are at the same time strong, soft and reliable enough to withstand the weight of a few hundred tons of rockets are an extreme challenge.
Making the extraordinarily intricate recovery solution and the apparent structural reinforcements or major redesigns it requires for Starship and Super Heavy better than something as simple and resolved as landing bones is still a challenge. One step further, qualifying the tower-to-arms repair and proving its reliability that it is safe for people to rely on is even harder to imagine.
Most importantly, SpaceX will continue to do so unequivocally Starship landing gear must design, build, test and fly if it ever wants Starships to land anything on the Moon, Mars or any planetary body – let alone NASA astronauts. SpaceX has already received $ 135 million from NASA to complete its design for a Starship variant – with legs – that can be done in as little as four or five years from now. For SpaceX’s own Mars ambitions, a bone design that can handle unprepared, uneven terrain is absolutely essential for Starship to ever reach the planet.
It remains to be seen whether Musk’s recent dislike of landing gear – something to some extent resolved by SpaceX’s Falcon boosters – will bear any real fruit. As long as Starship still needs legs to land on other planets, which is the main motivation for the entire existence of the program, ‘ also to the development of reliable landing gear. Hingel everyone Launchers of Starship and Super Heavy boosters and repairs (which are reusable) on a nearly 500-foot tower also run the risk of becoming a conspicuous single point of failure that could delay all activity months in the (demonstrably likely) case which is the learning curve for a completely unprecedented form of rocket repair.
But now the tower continues to grow.