If you think landing a used rocket booster on a barge or a landing pad is crazy, take a look at how SpaceX plans to land the big Starship rocket.
The tower that will be used to launch the rocket will attempt to catch the spent booster when it comes back to Earth.
The large structure is under construction at the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, according to a video shared by Musk. The tower features mechanical arms that will be used to catch and hold the rocket's booster. The booster will be set down after it is delivered into space.
The testing began last week. On January 4th, the tower was opened and swung for the first time, according to the site. The second round of tests was performed by the company four days later, with the assembly slowly lifting up the side of the launch tower and opening and closing the arms. The swinging motion of the arms was tested in the second test.
Some basic tests on a fueling arm located higher up on the tower were performed by the company.
The arms will work in this animation created byHoppAR.
We are keeping an eye on the construction of the tower. When will it be used for an official launch?
Musk said last November that he would launch in January, but now he says it will happen in March. During an online meeting of the National Academies' Space Studies Board and Board on Physics and Astronomy in November, Musk said that Starship could go through a dozen launches, maybe more, and be ready to send valuable payloads to the Moon, Mars and even the Solar System's outer planets.
There is not enough time to test all of the mechanisms before the first attempt at an orbital flight.
The spaceships are ready for test flights. The credit is given to the company: SpaceX.
The tower will be able to prepare missions by stacking first stage boosters with other elements. This means that the Orbital Launch Site architecture is important to Musk. Starbase could become a spaceflight hub once the Orbital Flight Test is complete.
In August, Musk said that they were going to try to catch the Super Heavy Booster with the launch tower arm, using the grid fins to take the load.
In a single year in 2021, the company launched more than 30 rockets. They broke their own record for back-to-back launches after two separate missions using Falcon 9 rockets took place within 15 hours of each other.
You can watch the live feed of the Starbase tests at NASASpaceflight.
Further reading.
There is a page for the space program.
There is a person namedTeslarati.
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