The new footage shows the structure rising up from the south Texas facility known as Starbase. The video appears almost a year to the day after the CEO of the company announced that the Super Heavy booster will be caught by a launch tower instead of a vertical landing.
The bird's eye view of the tower is making me think of a booster rocket landing. It will be a visual spectacle, but it is part of Musk's plan to deploy a viable heavy launch system.
The filing said that the 469-foot tall launch tower is meant to lift its new rocket and booster on the launch mount. The launch and catch tower will be constructed out of structural steel. The mechanical arms will catch the rocket, though it is not clear how this will be accomplished.
The system will have a Super Heavy booster and a Starship upper stage. The tallest rocket ever built will be created when the two stages are combined. It is designed to transport crew and cargo to Earth, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
The upper stage has been tested many times, including a test in May of 2021. The lower stage has yet to be launched, but as Musk pointed out in a twit from last year, SpaceX is going to try to catch the Super Heavy Booster with the launch tower arm, using the grid fins to take the load. This will allow the booster to be immediately positioned on the launch mount, which will make it ready to refly in under an hour.
The launch and catch tower is currently being tested. Engineers lifted the assembly up the tower and closed its arms earlier this week, after testing it last week.
The first launch of a fully stacked Starship, consisting of Heavy Booster 4 and the prototype SN20, is expected to happen later this month or in February, according to Musk. The system won't be fully operational until at least 2023. NASA has contracted with the company to provide a lunar landing craft in the form of a Starship rocket for the upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon, with a human landing expected no earlier than 2025.
There are some exciting things happening in space.
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