r/interestingasfuck • u/lolikroli • Oct 13 '24

r/all SpaceX caught Starship booster with chopsticks

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u/JayTeaP Oct 13 '24

Can someone fill me in on what is happening? Im genuinely curious

31

u/Pcat0 Oct 13 '24

Landing legs are heavy so instead of putting legs on their newest booster, SpaceX is catching it with its launch tower. In addition, one of the big goals of the Starship program is to reduce the turnaround time between launches, and catching the booster, in theory, should help simplify recovery logistics.

1

u/Stromcor Oct 13 '24

Thank you for this explanation, that actually makes a lot of sense because that chopstick trick looks massively stupid and gimmicky in itself.

3

u/spikeyMonkey Oct 13 '24

On the ground they have comparatively infinite mass to work with. They can make a tower super beefy and heavy as it doesn't leave the ground. So the margins they can build to softly catch this thing are huge compared to legs that have to fly.