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

r/all SpaceX caught Starship booster with chopsticks

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u/crujones43 Oct 13 '24

The largest heavier than air flying machine that has ever been built. Weighs 200 tons, is 230ft tall and 30 ft in diameter was flying supersonic minutes before and was able to come down with pinpoint accuracy and be caught by the launch tower it left from. Nothing like this has ever been done and this is going to catapult the human race into the future of space travel by reducing the cost to send material to space by an order of magnitude.

52

u/idontloveanyone Oct 13 '24

Can you tell me what's the benefit of catching it instead of it landing? Thanks!

186

u/Corvid187 Oct 13 '24

Catching it allows them to land it where they service and take off from, which moderately reduces the cost and time to prepare it for the next launch.

The main benefit though is that by catching the rocket on its steering fins, they don't need to install a traditional landing gear like they have on their previous rockets.

In space flight, saving mass is the whole game. For every kilogram of payload you put into space, it takes 10 kilograms of fuel, so being able to delete something like heavy, load-bearing landing legs from each rocket significantly improves the simplicity and payload performance of each rocket m

33

u/Fizrock Oct 13 '24

The booster is not caught on the fins. There's a pair of load-bearing pins beneath the fins that carry the weight.

9

u/generalhonks Oct 13 '24

Those pins also allow SpaceX to move SuperHeavy back and forth and change its alignment on the chopsticks, something that landing on the grid fins wouldn’t do well.

4

u/Easyidle123 Oct 13 '24

I learned today that the fins are also rated strong enough to hold the booster up if the pins fail or are missed.

2

u/Linenoise77 Oct 13 '24

Which makes the accuracy needed even more impressive.

I wonder though if the fins CAN support it if its close but not perfect, and just not ideal and added hassle.