SpaceX finally revealed its Starship & Super Heavy landing trick!

For the first time, we have the means to fully explain how and why SpaceX will try to catch the largest rocket ever built out of midair. So, let’s answer those questions and walk the whole nine yards. How and why does SpaceX catch a Super Heavy Starship booster?

Editing: Stefanie Schlang
Photography: Kevin Randolph

SpaceX 3D Creation Eccentric on Patreon!

Credit:

⭐SpaceX
⭐NASA
⭐RGV Aerial Photography on Twitter: @RGVaerialphotos
⭐RGV Aerial Photography on YouTube: @RGVAerialPhotography
⭐Ryan Hansen Space on Twitter: @RyanHansenSpace
⭐SpaceX 3D Creation Eccentric on Twitter: @Bl3D_Eccentric
⭐SpaceX 3D Creation Eccentric on YouTube: @Spacex3DCreationEccentric
⭐C-bass Productions on YouTube: @CbassProductions

✔️Twitter: @FelixSchlang

📄Links for this Episode:

[VSPlum]

One more reason why Super Heavy doesn't have a landing legs is a weight. SpaceX wants to keep as much stuff on Earth as possible to minimize Starship own weight and increase it's payload capabilities. It's complex and expensive to build Mechazilla, but Starship will pay it back on every next flight.

[carmenschumann]

. . . what I really appreciate is the diversity of YT channels to receive information and / or entertainment from . . .

[antyspi]

You forgot the main reason for ditching the landing legs for a catching system: mass reduction. Truly stable legs, together with their housing and operational systems would weigh quite some tons. This is additional mass that in the end has to be cut from the payload..

[maxk]

A note about grid fins. They only work when you have sufficient air flow through them so they aren't able to control the roll of the rocket during the last couple seconds of the landing. From that point on it's up to the engines to control roll or, if only a single engine is being used, the cold gas thrusters.

[Pixelcrafter_exe]

Superheavy can be even more accurate with its angle, since the landing burn uses 3 engines which enables controll of roll axis additionally to the gridfins

[pnardi]

A Falcon 9 booster has a dry mass of about 20 tons, not 0.55 tons as labeled in the video.

[h.a.]

Going for *either* rapid reusability *or* full reusability is a bold move on SpaceX's part. Doing both at the same time is outright insane.

If this works out and spaceflight becomes akin to regular flight, where you can just refuel a ship and reuse it at leas ta few times, it'll be a step forward like the first manned spaceflight or the moon landings.

Maybe there is a not-so-distant future ahead where Starship-like vessels are used like airliners are today: In near constant service for several decades. Vacation on a space hotel suddenly doesn't look that far fetched, doesn't it?

[valeriocorsetti]

Soooo, I m pretty sure a Falcon 9 empty first stage doesn't weight close to 550kg (almost a four hundredth of a superheavy) but rather in the 25 ton range (an eight of a superheavy). I think you mistook the 550 ton fueled launch mass of the whole vehicle. Love the vids keep it up

[rocketman]

It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end

LOL! I love these episodes, thank you so much Felix & company!

[therichieboy]

No legs also means no potential compression force on landing, only tension from the catch mounts. Presumably much better for the booster.

[StingerNSW]

Thanks to the WAI team and all the 3D Creators featured in the episode, truly something to look forward to IRL 🚀

[thomasafine]

I was totally right back in August when you asked about how mechazilla would catch the booster and I said "Maybe something like vice plates that track along the arms and close in on the hooks?”

As for tiny movements to cushion the shock, this is F=ma deceleration basics. Tiny distances mean massive deceleration. A few centimeters of cushion might literally be millions of times less force.

[waldekwiewiorski]

10:22 Falcon 9 booster dry mass 25, 600 kg

[ibnorml]

That will be quite the thing to see: Each SHB launched 3 times per day, with a stream of Starships, each one configured for its specific mission. At peak performance, it could look like massive, controlled chaos. Should be fun!

[jimlane]

Removing the legs also reduces the booster's weight which translates to greater payload to orbit capacity

[Blutrauschhobbit]

10:25 So I got a slightly different number of 25.6 tons for the first stage dry mass from SpaceFlight Insider....

[njm]

If they can perfect this landing system it will be an engineering triumph and a paradigm shift for the space industry. A true "game changer".

[Whataboutit]

It's not much at all. Just a few centimeters in theory. That’s all that’s needed from 100 kilometers above the planet down to the resting position. If that last tiny bit is soft, it would work. Is that all it takes? What’s your thought?

Edit: 550kg is NOT the weight of a Falcon 9 booster, that was a typo. The correct number would be 22, 200 kg dry mass.

[nWestie]

It looks like the axis are mislabeled at around 1:30, The spaceX charts show X as vertical, but you show Z as vertical in your overlay. You can tell that X is vertical because of the relatively huge accelerations in that axis. Loved the video! I'm super excited to see mechzilla actually catching rockets.

[richardfuchs]

I can’t wait to see this happen. Either a spectacular catch, or spectacular explosion.. going to be worth every second.