SpaceX's mechanical 'arms' successfully catch Starship rocket booster back at launch pad, marking engineering milestone

会员登录 - 在线投稿 - 设为首页 - 加入收藏 - 网站地图欢迎访问农村日报网！

主页政策解读农村天地德孝乡村致富达人电商/企业民生关注基层建设传媒热点 English

热门搜索：湖北鄂州湖北英山给工程款新闻北京 ‘ 送寿张安徽鸿诺

当前位置：主页 > English 正文

SpaceX's mechanical 'arms' successfully catch Starship rocket booster back at launch pad, marking engineering milestone

时间：2024-10-15 12:20 来源：未知作者：admin 阅读：次

In short:

SpaceX has successfully managed to "catch" the booster rocket from its Starship spacecraft back on the launching pad about seven minutes after take-off.

Recycling the booster rockets for SpaceX's smaller Falcon 9 rockets has saved the company millions.

What's next?

NASA has ordered two Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade, and SpaceX eventually intends to use it to send people to Mars.

SpaceX pulled off its boldest test flight yet of the enormous Starship rocket on Sunday, catching the returning booster back at the launch pad with mechanical arms.

Towering almost 121 metres tall, the empty Starship blasted off at sunrise from the southern tip of Texas near the US-Mexican border.

It arced over the Gulf of Mexico like the four Starships before it that ended up being destroyed, either soon after lift-off or while ditching into the sea.

The last one in June was the most successful yet, completing its flight without exploding.

This time, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk upped the challenge and risk.

The company brought the first-stage booster back to land at the pad from which it had soared seven minutes earlier.

The launch tower, dubbed "Mechazilla" on SpaceX's social media, sported monstrous mechanical arms that caught the descending 71-metre-long booster.

"The tower has caught the rocket!!" Mr Musk said on X.

Company employees screamed in joy as the booster slowly lowered itself into the launch tower's arms.

"Even in this day and age, what we just saw is magic," SpaceX's Dan Huot observed from near the launch site.

"I am shaking right now."

"Folks, this is a day for the engineering history books," added SpaceX's Kate Tice from the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

SpaceX's Starship rocket lifts off for the test flight.

It was up to the flight director to decide, in real time with a manual control, whether to attempt the landing.

SpaceX said both the booster and launch tower had to be in good, stable condition. Otherwise, it was going to end up in the gulf like the previous ones.

Everything was judged to be ready for the catch.

The retro-looking stainless steel spacecraft on top continued around the world once free of the booster, before executing a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean, where it would safely sink.

The entire flight lasted just over an hour.

SpaceX has been recovering the first-stage boosters of its smaller Falcon 9 rockets for nine years, after delivering satellites and crews to orbit from Florida or California.

But they land on floating ocean platforms or on concrete slabs several miles from their launch pads — not back on their place of departure.

Recycling Falcon boosters has sped up the launch rate and saved SpaceX millions. Musk intends to do the same for Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, with 33 methane-fuel engines on the booster alone.

NASA has ordered two Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade.

SpaceX intends to use Starship to send people and supplies to the moon and, eventually Mars.

By：https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-14/space-x-starship-rocket-successful-test-flight-texas-elon-musk/104467832

(责任编辑：admin)

顶一下

(0)

踩一下

(0)

上一篇：Southern Lebanon facing 'same scenario' as Gaza, locals fear, as Israeli air strikes hit town of Tyre
下一篇：Iran has 'no red lines' when it comes to defending itself, foreign minister says, as Netanyahu tells UN to leave Lebanon