The engine was off and there it was. Many in the audience who were lucky enough to be there jumped for joy, hugged friends and screamed with joy. I snapped a few last photos and returned to my laptop, grinning and starting to wonder how I could put all this into words.
At first glance, when the smoke cleared, the rocket looked like new. There was no soot on the outside of the booster, as there was on the Falcon 9 rocket that returned from space. This is because Super Heavy Boosters and Starships use cleaner-burning methane fuel instead of kerosene.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk later said there were signs of heat damage to the outer ring of the engine nozzle at the bottom of the rocket. He said this would be “easily addressed”.
What’s not so easy to address is how SpaceX can overcome this. Landing on the moon or Mars? Sure, but realistically these milestones are years away. Something will happen before then.
In the near future, SpaceX will try to return Starship to its launch pad at the end of its orbital flight. This would be a very difficult feat, far exceeding the challenge of catching a super heavy booster.
Super Heavy will only reach a fraction of the altitude and speed of Starship’s upper stage, and the rocket will follow roughly the same up-and-down flight profile that the Falcon 9 pioneered, although the booster size and catch method will increase the difficulty. . Starship, meanwhile, will re-enter the atmosphere from orbital speeds, pass through the sky surrounded by super-hot plasma, then shift horizontally for a final descent that SpaceX likes to call a “bellyflop.”
In the final seconds, the Starship reignites its three engines, flips vertically, and descends for a precision landing. SpaceX demonstrated its ability to do this last week during a test flight in which the ship flew halfway around the world from Texas before landing on a controlled target in the Indian Ocean.
If all goes according to plan, SpaceX could be ready to actually attempt to capture a spacecraft next year. stay tuned.
