SpaceX Catches Starship Booster with Mechazilla’s Chopsticks [VIDEO]

SpaceX completed the fifth test flight of its Starship rocket system on Sunday, October 13, 2024, and made history by successfully “catching” the reusable Super Heavy booster on the ground after it separated from Starship (via Tesla North).

The company’s “Mechazilla” launch and catch tower caught the Super Heavy booster as it descended after launching Starship into orbit. Mechazilla is equipped with chopstick-like arms designed to scoop up the Super Heavy booster during its controlled descent. What’s more, SpaceX achieved this feat on the very first attempt.

“Thousands of distinct vehicle and pad criteria had to be met prior to catching the Super Heavy booster,” SpaceX explained in a tweet after the company achieved something that might as well be straight out of science fiction.

Thousands of distinct vehicle and pad criteria had to be met prior to catching the Super Heavy booster. Thanks to the tireless work of SpaceX engineers, we succeeded with catch on our first attempt. pic.twitter.com/6wa5v6xHI0

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024

Starship Flight 5 saw a successful liftoff, after which the booster completed its ascent, separated from the main Starship vehicle, transitioned to boost-back burn, and finally initiated landing burn. The booster rocket was then caught (to thunderous applause) at Starbase, as can be seen in the video below:

Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/6R5YatSVJX

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024

Meanwhile, the Starship rocket coasted along its planned trajectory to the other side of the planet before performing a controlled re-entry and landing in the Indian Ocean 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 40 seconds after launch. SpaceX has already received approval for Starship Flight 6.

Mechazilla’s successful retrieval of the Super Heavy booster is a major milestone, not only for SpaceX’s mission to make life multi-planetary with a fully and rapidly reusable launch vehicle but for the spaceflight industry as a whole. It’s also a massive boon for SpaceX’s other endeavours.

SpaceX plans to use Starship to launch next-generation Starlink satellites into orbit, which the company says will allow for gigabit download speeds anywhere in the world on its satellite internet service. “We got one step closer to that reality today with an amazing Flight 5,” Michael Nicolls, VP of Starlink Engineering at SpaceX, said in a tweet. There are more than 400,000 Starlink customers in Canada.

SpaceX is also planning satellite cellular coverage, with the company achieving the first video call over Starlink “Direct to Cell” earlier this year.

Starship’s successful development is also important because SpaceX will use it to ferry Quebec-based Tesesat’s multi-billion-dollar, taxpayer-funded satellite internet project. SpaceX and Telesat plan to launch the first satellites for the latter’s Lightspeed satellite constellation by 2026.