SpaceX is developing a mega-rocket “Starship” that will require a new method of recovery, with a robotic arm in the launch tower grabbing it directly.
The reason SpaceX is the top private space company of our time is because of its constant creativity. Elon Musk, chief executive officer and founder, has a new idea. He believes that the return of the Super Heavy rocket should be caught by the mechanical arm of the launch tower, so that the landing is safer and the rocket itself can omit the landing gear.
New Atlas reports that SpaceX has almost closed the space industry with its “unique skill” – recoverable reusable rockets – that other peers have not yet mastered, and other space companies are now trying to learn, such as Rocket Lab, which wants to use parachutes to recover rockets, and Blue Origin, which is also developing a fairly Blue Origin (Blue Origin) is also developing a fairly similar scaffolded landing rocket. But SpaceX is still in progress, and they’re thinking about how to land larger rocket boosters.
Musk recently tweeted that he has a new idea for landing a rocket next to a launch tower, which then extends a giant robotic arm to grab the rocket and has a grill fin on the rocket to carry The load.
Musk explained that this has multiple benefits, one being the elimination of the landing kickstand at the bottom of the rocket booster and the fact that it flies directly back to the launcher for faster reuse. Musk added that in ideal conditions, the rocket booster, which had just completed its mission, could be “relaunched within an hour”, which sounds overly ambitious, but Musk and the SpaceX team, will not be accused of being whimsical.
Last month, the test prototype of SpaceX’s super heavy rocket, the eighth experimental mission, codenamed SN-8 Starship rocket was successfully launched and completed important tests such as attitude change and horizontal flight at high altitude, with a flight time of six minutes. However, just when it returned to land, it hit the ground hard and exploded immediately because it landed too fast, and all the audience felt quite sorry. Musk said optimistically that although the SN-8 exploded, the flight was quite successful and he was satisfied with the test information obtained.
However, he may be thinking about how to improve the part of the final landing failure, bigger and heavier rocket is not easy to maintain balance, so by the launch tower robot arm to help fix, can perform better.
Last week Musk said that SpaceX would not be affected by the SN-8 landing failure and would start flight testing two prototype super heavy rockets in the next “few months”. Currently in Boca Chica, Texas development base (Boca Chica), has been found in the SN-9 test rocket in the assembly plant.
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