SpaceX successfully caught Starship’s first-stage booster, also known as Super Heavy, using the robotics arms of the launch tower. This event occurred seven minutes after liftoff, as Super Heavy hovered near the launch tower before it was captured with its ‘chopstick’ metal arms.
Aside from the catch, Starship’s heat shield was also reworked, with SpaceX technicians spending more than 12,000 hours replacing the entire thermal protection system with newer-generation tiles, a backup ablative layer, as well as additional protections between the flap structures.
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This is a day for the engineering history books. This is absolutely insane! On the first ever attempt we have successfully caught the Super Heavy booster back at the launch tower,” said Kate Tice, SpaceX manager of Quality Systems Engineering.
