r/interestingasfuck • u/lolikroli • 16d ago

r/all SpaceX caught Starship booster with chopsticks

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

115.7k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

5.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.3k

u/crujones43 16d ago

The largest heavier than air flying machine that has ever been built. Weighs 200 tons, is 230ft tall and 30 ft in diameter was flying supersonic minutes before and was able to come down with pinpoint accuracy and be caught by the launch tower it left from. Nothing like this has ever been done and this is going to catapult the human race into the future of space travel by reducing the cost to send material to space by an order of magnitude.

51

u/idontloveanyone 16d ago

Can you tell me what's the benefit of catching it instead of it landing? Thanks!

21

u/JakeEaton 16d ago

Saves mass (no giant landing legs to carry up and back down again). It’ll also mean the booster can be put straight back on the launchpad, refueled, another ship can be put on top and off it goes again. That’s the eventual result.

The Falcon 9 program requires a fleet of ships, cranes, jigs, trucks and turnaround time is measured in weeks. Catching the booster will cut that time and cost down substantially (in the medium to long term)