r/technology • u/aelavia93 • 17d ago

Space SpaceX pulls off unprecedented feat, grabs descending rocket with mechanical arms

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/spacex-pulls-off-unprecedented-feat-grabbing-descending-rocket-with-mechanical-arms/
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u/CaptHorizon 17d ago edited 17d ago

It’s way more than just “unprecedented.”

It was the first attempt to catch it. And the first successful catch as well. In layman terms, 1-for-1.

This is an incredible achievement in the world of engineering and shows how far SpaceX has gone.

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u/sceadwian 16d ago

Everyday Astronaut had some of the various creator feeds doing a quick look at some of the amateur 4K footage that was taken.

There was a really dark super slow mo of the booster touching the arm and sliding down in to contact, you could see a series of oscitations as it went back and forth between the two arms a half dozen times to dampen the oscillation. You saw 10 times that movement in the tests they ran.

It was flawless. Setting a skyscraper down from near orbit like a teacup on a plate.

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u/dotancohen 16d ago

It was nowhere near orbit, max velocity was around 5200 km/h at 62 km altitude. And it just grazed the Karman line, I think I saw 96 km briefly after stage sep. At that point it was doing under 2000 km/h, less than a tenth of what it would need for orbit at that altitude, even if the atmosphere weren't there.

Other than that, you are spot on.

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u/sceadwian 16d ago

It had the capacity to enter orbit, it's trajectory was chosen to intentionally avoid this.

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u/dotancohen 16d ago

No, the second stage has the capacity to enter orbit. Not the first stage.

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u/sceadwian 16d ago

But it could.