Starship flight 5

[kitler53]

saw the catching a rocket video because it was front page news (can i say front page when i use the app?!?) for the NYT.   video was pretty cool.

[Legend]

Onboard view showing a catch fitting on Super Heavy as it contacts a chopstick catch beam pic.twitter.com/r1TVQEdITc

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 14, 2024

The final phase of Super Heavy's landing burn used the three center Raptor engines to precisely steer into catch position pic.twitter.com/BxQbOmT4yk

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 14, 2024

Tower view of the first Super Heavy booster catch pic.twitter.com/Bgjeyuw7Hf

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 14, 2024

The scale is just so crazy. It's still going so fast when the bottom first reaches the tower and yet it perfectly stops itself at the right time. The little rails on each side have suspension so that's why they move down once the engines shut down. Their lack of motion up till that point is a good sign that the landing was practically perfect. The big booster movements as it came in were probably to guarantee it wouldn't hit anything important if the engines failed before the last few seconds.

And here is the top of the booster with people if you haven't seen it before.

[Legend]

Such a cool photo. Always incredible to see space ships from a third person perspective. The graininess just makes it feel more like a UFO pic  

[Legend]

Starship flip maneuver and landing burn on its fifth flight test. Vehicle improvements ensured flaps were protected from high heating, resulting in a controlled entry and high accuracy splashdown at the targeted area in the Indian Ocean pic.twitter.com/nLIQLLVMv1

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 18, 2024

The spotlight appearance of the engines is super cool. You can see it still burning a bit after the engines turn off, I don't think it'd be that reusable, but it looks like it would have been catchable.

No clue when they'll get permission to go for that. Starship will need to reenter over populated areas and if it fails at the wrong point, the whole ship would come crashing down with the potential of landing on people. Space shuttle of course pulled it off so Starship will have no problem long term, but I wouldn't be surprised if it gets held up much longer than their early 2025 target.