Without landing legs, the Starship/Super Heavy ship-missile system must rely on a launch tower with robotic arms like chopsticks to return to the ground.
Starship/Super Heavy is a launch system serving the ambition of Elon Musk, CEO of the American aerospace company SpaceX, to send humans to Mars. With a height of about 122 m, this is the largest and most powerful rocket system ever built, capable of generating nearly 8,000 tons of thrust when launched.
During the test flight on October 13 of the combined Starship/Super Heavy rocket ship system in Texas, SpaceX created a miracle by successfully implementing the “grabbing” mechanism on the first try. Specifically, after successfully taking off from the Mechazilla launch tower, the Starship landed in the Indian Ocean and the Super Heavy missile returned, landing precisely near the launch tower and held tightly by the tower’s “chopstick” robot arm.
Musk calls the tower Mechazilla because it looks like a giant metal Godzilla monster with large mechanical arms. This is a multi-purpose structure, supporting both takeoff and landing. The arms, or “chopsticks”, can be used to stack and move boosters and spacecraft at the launch site before liftoff. When the rocket returns to Earth, the wand catches it in mid-air by catching it under the rocket’s fin. Mechazilla will then directly place Super Heavy on the launch pad into orbit, significantly shortening the time to prepare for reuse.
SpaceX successfully recovered the Super Heavy rocket stage on October 13. Video: Space
Musk’s vision is that in the future, the wand arm could quickly return a rocket to the launch pad – allowing it to take off again as soon as it’s refueled – possibly within just 30 minutes of landing. With improved space travel, Musk hopes to build a residential community on Mars, turning humans into a multi-planetary species.