Around 8:25 p.m. on October 13, 2024, Peking time, SpaceX Starship conducted its fifth orbital flight test, with the launch site still located at the Boca Chica Starship Base on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in usa.

After the experience of the previous four launches, this Starship successfully launched again, and about 6 minutes and 50 seconds later, the catching device successfully grabbed the hundreds of tons heavy first-stage rocket descending from the sky for the first time, marking the first time humans have recovered a rocket in this way, which netizens vividly referred to as "chopsticks catching the rocket", with detailed explanation later.

Around 9:30 p.m. Peking time, the Starship returned from space and accurately landed in the predetermined area of the Indian Ocean, india.

SpaceX is known for its rapid iteration in rocket production. After learning from the lessons of the first launch failure, numerous improvements were made during the second launch last year: strengthening the launch pad, adding water spray muffler devices, and using "hot separation" separation method for both Starship and booster rockets, which proved to be very effective from the second and third test flights. During the fourth launch in June this year, the first-stage booster rocket landed in the Gulf of Mexico with a precision of half a centimeter, boosting confidence for the attempt to catch it in place. Below is a brief review of the previous four launches.

On June 6, 2024, the Starship conducted its fourth orbital flight test, and the booster rocket successfully landed in the sea as planned. The Starship flew for about an hour, with heat-resistant tiles falling off when entering the atmosphere, the wing surface getting burned through, but still managed to persist until landing in the sea, almost completing all planned tasks and goals.

On March 14, 2024, the Starship conducted its third orbital flight test. The Starship successfully separated from the super-heavy booster rocket, with the booster rocket splashing down in the sea. A few minutes later, the Starship successfully entered space and completed the "in-orbit fuel transfer test" and the "payload fairing opening and closing test" in orbit. Unfortunately, the Starship failed to ignite for orbital maneuver, solely relying on atmospheric braking, eventually leading to its destruction.

On November 18, 2023, during the second flight test, the super-heavy booster rocket of the Starship exploded on return due to a blockage in the liquid oxygen pipeline, causing a fire and crash while the Starship had reached space altitude, but failed to complete the intended mission due to a fire caused by excess liquid oxygen discharge.

On April 20, 2023, the Starship attempted its first orbital launch flight test, but as soon as it took off, three engines did not ignite. During the flight, three engines failed successively, causing the rocket to rotate abnormally and lose control, eventually having to be destructively detonated.

01 The new highlights of this launch

In the eyes of many netizens, the Starship has already been launched five times, and each time it feels similar. What should we pay attention to this time? This launch does indeed have new highlights, mainly the following:

1. The first-stage super heavy booster rocket attempting to return to the landing site, attempting to be caught by the capturing machinery (dubbed "chopsticks" by netizens)! This is the highlight of this test. Specifically, this time the method of using tower-based dual mechanical arms to capture and recover is used, marking the world's first ultra-high altitude vertical recovery of a heavy rocket, the difficulty of which can be imagined.

High precision recovery: Everyone is no stranger to the recovery of SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, which has now become routine. However, the recovery of this super heavy booster rocket is completely different, requiring the heavy rocket to land much more precisely in the fan-shaped area deployed by the tower-based dual mechanical arms. Even slight deviation could result in the destruction of the rocket and the tower.

Heavy recovery weight: Despite the fact that the fuel in the super heavy booster rocket has been nearly depleted upon return, the weight of the body can still reach 275 tons! As the capturing machinery catches the descending rocket, an instantaneous force of approximately 275 tons is generated due to the overweight effect. It is said that the capturing machinery can withstand instant impact forces of up to 700 tons. In addition, the capturing machinery is also required to quickly dissipate excess kinetic energy after catching the rocket through damping effects.

What is clever is that the capturing machinery acts as both a recovery device and a lifting device, being able to quickly move the rocket after capturing the "super heavy" rocket for rapid maintenance and reuse. This is an inevitable requirement for the "Starship flight-ready" launch.

During the return of the starship, the firmness of the heat shield and the integrity of the wing surface. It is reported that before this launch, the starship's heat shield was reinstalled to withstand the high temperatures upon entering the atmosphere. It is reported that before the launch, the starship replaced all 0.018 million pieces of heat shield, and even applied ablative material to the stainless steel hull surface as an auxiliary heat insulation layer. The new heat shield is twice as strong as the original. Unfortunately, for the fourth test flight, the problem of the burned hinge connecting the wing and hull re-emerged, and there is still no better solution this time because upgrades would involve major structural changes. It is estimated that there will be an opportunity for improvement when the second generation of starships is launched.

In addition to the two major changes mentioned above, there are some other changes. For example, the launch tower has been reinforced and improved; there are also changes in the launch sequence compared to the previous ones; and adjustments were made to the position of the starship's antennas, and so on.

02 Flight time, flight nodes, and flight trajectory

The flight time and trajectory of this flight are almost a copy of the fourth flight, with slight adjustments in the launch sequence. The starship took off from the starship base on the Gulf of Mexico, flew around the Earth for less than one orbit, and landed in the Indian Ocean. The first-stage super heavy booster rocket landed in the Gulf of Mexico last time, this time they attempted to capture it for recovery.

03 The Starship Spaceship Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

For friends who are not yet familiar with the starship structure, here is a simple explanation. During the takeoff phase, the starship relies on the assistance of the Super Heavy booster rocket to ascend. The English name of this booster rocket is Super Heavy, usually translated as 超重. The Super Heavy rocket is 71 meters tall, equipped with 33 Raptor engines, which work together to generate approximately 76,000 kilonewtons of thrust. The starship itself is equipped with 6 Raptor engines, which take over the flight after the booster rocket separates, ultimately putting the starship into Earth orbit. The combined payload capacity of the starship and Super Heavy rocket in low Earth orbit is 150 tons, surpassing the Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo lunar landing program and the Block1 rocket used in the Artemis I mission, making it the most powerful rocket launch system ever developed by humans.

04 Japanese billionaire cancels taking part in the starship around the moon project, I wonder if he regrets it

Although the progress of the starship is still below expectations, the starship, after five flights, has become more mature. On June 1st, this year, Yusaku Maezawa, the Japanese billionaire, leading the around-the-moon trip project "dearMoon," announced the formal cancellation of the plan.

Yusaku Maezawa later explained that when he signed a contract with SpaceX in 2018, the promise was to "fly to the moon" by the end of 2023, which has not been realized so far. This way, I cannot make other plans for my life.

The background of the matter is that on September 18, 2018, Yusaku Maezawa pre-ordered a seat on the Starship and became the first private passenger to travel around the moon. On March 2, 2021, Yusaku Maezawa announced updates on the dearMoon project, inviting 8 people from around the world. On December 8, 2022, besides Yusaku Maezawa, the 8 space tourists have been selected, with 2 backup tourists.

However, Yusaku Maezawa has already been to space. On February 8, 2021, he took a trip to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and stayed there for 12 days, returning to Earth on the 20th of that month.

It is worth mentioning that just last month, American billionaire Jared Isaacman, who recently completed the first human commercial spacewalk, has signed a plan with SpaceX called "Polaris," where the third space flight of the plan will supposedly use a Starship. Perhaps he could become the first person to fly into space on a Starship.

05 Starship test important milestone events

Before each test launch of the Starship, Tencent Space has carried out complete tracking reports. Below is a summary of important milestones from 2019 to the present.

On July 26, 2019, SpaceX conducted a 20-meter free float test of the earliest Starship prototype "Starhopper".

On August 27, 2019, SpaceX again tested the "Starhopper", successfully flying to a height of 150 meters and landing safely.

On August 5, 2020, the Starship prototype SN5 completed a 150-meter free float test. Due to the lack of a nose cone, SN5 looks like a more than 30-meter high cylindrical stainless steel water tower.

On August 25, 2020, the Starship prototype SN6 also completed a 150-meter free float test.

On December 10, 2020, the Starship prototype SN8 underwent a 12.5-kilometer altitude test flight, which ended in a crash explosion upon landing.

On February 3, 2021, the Starship prototype SN9 again underwent a 10-kilometer altitude test flight, resulting in a crash and explosion upon landing.

On March 4, 2021, the Starship prototype SN10 conducted its third 10-kilometer high-altitude test flight, landing safely, but still exploded a few minutes after landing.

On March 27, 2021, the Starship prototype SN11 underwent its fourth 10-kilometer high-altitude test flight, with a more disastrous failure, with the rocket body shattering into pieces.

On May 6, 2021, the Starship prototype SN15 successfully conducted a high-altitude flight test in Boca Chica, Texas, marking SpaceX's Starship prototype challenging the 10-kilometer altitude for the fifth time, and for the first time achieving a perfect landing without explosion incidents.

After the SN15 test in 2021, the Starship mainly underwent ground tests, including various pressure tests and wet dressing.

On April 20, 2023, the Starship prototype SN24 attempted its first orbital test with the super-heavy rocket BN7 composite, but disintegrated explosively 4 minutes after liftoff.

On November 18, 2023, during the second flight test of the Starship, an explosion occurred when the super-heavy booster rocket was returning, and the spacecraft caught fire while venting excess liquid oxygen, failing to complete the mission.

On March 14, 2024, the Starship conducted its third orbital flight test, successfully entering space and completing various experiments in orbit, but unfortunately, the off-course ignition did not succeed, relying solely on atmospheric braking and was eventually destroyed.

On June 6, 2024, the Starship conducted its fourth orbital flight test, with the booster rocket successfully landing in the sea as planned. The Starship flew for about an hour, with heat shield tiles falling during reentry into the atmosphere, wing surfaces burning through, but ultimately persevered to land in the sea, almost completing all set tasks and objectives.

In short, as a new concept giant spaceship, the starship shows us the prototype of the future spaceship, and the human journey is the stars.

Editor/Somer