It was an astonishing spectacle. A 70-meter-tall SpaceX rocket performing a controlled descent toward a tiny target where two giant mechanical arms were waiting to clasp it just meters above the ground.
Sunday’s bold effort was SpaceX’s first try at “catching” the Super Heavy booster, and to many people’s surprise, it nailed it.
Thousands of distinct vehicle and pad criteria had to be met prior to catching the Super Heavy booster. Thanks to the tireless work of SpaceX engineers, we succeeded with catch on our first attempt. pic.twitter.com/6wa5v6xHI0
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024
So, now what?
Well, the immediate goal for SpaceX is to use the Super Heavy booster to carry a modified version of the Starship spacecraft — called the Starship Human Landing System (HLS) to a lunar orbit in NASA’s Artemis III mission, which could take place as early as 2026.
But until that can happen, the Elon Musk-led spaceflight company will need to carry out many more tests of the Starship system, which comprises the first-stage Super Heavy booster — the most powerful ever to fly — and the upper-stage Starship spacecraft.
In these upcoming tests, which SpaceX will be keen to launch before the end of the year, the team will attempt to repeat and perfect the astonishing “catch” maneuver that it performed for the first time on Sunday. Bringing it home in this way enables SpaceX to quickly refurbish what will soon be multiple Super Heavy boosters before quickly launching them again as part of a reusable system that drastically reduces operational costs.
SpaceX also needs to demonstrate the ability to refuel Starship in Earth orbit, which is essential for the proposed lunar missions. Additionally, it has to perform at least one uncrewed demonstration mission that sees the Starship HLS land on the lunar surface and then lift off.
The Artemis III mission will see up to four astronauts fly to a lunar orbit aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which will be launched by the space agency’s powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
Meanwhile, the Starship HLS will also arrive in a lunar orbit after being launched by the Super Heavy. The Starship HLS will then dock with the Orion, enabling two of the crew members to transfer to SpaceX’s vehicle, which will then descend to the moon’s surface for the first crewed lunar landing since the final Apollo mission in 1972. Finally, the Starship HLS will carry the two astronauts back to a lunar orbit so they can return to the Orion spacecraft for the journey home.
More ambitious goals involve using the Starship for the first crewed mission to Mars, and even for building a permanent astronaut base on the red planet.
Musk has an even grander plan, however. Commenting on Sunday’s successful mission, Musk wrote in a post on social media that the first flight and landing of the world’s most powerful rocket on Sunday marked a “big step towards making life multiplanetary.” The SpaceX CEO stated in 2016 that the company has an ambition to move 1 million people to Mars to create a self-sustaining city, though that’s surely a challenge for engineers that haven’t even been born yet.