SpaceX is gearing up for the 10th launch of the Starship, the most powerful rocket ever to fly.
Whether you’re watching this weekend’s launch online or in person, the Starship flights from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica, Texas, are always dramatic, with the massive 121-meter-tall rocket generating an astonishing 17 million pounds of thrust as the vehicle roars away from the launchpad.
Just a few minutes into the flight, all being well, the upper-stage Starship spacecraft will separate from the first-stage Super Heavy booster.
In three of its nine test flights to date, the 71-meter-tall Super Heavy booster has performed a spectacular — and autonomous — landing back at the launch site, with a pair of giant mechanical arms on the launch tower securing the descending rocket just meters above the ground.
But for its 10th flight, SpaceX has said it won’t be attempting the catch, instead sending the Super Heavy booster into the ocean in a controlled splashdown.
The absence of the impressive maneuver during the upcoming test mission will come as a big disappointment for many Starship fans who were hoping to witness the catch (you can watch an earlier one instead).
SpaceX has decided to forgo the landing because one of the goals of the 10th flight includes testing a steeper — and therefore riskier — descent angle for the booster as part of efforts to improve the rocket’s efficiency.
Of course, it could attempt the steeper descent while bringing the rocket back to Starbase, but that would risk damaging the launch tower, which is a costly and crucial part of the facility.
So, bringing the Super Heavy down in the ocean lets SpaceX test the descent process while minimizing risk.
Future flights will see the launch tower come back into use for landings, hopefully soon. Catching the booster in this way allows SpaceX to reuse it for multiple missions, just like it does now with its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. In upcoming tests, SpaceX also wants to land the Starship spacecraft back at Starbase so that it can reuse that as well.
