Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We know that with their Starship superheavy vehicle, SpaceX has made a rocket
unlike anything we have seen before,and in order to make Starship possible,
SpaceX has also had to design andbuild a launchpad unlike anything we have seen
before. The star bas launch siteis an engineering marvel on par with the
(00:21):
giant rocket that lifts off from it. A genuine first principles approach to getting
the world's most powerful flying machine offthe ground and on its way to outer
space, the Moon, Mars andbeyond. This is how SpaceX reinvented the
launchpad. Let's quickly touch on whata traditional rocket launch pad looks like so
(00:42):
that we can identify the areas whereSpaceX has diverted with their new Star based
design. Let's use the Falcon nineas our primary example of a traditional rocket
launch procedure. So the first thingthat they're going to do is wheel the
fully integrated rocket out of the zEmbly building. This has everything loaded up
(01:02):
and ready for flight. It's goingto be transported horizontally to the launch pad,
where the rocket is then offloaded ontothe launch tower. Once the rocket
is attached to the tower, amechanism is going to slowly lift the rig
into a vertical launch position. Oncethe rocket is set in position, abilical
connections are routed into the first andsecond stage for propellant loading. Seconds before
(01:26):
the launch, the water deluge systemis going to activate and massive streams of
water will get dumped under the baseof the rocket. This is partially for
a cooling effect, but more importantly, the water is going to absorb the
powerful acoustic energy from the rocket engines, and then at engine ignition, all
of the flame exhaust gas and steamfrom vaporizing water is going to get pushed
(01:49):
below the surface of the launchpad intoa trench. The angles of the concrete
down there are going to divert allof this energy and matter out to the
side, away from the rocket.Sounds pretty simple, and that's because it
kind of is. The goal hereis just to contain the energy and gas
from the launch and move it asfar away from the rocket as possible.
(02:10):
This is the way that pretty muchall rockets have been launched since the late
nineteen fifties. Not much has changeduntil now. The ground system responsible for
launching the Starship is an incredibly complexcollection of infrastructure. This launch complex is
often referred to as Stage zero,which is to imply that the ground infrastructure
(02:31):
is just as much a part ofthe starship rocket as the booster and the
orbiter. For our purpose here,we are going to break stage zero up
into the key components and then tackleeach one individually. There are now four
pillars to the Starship launch process,the tank farm, the flame diverter,
the launch mount, and the launchtower. Each one serves a vital purpose
(02:52):
in getting the Starship super Heavy fullyintegrated, launch prepped, and into the
air. The tank farm is prettyself explanatory. It's a collection of large
tanks that just sits a few metersaway from the launch tower. The original
idea here was to build Starship's externaltanks in the same way that SpaceX built
the internal tanks, by vertically stackingnine meter diameter rings of stainless steel maximum
(03:15):
efficiency, and then, because thetank farm needs to hold cryogenic liquid for
long durations of time, each stainlesssteel stack was covered over by an insulating
sheath. This ground system allows SpaceXto rapidly tank and detank the Starship and
super Heavy for everything from cryoproofing andstatic fire testing to full orbital launch.
(03:36):
Again, if we are looking forefficiency, then we want to find it
the shortest path between two points,and it doesn't get much shorter than this.
Many people said that SpaceX was crazyfor placing these giant, vertical standing
tanks right next to the most powerfulrocket ever made, and many people were
correct on that one. SpaceX quicklyrealized that using vertical methane tanks was wildly
(03:59):
unsafe, so those were long agoconverted to the narrow horizontal cylinders that we
see today. The remaining vertical tanksare used to hold liquid oxygen, liquid
nitrogen, and water, but theywill soon be replaced by horizontal tanks as
well. We've seen the exterior shieldsof the tank farm battered and crumpled by
the force of each Starship launch,even when they weren't getting chunks of concrete
(04:21):
thrown at them. So the tankfarm is not moving any further away,
but it will be redesigned to becomea lot less prone to damage. Speaking
of damage, we get to themost exciting innovation at Starbase, the brand
new flame diverter system and blast surface. When it came time to build the
launch pad at Starbase many years ago, SpaceX decided they were going to hold
(04:43):
true to one of Elon's most famousmantras, the best part is no part.
So therefore, instead of building thewater deluge system and flame diverting trench
that we saw earlier, SpaceX builtnone of those things. Did this make
their launchpad better? No, Butwhat it did do was I SpaceX a
lot more time to develop a betterflame diverter system. The deal here is
(05:04):
that Elon and crew were gambling thata reinforced concrete pad would be sturdy enough
to get them through starship development,suborbital testing, booster static fires, and
even the first orbital launch attempt.But it was never meant to be a
permanent solution, and Elon was mostlyright. As usual, The concrete was
(05:24):
good enough for everything right up untilthe moment of liftoff on April twentieth,
twenty twenty three, at which timethe thirty functioning raptor engines on Booster seven
throttled up and shattered the blast surface, which then allowed something like twelve million
pounds of force to get under theground and emerge spectacularly as a tornado of
rock, dust, concrete, andtwisted metal. As bad as that looked,
(05:46):
SpaceX was already way ahead on developingthe solution to the problem before it
even happened. Enter the showerhead,a water cooled steel sandwich that functions as
a flame diverter, shock absorb andblast surface all in one. With the
launchpad area now freshly excavated via rocketengines, SpaceX set to work on their
(06:08):
ultimate solution. Seeing the full powerof the super heavy booster in action was
obviously a humbling experience, so nochances were taken with the construction of the
new launch surface. The first thingengineers did was place nine four foot diameter
concrete rebar columns directly underneath the boosterengines. They were planted thirty five meters
(06:28):
deep into the ground. These arecalled piles. They are going to transfer
the energy from the surface deep intothe ground. Then around the immediate perimeter
of the launchpad there are another twelvesecondary piles, and outside of that are
eleven more tertiary piles. This willevenly distribute and dissipate the energy into the
mass of the Earth. On topof the piles is another structure called the
(06:51):
pile cap. This begins with amassive network of rebar The mesh of steel
is used to tie all of thevertical columns together, so the thirty two
piles and six legs of the launchmount are all brought together as one massive
support system. On the top ofthe rebar structure, SpaceX welds steel integration
plates that will be used to attachthe shower head into the support system,
(07:14):
and then they fill the pile capwith concrete. The base layer takes one
hundred and thirty two mixer trucks andeleven hours to lay one thousand cubic meters
of concrete. This creates a slabone point eight meters thick. On top
of that goes another eight hundred andfifty cubic meters of material for an upper
layer that's two point two meters thick. Next, SpaceX attaches their water supply
(07:36):
manifolds into the pile cap. Thesewill distribute high pressure water into the shower
head. Water comes into the systemthrough a pair of four foot diameter pipes.
The pile cap is topped off withthe steel sandwich. This is two
plates of high strength steel between onepoint five and two inches thick. The
top plate is perforated to create waterjets, and in between the two are
(08:00):
vertical steel beams with holes cut intothem to allow water flow. Obviously,
you're not going to get one continuoussheet of steel that size, so the
core of the top plate is cutinto a hexagon shape and it's surrounded by
trapezoid shapes on all sides. Wecan see from the operation of this system
that the water isn't distributed equally acrossthe plate. The flow is concentrated in
(08:20):
the center and directly underneath each ofthe booster's engine nozzles. We can also
see that these central waterjets are firingoutwards at a shallow angle of around thirty
degrees, while the outer jets arepointed at a steeper angle of around sixty
degrees. The point of this waterflow is not to cancel out the downward
momentum of the exhaust gas, butto simply help in quickly redirecting the gas
(08:43):
outwards to release pressure. The waterjets transfer their momentum into the exhaust plume,
and the energy released by converting waterinto steam is going to help accelerate
that exhaust away from the blast surface. The remaining water that is driven down
to the surface of the plate willform an insulating layer of liquid and steam
to absorb the thermal energy. Ofthe engine flame and keep the plate at
(09:07):
a manageable temperature. Because there areso many holes in the top plate,
it would be virtually impossible for steamto get trapped inside the shower head and
therefore cause a pressure explosion. Allof the energy hitting that steel plate is
being transferred into the bile cap anddistributed evenly down through the piles into the
earth, so none of the concreteis going to crack and break. The
(09:28):
water for the flame diverter is comingfrom a collection of seven horizontal water tanks
that sit just behind the launch tower. The high pressure flow of water is
created by injecting nitrogen gas into thetop of the water and tank, forcing
the liquid out through the bottom.SpaceX uses seventy six nitrogen gas canisters that
each contain somewhere between three and sixthousand psi of pressure. The combined volume
(09:54):
of this water is one point fourmillion liters, and that provides eight second
of maximum water flow, just enoughtime for Starship to throttle up and clear
the launch mount. Let's move upwardsfrom the blast surface to the orbital launch
mount. This is yet another incrediblycomplex machine. When a super heavy booster
(10:15):
is lowered onto the launch mount.The structure is held in place by a
series of twenty clamps all around thecircumference. These are mechanical units that can
fold in and out as needed,and they are able to hold down the
massive rocket for days at a timeas tests and prep work is performed.
Alongside each clamp is another mechanism thatwill connect and interface with each of the
(10:37):
twenty outer ring engines on the booster. These are miniature quickness connect arms that
are used to spin, start,and ignite the outer ring of booster engines.
This is essentially taking equipment out ofthe rocket and moving it into the
launch mount, thereby making each boostercheaper and easier to manufacture. The orbital
launch mount is absolutely loaded with anintricate network of plumbing that we can't even
(11:01):
begin to properly explain here. Butsome other key functions of the ground system
are pre chilling the raptor engine sothat they don't experience thermal shock from the
cryogenic propellant, and pressurizing the tanksthat are hidden underneath the aerodynamic chines of
the booster. There are pressurized nitrogentanks for restarting the booster engines after stage
(11:22):
separation and pressurized co two tanks forfire suppression in the engine bay. Then
on top of the launch mount isone singular umbilical arm that is responsible for
sending liquid oxygen and liquid methane intothe booster's tanks. At the moment of
lift off, all of these differentconnection systems will instantly retract from the booster
(11:43):
and snap back behind plates of steelarmor to protect them from the world's largest
blow torch as it ascends into thesky, moving up again, way up
to the towering steel structure that isknown around Starbase as the Mechazilla. At
one hundred and forty five meters inheight, this is by far the most
intense launch tower ever constructed, andit has to be because this one doesn't
(12:05):
just hold the rocket steady as itprepares for launch. The Mechazilla is a
machine in itself that can lift boththe booster and ship from the ground and
stack them on the launch mount.One key characteristic of Starship is that the
rocket needs to be kept vertical atall times. If you tipped it over
on one side, the body wouldcrumble under its own weight. So in
(12:28):
the past this meant that a cranehad to accompany each ship and booster to
the launch mount for every stack andd stack event. This can get very
tricky when the Gulf Coast winds pickup, because you don't want a gigantic
rocket swinging like a pendulum on asteel wire. Instead, the mechanized arms
of the launch tower lift the rocketstages off of their transport vehicles and can
(12:50):
hold them securely in any reasonable weathercondition. These chopstick like arms are powered
by a hydraulic drawwork system that SpaceXtook off off of an oil rig.
The company purchased two decommissioned oil drillingplatforms with the idea of converting them into
spaceports. That's not going to happen, but at least they gained something useful
from the deal. The chopsticks havemotorized capture rails on the inside of each
(13:15):
arm. These interface with steel pinson the bodies of the rockets. This
allows ground crews to fine tune therotation and front to back movement of each
rocket to ensure precise integration. Thelaunch tower has its own quick disconnect arm.
This is the umbilical connection that providesfuel and pressurized gas to the upper
stage of the rocket during launch.Prep. Eventually, someday in the not
(13:37):
so distant future, these chopstick armswill also be called into service for an
unprecedented maneuver. The thing about Starshipand Super Heavy is that they are so
incredibly large and massive that trying tointegrate landing legs into the design that would
be sturdy enough to support them wouldbe totally impractical. The landing gear would
(13:58):
introduce so much extra complexity and weightto the rocket that it just wouldn't be
able to serve the purpose it isintended for. Landing the ship stage on
a place like the Moon or Marsis more practical because we are talking about
significantly lower gravity environments than the Earth, so legs are not as much of
an issue there. But when itcomes to landing on the Earth, SpaceX
(14:20):
needs a better way. This iswhere we get to the catch maneuver.
Just like SpaceX offloaded the engine,plumbing and start systems into the launch mount,
they have also offloaded the landing gearinto the tower. So when the
ship and booster return from flight,they are coming straight back to the launch
site. Now before they get anywhereclose to the ground, the engine's landing
(14:43):
burn is going to shelve off themajority of the air speed, so they're
not coming in hot. The rocketis coming down relatively slowly and will gently
settle into a hover, right withinreach of the mechazilla, at which point
the chopsticks close, The pins onthe rocket, hit the catch rails on
the arms, and shock absorbers cradlethe remaining momentum and bring the rocket to
(15:05):
a halt. In theory, thisis genius, but in practice we will
just have to wait and see.One thing's for sure, excitement will be guaranteed.
We know that with their Starship superheavy vehicle, SpaceX has made a rocket
unlike anything we have seen before,and in order to make Starship possible,
SpaceX has also had to design andbuild a launchpad unlike anything we have seen
before. The star bas launch siteis an engineering marvel on par with the
(00:21):
giant rocket that lifts off from it. A genuine first principles approach to getting
the world's most powerful flying machine offthe ground and on its way to outer
space, the Moon, Mars andbeyond. This is how SpaceX reinvented the
launchpad. Let's quickly touch on whata traditional rocket launch pad looks like so
(00:42):
that we can identify the areas whereSpaceX has diverted with their new Star based
design. Let's use the Falcon nineas our primary example of a traditional rocket
launch procedure. So the first thingthat they're going to do is wheel the
fully integrated rocket out of the zEmbly building. This has everything loaded up
(01:02):
and ready for flight. It's goingto be transported horizontally to the launch pad,
where the rocket is then offloaded ontothe launch tower. Once the rocket
is attached to the tower, amechanism is going to slowly lift the rig
into a vertical launch position. Oncethe rocket is set in position, abilical
connections are routed into the first andsecond stage for propellant loading. Seconds before
(01:26):
the launch, the water deluge systemis going to activate and massive streams of
water will get dumped under the baseof the rocket. This is partially for
a cooling effect, but more importantly, the water is going to absorb the
powerful acoustic energy from the rocket engines, and then at engine ignition, all
of the flame exhaust gas and steamfrom vaporizing water is going to get pushed
(01:49):
below the surface of the launchpad intoa trench. The angles of the concrete
down there are going to divert allof this energy and matter out to the
side, away from the rocket.Sounds pretty simple, and that's because it
kind of is. The goal hereis just to contain the energy and gas
from the launch and move it asfar away from the rocket as possible.
(02:10):
This is the way that pretty muchall rockets have been launched since the late
nineteen fifties. Not much has changeduntil now. The ground system responsible for
launching the Starship is an incredibly complexcollection of infrastructure. This launch complex is
often referred to as Stage zero,which is to imply that the ground infrastructure
(02:31):
is just as much a part ofthe starship rocket as the booster and the
orbiter. For our purpose here,we are going to break stage zero up
into the key components and then tackleeach one individually. There are now four
pillars to the Starship launch process,the tank farm, the flame diverter,
the launch mount, and the launchtower. Each one serves a vital purpose
(02:52):
in getting the Starship super Heavy fullyintegrated, launch prepped, and into the
air. The tank farm is prettyself explanatory. It's a collection of large
tanks that just sits a few metersaway from the launch tower. The original
idea here was to build Starship's externaltanks in the same way that SpaceX built
the internal tanks, by vertically stackingnine meter diameter rings of stainless steel maximum
(03:15):
efficiency, and then, because thetank farm needs to hold cryogenic liquid for
long durations of time, each stainlesssteel stack was covered over by an insulating
sheath. This ground system allows SpaceXto rapidly tank and detank the Starship and
super Heavy for everything from cryoproofing andstatic fire testing to full orbital launch.
(03:36):
Again, if we are looking forefficiency, then we want to find it
the shortest path between two points,and it doesn't get much shorter than this.
Many people said that SpaceX was crazyfor placing these giant, vertical standing
tanks right next to the most powerfulrocket ever made, and many people were
correct on that one. SpaceX quicklyrealized that using vertical methane tanks was wildly
(03:59):
unsafe, so those were long agoconverted to the narrow horizontal cylinders that we
see today. The remaining vertical tanksare used to hold liquid oxygen, liquid
nitrogen, and water, but theywill soon be replaced by horizontal tanks as
well. We've seen the exterior shieldsof the tank farm battered and crumpled by
the force of each Starship launch,even when they weren't getting chunks of concrete
(04:21):
thrown at them. So the tankfarm is not moving any further away,
but it will be redesigned to becomea lot less prone to damage. Speaking
of damage, we get to themost exciting innovation at Starbase, the brand
new flame diverter system and blast surface. When it came time to build the
launch pad at Starbase many years ago, SpaceX decided they were going to hold
(04:43):
true to one of Elon's most famousmantras, the best part is no part.
So therefore, instead of building thewater deluge system and flame diverting trench
that we saw earlier, SpaceX builtnone of those things. Did this make
their launchpad better? No, Butwhat it did do was I SpaceX a
lot more time to develop a betterflame diverter system. The deal here is
(05:04):
that Elon and crew were gambling thata reinforced concrete pad would be sturdy enough
to get them through starship development,suborbital testing, booster static fires, and
even the first orbital launch attempt.But it was never meant to be a
permanent solution, and Elon was mostlyright. As usual, The concrete was
(05:24):
good enough for everything right up untilthe moment of liftoff on April twentieth,
twenty twenty three, at which timethe thirty functioning raptor engines on Booster seven
throttled up and shattered the blast surface, which then allowed something like twelve million
pounds of force to get under theground and emerge spectacularly as a tornado of
rock, dust, concrete, andtwisted metal. As bad as that looked,
(05:46):
SpaceX was already way ahead on developingthe solution to the problem before it
even happened. Enter the showerhead,a water cooled steel sandwich that functions as
a flame diverter, shock absorb andblast surface all in one. With the
launchpad area now freshly excavated via rocketengines, SpaceX set to work on their
(06:08):
ultimate solution. Seeing the full powerof the super heavy booster in action was
obviously a humbling experience, so nochances were taken with the construction of the
new launch surface. The first thingengineers did was place nine four foot diameter
concrete rebar columns directly underneath the boosterengines. They were planted thirty five meters
(06:28):
deep into the ground. These arecalled piles. They are going to transfer
the energy from the surface deep intothe ground. Then around the immediate perimeter
of the launchpad there are another twelvesecondary piles, and outside of that are
eleven more tertiary piles. This willevenly distribute and dissipate the energy into the
mass of the Earth. On topof the piles is another structure called the
(06:51):
pile cap. This begins with amassive network of rebar The mesh of steel
is used to tie all of thevertical columns together, so the thirty two
piles and six legs of the launchmount are all brought together as one massive
support system. On the top ofthe rebar structure, SpaceX welds steel integration
plates that will be used to attachthe shower head into the support system,
(07:14):
and then they fill the pile capwith concrete. The base layer takes one
hundred and thirty two mixer trucks andeleven hours to lay one thousand cubic meters
of concrete. This creates a slabone point eight meters thick. On top
of that goes another eight hundred andfifty cubic meters of material for an upper
layer that's two point two meters thick. Next, SpaceX attaches their water supply
(07:36):
manifolds into the pile cap. Thesewill distribute high pressure water into the shower
head. Water comes into the systemthrough a pair of four foot diameter pipes.
The pile cap is topped off withthe steel sandwich. This is two
plates of high strength steel between onepoint five and two inches thick. The
top plate is perforated to create waterjets, and in between the two are
(08:00):
vertical steel beams with holes cut intothem to allow water flow. Obviously,
you're not going to get one continuoussheet of steel that size, so the
core of the top plate is cutinto a hexagon shape and it's surrounded by
trapezoid shapes on all sides. Wecan see from the operation of this system
that the water isn't distributed equally acrossthe plate. The flow is concentrated in
(08:20):
the center and directly underneath each ofthe booster's engine nozzles. We can also
see that these central waterjets are firingoutwards at a shallow angle of around thirty
degrees, while the outer jets arepointed at a steeper angle of around sixty
degrees. The point of this waterflow is not to cancel out the downward
momentum of the exhaust gas, butto simply help in quickly redirecting the gas
(08:43):
outwards to release pressure. The waterjets transfer their momentum into the exhaust plume,
and the energy released by converting waterinto steam is going to help accelerate
that exhaust away from the blast surface. The remaining water that is driven down
to the surface of the plate willform an insulating layer of liquid and steam
to absorb the thermal energy. Ofthe engine flame and keep the plate at
(09:07):
a manageable temperature. Because there areso many holes in the top plate,
it would be virtually impossible for steamto get trapped inside the shower head and
therefore cause a pressure explosion. Allof the energy hitting that steel plate is
being transferred into the bile cap anddistributed evenly down through the piles into the
earth, so none of the concreteis going to crack and break. The
(09:28):
water for the flame diverter is comingfrom a collection of seven horizontal water tanks
that sit just behind the launch tower. The high pressure flow of water is
created by injecting nitrogen gas into thetop of the water and tank, forcing
the liquid out through the bottom.SpaceX uses seventy six nitrogen gas canisters that
each contain somewhere between three and sixthousand psi of pressure. The combined volume
(09:54):
of this water is one point fourmillion liters, and that provides eight second
of maximum water flow, just enoughtime for Starship to throttle up and clear
the launch mount. Let's move upwardsfrom the blast surface to the orbital launch
mount. This is yet another incrediblycomplex machine. When a super heavy booster
(10:15):
is lowered onto the launch mount.The structure is held in place by a
series of twenty clamps all around thecircumference. These are mechanical units that can
fold in and out as needed,and they are able to hold down the
massive rocket for days at a timeas tests and prep work is performed.
Alongside each clamp is another mechanism thatwill connect and interface with each of the
(10:37):
twenty outer ring engines on the booster. These are miniature quickness connect arms that
are used to spin, start,and ignite the outer ring of booster engines.
This is essentially taking equipment out ofthe rocket and moving it into the
launch mount, thereby making each boostercheaper and easier to manufacture. The orbital
launch mount is absolutely loaded with anintricate network of plumbing that we can't even
(11:01):
begin to properly explain here. Butsome other key functions of the ground system
are pre chilling the raptor engine sothat they don't experience thermal shock from the
cryogenic propellant, and pressurizing the tanksthat are hidden underneath the aerodynamic chines of
the booster. There are pressurized nitrogentanks for restarting the booster engines after stage
(11:22):
separation and pressurized co two tanks forfire suppression in the engine bay. Then
on top of the launch mount isone singular umbilical arm that is responsible for
sending liquid oxygen and liquid methane intothe booster's tanks. At the moment of
lift off, all of these differentconnection systems will instantly retract from the booster
(11:43):
and snap back behind plates of steelarmor to protect them from the world's largest
blow torch as it ascends into thesky, moving up again, way up
to the towering steel structure that isknown around Starbase as the Mechazilla. At
one hundred and forty five meters inheight, this is by far the most
intense launch tower ever constructed, andit has to be because this one doesn't
(12:05):
just hold the rocket steady as itprepares for launch. The Mechazilla is a
machine in itself that can lift boththe booster and ship from the ground and
stack them on the launch mount.One key characteristic of Starship is that the
rocket needs to be kept vertical atall times. If you tipped it over
on one side, the body wouldcrumble under its own weight. So in
(12:28):
the past this meant that a cranehad to accompany each ship and booster to
the launch mount for every stack andd stack event. This can get very
tricky when the Gulf Coast winds pickup, because you don't want a gigantic
rocket swinging like a pendulum on asteel wire. Instead, the mechanized arms
of the launch tower lift the rocketstages off of their transport vehicles and can
(12:50):
hold them securely in any reasonable weathercondition. These chopstick like arms are powered
by a hydraulic drawwork system that SpaceXtook off off of an oil rig.
The company purchased two decommissioned oil drillingplatforms with the idea of converting them into
spaceports. That's not going to happen, but at least they gained something useful
from the deal. The chopsticks havemotorized capture rails on the inside of each
(13:15):
arm. These interface with steel pinson the bodies of the rockets. This
allows ground crews to fine tune therotation and front to back movement of each
rocket to ensure precise integration. Thelaunch tower has its own quick disconnect arm.
This is the umbilical connection that providesfuel and pressurized gas to the upper
stage of the rocket during launch.Prep. Eventually, someday in the not
(13:37):
so distant future, these chopstick armswill also be called into service for an
unprecedented maneuver. The thing about Starshipand Super Heavy is that they are so
incredibly large and massive that trying tointegrate landing legs into the design that would
be sturdy enough to support them wouldbe totally impractical. The landing gear would
(13:58):
introduce so much extra complexity and weightto the rocket that it just wouldn't be
able to serve the purpose it isintended for. Landing the ship stage on
a place like the Moon or Marsis more practical because we are talking about
significantly lower gravity environments than the Earth, so legs are not as much of
an issue there. But when itcomes to landing on the Earth, SpaceX
(14:20):
needs a better way. This iswhere we get to the catch maneuver.
Just like SpaceX offloaded the engine,plumbing and start systems into the launch mount,
they have also offloaded the landing gearinto the tower. So when the
ship and booster return from flight,they are coming straight back to the launch
site. Now before they get anywhereclose to the ground, the engine's landing
(14:43):
burn is going to shelve off themajority of the air speed, so they're
not coming in hot. The rocketis coming down relatively slowly and will gently
settle into a hover, right withinreach of the mechazilla, at which point
the chopsticks close, The pins onthe rocket, hit the catch rails on
the arms, and shock absorbers cradlethe remaining momentum and bring the rocket to
(15:05):
a halt. In theory, thisis genius, but in practice we will
just have to wait and see.One thing's for sure, excitement will be guaranteed.
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