SpaceX nails first Super Heavy booster catch!

At 12:25 pm Universal Coordinated Time, SpaceX launched its Starship-Super Heavy vehicle on its fifth flight test. This test flight once again occurred from Starbase's launch site, near Boca Chica in south Texas.

Super Heavy Booster 12 successfully lit all thirty-three of its Raptor engines, lifting the vehicle skyward. All engines remained running up until 'most engines cut-off'. Following 'most engines cut-off', Ship 30 lit all six of its Raptor engines to hot-stage from the booster.

After Ship 30 separated from the booster, Booster 12 began its boost back burn and relit ten of its engines. The boost back burn lasted until T+3:41 to send the booster back to the launch site.

At T+6:30 Booster 12 relit thirteen engines to start its landing burn, after burning off enough speed the booster kept three engines running. With three engines running, Booster 12 positioned itself between the launch towers 'chopsticks' and successfully became the first Super Heavy booster to be caught!

While the booster was being caught back in Texas, Ship 30 completed its ascent into a barely sub-orbital trajectory. This trajectory sent the vehicle to the targeted reentry site over the Indian Ocean.

After coasting in space for almost forty minutes, plasma began to build in front of Ship 30's heat shield and atmospheric reentry began. During reentry, debris were seen falling from the vehicle, like parts of the heat shield. Some burn-through was spotted with Ship 30's forward and aft flaps, but no major structural failure occurred.

Once Ship 30 successfully passed through reentry, the vehicle began scrubbing off speed in the atmosphere above its targeted landing site. A few hundred meters above the ocean surface, Ship 30 performed its 'flip-and-burn' using three Raptor engines to splashdown softly in the Indian Ocean.

Following splashdown, Ship 30 performed a rapid unscheduled disassembly, ending the fifth flight test. A few hours after the end of the mission, SpaceX said the following:

"Starship’s fifth flight test lifted off on October 13, 2024, with our most ambitious test objectives yet as we work to demonstrate techniques fundamental to Starship and Super Heavy’s fully and rapidly reusable design."

"And on our first try, Mechazilla caught the booster."

"Following a successful liftoff, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and coast, the Super Heavy booster performed its landing burn and was caught by the chopstick arms of the launch and catch tower at Starbase. Thousands of distinct vehicle and pad criteria had to be met prior to the catch attempt, and thanks to the tireless work of SpaceX engineers, we succeeded with catch on our first attempt."

"Prior to catch, Starship executed another successful hot-staging separation, igniting its six Raptor engines and completing ascent into outer space. It coasted along its planned trajectory to the other side of the planet before executing a controlled reentry, passing through the phases of peak heating and maximum aerodynamic pressure, before executing a flip, landing burn, and splashdown at its target area in the Indian Ocean. The flight test concluded at splashdown 1 hour, 5 minutes and 40 seconds after launch."

"The entire SpaceX team should take pride in the engineering feat they just accomplished. The world witnessed what the future will look like when Starship starts carrying crew and cargo to destinations on Earth, the Moon, Mars and beyond."

How does it compare to flight four?

Last time, Super Heavy Booster 11 successfully lit all thirty-three Raptor engines at lift-off, one engine did shut down early at T+4 seconds. The other thirty-two engines did last up until 'most engines cut-off'.

Following the successful hot-staging of Ship 29, Booster 11 completed its 'boost back' burn using thirteen of its engines. Super Heavy Booster 11 passed through its descent toward the Gulf of Mexico with no issues called out. The landing burn began at T+7:08 with twelve out of the required thirteen engines starting. Despite having one engine out, Booster 11 successfully splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico at T+7:30 at a speed of ten kilometers per hour, or six miles per hour. At a similar time, Ship 29 also shut down its engines to reach its targeted landing area.

Atmospheric entry of Ship 29 began at T+45:24 when plasma was seen beginning to build on the heatshield side of the Ship. Flight controllers called out that Ship 29 had control of its entry orientation via its flaps and attitude control system not long after the start of entry. Ship 29 successfully passed through peak heating on entry, proving that the thermal protection tiles can withstand the heat. At T+57:12 however a burn-through was seen beginning on the starboard forward flap of Ship 29, this burn-through would intensify through entry until at least one of its actuators also disintegrated.

To end the last flight, Ship 29 achieved its terminal velocity of 368 kilometers per hour, or 228 miles per hour, at T+1:05:29. Not long after at T+1:05:38 Ship 29 began its 'flip-and-burn' maneuver leading to a successful splashdown in the Indian Ocean at T+1:05:57.

Unlike the third flight, flight four made it to booster and ship splashdown.

What changes were on Ship 30 & Booster 12?

All information in this section was spotted and gathered by the team at the Ringwatchers.

Ship 30

Compared to Ship 29, Ship 30 had an entirely new heatshield applied. This heatshield had an ablative layer beneath the thousands of thermal protection tiles, which were also supposedly stronger. Various gaps in weak spots, such as those that nearly destroyed the starboard forward flap, have also been reduced or filled.

Booster 12

Booster 12 is largely a twin of Booster 11, but a few changes are present. The most visible one was a paint job near the top of the booster. This black paint job was theorized to be a visual indicator of where the towers 'chopsticks' made contact with the vehicle. A new Starlink terminal design was also spotted on top of Booster 12's chines to improve external data connection. Protective material just above the boosters Raptor engines has also been removed.

What is Starship-Super Heavy?

Starship-Super Heavy is SpaceX's in-development fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle and the largest rocket currently flying. SpaceX is currently aiming to have the launch vehicle deliver one-hundred and fifty tons to low Earth orbit while reused or two-hundred and fifty tons when expended, although there are rumors from SpaceX of an expendable payload capacity of three-hundred tons.

On the launch pad, Starship-Super Heavy is one-hundred and twenty-one meters tall and weighs 5,000,000 kilograms fully fuelled. The diameter of both vehicles is nine meters, excluding aerodynamic control surfaces.

What is Starship?

Starship is the second-stage of the Starship-Super Heavy launch vehicle and is planned to be capable of multiple missions into orbit, after a short refurbishment. The vehicle is fifty meters tall and nine meters in diameter, excluding its four aerodynamic control surfaces. Fully fuelled with liquid methane and liquid oyxgen Starship is believed to weigh 1,300,000 kilograms with an approximate weight of 100,000 kilograms unfuelled.

The Starship second-stage is powered by three sea-level Raptor engines along with three vacuum-optimized Raptor engines. These sea-level engines are believed to generate 230 tons of thrust each with the vacuum-optimized engines generating 258 tons of thrust each for a total combined 1,500 tons of thrust for Starship. The vacuum-optimized Raptors are unable to gimbal requiring the sea-level Raptors for control of the second-stage on ascent and landing.

In order to survive re-entry for reuse, Starship has several thousand thermal protection tiles on one side of the vehicle and on all four of its aerodynamic control surfaces. The four control surfaces help guide the vehicle during re-entry and prior to landing inside the atmosphere at a pre-determined location. Starship also has a series of small thrusters to control the vehicle in space before re-entry.

SpaceX is believed to be working on a few variants of Starship for use as a Moon lander, propellant tanker, space station, Mars lander, and as a crewed spacecraft.

What is Super Heavy?

Super Heavy, also called 'the Super Heavy booster', is the first-stage of SpaceX's Starship-Super Heavy launch vehicle. The giant Super Heavy first-stage is planned to be capable of multiple flights per day with minimal refurbishments and inspections. The vehicle is seventy-one meters tall and nine meters in diameter, excluding its four grid fins and chines. Fully fuelled with liquid methane and liquid oyxgen Super Heavy is believed to weigh 3,600,000 kilograms with an approximate mass of 200,000 kilograms unfuelled.

The Super Heavy first-stage is powered by thirty-three sea-level Raptor engines generating a combined thrust of 7,590 tons, with each engine generating 230 tons of thrust. The outer twenty Raptor engines are unable to gimbal with the inner thirteen being able to for control of the first-stage.

To enable the reuse of Super Heavy, the vehicle has four large grid fins placed in the interstage to assist in guiding and controlling during descent. Super Heavy also has four chines running along the lower third of it to generate lift and assist in stabilization.

Shortly after completing the ascent, Super Heavy relights ten engines, as three were running during staging, and performs a 'boost back' burn in order to return to the launch site. After the 'boost back' burn is completed the engines shut down with Super Heavy being guided by a series of small thrusters and its grid fins. Once Super Heavy is at the correct altitude above its landing location three engines start back up for the landing burn. SpaceX currently plans to have Super Heavy land in the ocean with launch site landing attempts happening with later flights.

Super Heavy also features a hot-staging ring atop of it to allow for a faster and simpler staging process, according to SpaceX. The hot-staging ring has dozens of gaps on the sides to allow for the Raptor engine exhaust of Starship to escape.