Tomorrow afternoon, SpaceX is attempting to repeat the incredible and catch its second Starship booster using the two arms on the launch tower. This is a daring task, as the catch can go wrong if the booster is only a few inches off; also, no one really wants to be that close to what is basically a massive missile. But SpaceX is once again keeping a human-in-the-loop before a catch attempt is given the GO.
Update: Starship Flight 6: SpaceX launches a banana into space
I’m not sure anyone watching Flight 5 walked away disappointed, and for the first time in a while, we got to have that SpaceX wow factor. Once again, SpaceX did something that you could only imagine in science fiction: catch a booster using massive arms.
The catch was not, however, a guarantee. It was actually more surprising they succeeded on the first try; SpaceX has a history of having some spectacular early landing attempts. In fact, it came very close to failing, a call Elon Musk shared to X detailed they were seconds away from aborting the landing altogether, crashing into the wetlands nearby. This would cause large amounts of damage not just to the environment but also to the pad infrastructure SpaceX has spent so much time building.
This is why SpaceX is keeping a human-in-the-loop on the decisions on landing Super Heavy once again for Flight 6. This is a rare deviation from SpaceX’s normal flight procedures that have historically favored computer-controlled decisions rather than humans. Humans are extremely slow, especially compared to computers.
For example, that seconds away from failure, Flight 5’s booster might seem quick for humans, but for a computer, that was years away. Computers can make millions of decisions a second, checking sensors and comparing them to flight rules instantly. So if Starship had had a last-second issue, it would have been a computer to catch it well before a human did.
However, that “human-in-the-loop” still exists just for the added gut-check we’re still much better at than computers. During ascent, Starship’s flight director will have the final say if a catch attempt will take place. This call has to be made before the boost-back burn is complete, so between T+2:44 and T+3:38. SpaceX says both the booster and launch tower will need to be entirely ready for the GO to be given.
A second successful landing still isn’t guaranteed. Even the Falcon 9 has had a stumble or two in landing its booster on barges or ground pads; catching Super Heavy is way… way more complicated. However, it is now safe to say that the catch is possible; we no longer have to hope and pray that SpaceX didn’t completely lose its mind dreaming this idea up.
Now they just have to catch the ship… from space. Easy.
