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an updated document submitted by spacex to the us federal communications commission fcc has
revealed details about the company's plan for the first starship booster catch attempt the document
follows a different batch submitted by spacex in june 2021 when the company detailed its plans for
starships orbital launch debut as background while requesting permission from the fcc to use starlink
dishes for in-flight telemetry a month earlier a different request focused on more standard
telemetry antennas had already revealed that even if the mission went perfectly starship
would not fully reach orbit on its first attempted space flight it also confirmed that spacex had no
intention of recovering the upper stage or super heavy booster assigned to starships launch debut
a sort of implicit acknowledgement that success was then not expected on the first try twelve
months later spacex has submitted an updated overview of starship's orbital launch debut
in a new request for permission to use multiple starlink dishes on both stages while most of the
document is the same a few particular details have changed about super heavy's role in the mission
this time around spacex says that the super heavy booster will separate perform a partial
return and land in the gulf of mexico will return to star base and be caught by the launch tower
prior to this document spacex's best case plans for the first super heavy booster to launch never
strayed from a controlled splashdown in the gulf of mexico potentially demonstrating that it would
be safe to attempt booster recovery on the next launch but all but guaranteeing that the first
booster would be lost at sea a year later spacex appears to be a bit more confident and wants to
leave itself the option to attempt to recover the first super heavy booster that launches
however the company has dramatically complicated the process of testing early super heavy and
starship recovery and thus reuse by fully removing traditional and predictable landing
legs and designing its latest prototypes such that the only way they can be recovered in one piece
is with a giant mechanized launch tower nicknamed mechazilla the launch tower and
its three mobile arms will play a crucial role in all aspects of orbital starship launches
the first arm swings out to brace super heavy for starship installation connect the upper
stage to power propellant supplies and other launch pad utilities a more exotic pair of arms
nicknamed chopsticks has a more complex job on top of using the chopsticks to lift stack
and demate starships and super heavy boosters in almost any weather and wind conditions
spacex wants to use the arms as an incredibly complex and precarious rocket recovery system
for a booster or starship catch the rocket will approach the tower enter the gap between the
splayed arms hover in place while the arms close around it and eventually come to rest on hard
points that appear to offer about as much surface area as a coffee table based on a simulation of
the process shown by elon musk calling it a catch is a misnomer as the arms will mainly move in one
dimension and can't actually grab the rocket in any real sense as built and shown they are
closer to a tiny fixed landing platform capable of minor last second positional adjustments
eventually the chopsticks could shave a small amount of time off of post recovery processing
removing the need for a crane or the same arms to attach to a landed booster or ship they could
also shave off the dry mass required for landing legs though all interplanetary ships will still
need legs however they will also inherently make proving their own efficacy a nightmare
by all appearances the current recovery mechanisms on the arms and the landing hard points on ships
and boosters mean that a catch could fail if either stage is more than a foot or two from
a perfect bullseye or rotated a few degrees in the wrong direction with the method spacex
has devised even the tiniest error could easily end with a massive pressurized partially fueled
rocket destroying the chopsticks and plummeting a few hundred feet to the ground guaranteeing
an explosion that could damage surrounding infrastructure or start fires that might
in the event of larger anomalies during a landing attempt starship or super heavy could accidentally
impact the launch tower damaging or even outright destroying the skyscraper size structure
ultimately the immense risk posed by any catch attempt means that unless spacex has miraculously
gotten the design of everything involved nearly perfect on its first try the company will have
to be extraordinarily cautious and expend a large number of ships and boosters to avoid rendering
its only starship launch tower unusable at least to some extent spacex likely knows this and super
heavy would likely need to be an excellent health and perform perfectly during the ascent and boost
back portions of its launch debut to be cleared for a catch attempt ultimately starship's first
orbital launch could end up being even more of a spectacle than it's already guaranteed to be
rocket lab has delivered another spacecraft to orbit for the u.s national reconnaissance office
nro which operates the nation's fleet of spy satellites
a rocket lab electron booster topped with the nrl 162 spacecraft lifted off from the
company's new zealand site on wednesday july 13th at 2 30 a.m eastern daylight time about
an hour later the electrons kick stage deployed nrl 162 into earth orbit as planned rocket lab
founder and ceo peter beck confirmed via twitter kicking off the satellites mystery mission nrol
162 will strengthen the nro's ability to provide a wide range of timely intelligence information to
national decision makers and intelligence analysts to protect the united states vital interests and
support humanitarian efforts worldwide rocket lab wrote in a description of wednesday's mission
nrol 162 is a joint effort of the nro and the australian department of defense rocket lab
will launch another mission developed by these two organizations soon if all goes according to plan
nrl 199 is scheduled to lift off atop an electron from new zealand as early as july 23rd
the nrol 162 and 199 missions are the latest examples of the nro's commitment to enhancing
relationships with u.s allies and partners and demonstrate the nro's capability to launch
multiple rockets from overseas locations back to back rocket lab wrote in the mission description
the nrl 162 flight which rocket lab called wise one looks ahead was just the latest
in a string of national security missions that the company has launched for the u s government
in january 2020 for example an electron launched the nro's classified nrl 151 satellite and in
june of that year rocket lab lofted three more hush hush payloads for the spy agency
wise one looks ahead was the 28th launch overall for electron a 58 foot tall rocket designed to
give small satellites dedicated rides to earth orbit electron has two main stages plus the small
kick stage which delivers customer payloads to their precise orbital destinations electron can
also be outfitted with photon an evolved version of the kick stage to get spacecraft even farther
afield for example a photon equipped electron launched nasa's tiny capstone cubesat toward
the moon on june 28th capstone deployed as planned from the photon on july 4th and is
now making its long and looping way to lunar orbit with arrival scheduled for november 13th
several other launches will follow closely on the heels of wise one looks ahead if all goes to plan
rocket lab is working to make the electrons first stage reusable
recovering boosters for inspection and analysis on several previous missions
there was no booster recovery on wise one looks ahead however and that wraps up today's episode we
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