SpaceX video shows potential Starship booster “catch” on next flight

In a short video released Thursday, presumably to celebrate America’s July 4th holiday with the red glow of the biggest rocket of them all, SpaceX provided new footage of the latest test of its Starship launch vehicle.

The test, the fourth of an experimental rocket NASA plans to use to land its astronauts on the moon and possibly one day take humans to Mars, took place on June 6. During the flight, the rocket’s first stage performed well during ascent and made a controlled return to the Gulf of Mexico after separating from the upper stage. The starship’s upper stage appeared to make a nominal flight through space before making a controlled – albeit fiery – landing in the Indian Ocean.

The new video focuses mainly on the “Super Heavy” booster and its entry into the Persian Gulf. There is new footage from the camera on top of the 71 meter high first stage as well as a nearby buoy on the water surface. In particular, video from the buoy shows the first stage landing upright in the ocean.

Perhaps most interestingly, at the end of the video, SpaceX teases an image of the Starship’s large launch tower in South Texas at the Starbase facility. Most prominent are the two “wands”, large arms designed to catch the first stage booster as it slowly descends back to the launch pad.

Then, in simulated footage, the video shows the first stage of the starship descending back to the launch tower, named “Flight 5”. And then it goes off.

To land or not to land?

This supports the idea that SpaceX is working on trying to catch the Starship booster on its next flight test, which is likely to take place later this summer. The company undoubtedly has technical and regulatory work to do before that happens.

In the days immediately following the fourth flight test, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the company aimed to make such a landing attempt on the next launch. However, during an interview last week with local residents in South Texas, Starbase CEO Kathy Lueders said that such an attempt might not happen with Flight 5.

However, a new video released Thursday suggests that a capture attempt is still on the table as a possibility, and perhaps even a probability. Such a landing would be both visually stunning and a calculated risk to SpaceX’s launch tower infrastructure, as the booster would likely land with several spare tons of methane and liquid oxygen in its tanks.

If SpaceX decides to go ahead with the attempt, it still needs to get a launch and re-entry permit from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is tasked with ensuring the safety of people and property on the ground. It seems likely that the next test flight won’t happen until August.

Meanwhile, airfield activities in South Texas may be limited for several days as Hurricane Beryl enters the Gulf of Mexico later Friday before heading toward the Texas coast early next week. The center of Beryl is expected to pass near or north of the launch site late Sunday night or Monday, bringing winds and waves.

However, since Beryl is not expected to be a major hurricane in terms of wind speed, these effects should not prove catastrophic for SpaceX’s facilities. Heavy rainfall and inland flooding in the low-lying Starbase area is also possible Monday and Tuesday before the storm moves away.