SpaceX's Super Heavy Booster Avoids Disaster with Near-Miss Abortion During Historic Landing
October 30, 2024
- While uncertain about catching Super Heavy again, SpaceX plans to attempt recovering the Starship upper stage for the first time. 
- SpaceX has not yet confirmed a date for the sixth Starship test flight, which is expected to occur later this year. 
- The booster catch is critical to SpaceX's long-term goal of sending humans to Mars in the near future. 
- Although new abort protocols were confirmed to be in place, the incident highlighted the inherent risks involved in the operation. 
- Engineers discussed damage sustained by the Super Heavy during landing, including failed spot welds that thankfully did not affect its overall structure. 
- Plans for the next Starship launch were outlined, focusing on balancing speed and risk mitigation, including addressing the damaged welds with a protective cover called the chine skin. 
- Musk indicated that SpaceX's next Starship launch could occur in early 2025, with plans to also catch the upper stage in future missions. 
- SpaceX achieved a significant milestone by successfully landing the Super Heavy first stage back at the company's Mechazilla launch tower after its fifth Starship launch. 
- The highlight of this flight was the attempted catch of the Super Heavy booster using a launch tower equipped with 'chopstick' arms. 
- During a live stream of him playing Diablo 4, Elon Musk was informed by three SpaceX engineers about a close call during the test, revealing they were 'one second away' from triggering an abort. 
- The landing was nearly aborted due to a misconfigured spin gas abort system, which risked sending an erroneous command to crash the rocket instead of catching it. 
- If the abort had been activated, the rocket would have attempted to crash land nearby to minimize potential damage to the launch infrastructure. 
Summary based on 2 sources
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Sources

ExtremeTech • Oct 29, 2024
SpaceX Starship Booster Almost Aborted Historic Landing At Last Second
TESLARATI • Oct 29, 2024
SpaceX almost ditched the insane Starship booster catch at the last second
