SpaceX tests Mechazilla catch of Super Heavy B22 booster ahead of Starship Flight 15
SpaceX published photos of ground tests in which the Super Heavy B22 booster was lifted to catch height. Flight 15 is planned for 14 November, but the FAA licence has not yet been issued.
SpaceX has published photos of preparation for the 15th Starship test flight, ixbt.com reports. The photos show the Super Heavy B22 booster, for which the company ran ground tests of capture by the Mechazilla tower ixbt.com
ixbt.comixbt.comOpen source ↗. B22 is the first Super Heavy V3 booster planned to return and be caught by the mechanical arms of the launch tower.
Ground test of the catch
During the tests the booster was raised to the planned catch height to rehearse the operations that follow its return. Specialists checked the sequence of actions using the Mechazilla arms. SpaceX has successfully caught previous-generation boosters several times, but for Super Heavy V3 this attempt will be the first.
Flight 15 plan
Launch is scheduled for 14 November Moscow time, between 01:45 and 03:00. Three days remained before the mission at the time of the report, but the FAA licence had not yet been issued, and without the regulator's approval the launch cannot take place. For the first time, SpaceX intends to return both stages of the orbital rocket to the launch site: the Super Heavy booster and the Starship ship.
According to the mission plan, Starship is to reach an orbit of about 275 km and spend more than 22 hours there, making about 14 orbits of Earth. The ship is also to place 26 Starlink V3 satellites in orbit. According to SpaceX, each will provide about 1 Tbit/s of additional network capacity, and the whole batch about 26 Tbit/s ixbt.com
ixbt.comixbt.comOpen source ↗. Three of the satellites will also be fitted with cameras to film the Starship heat shield during reentry into the atmosphere.
