SpaceX erwägt nach glückverheißendem Ende des 13. Flugs den Tower-Catch für das nächste Raumschiff | SpaceX wird wahrscheinlich versuchen, Starship bei seinem nächsten Flug wieder an der Startrampe einzufangen.

>SpaceX was more than lucky Friday, sending its 13th full-scale Starship test flight halfway around the world from South Texas to an on-target, intact splashdown in a remote section of the Indian Ocean.

>Starship has made precise splashdowns before. This time, however, the ship gently tipped over and came to rest floating in a remote stretch of ocean west of Australia. Previous splashdowns ended with conflagrations, an outcome SpaceX officials have come to expect with each water landing of Starship.

>The buoyant Starship looked to be in fine shape after reaching the Indian Ocean. SpaceX engineers flew drones over the vehicle to inspect its heat shield, getting their best look yet at how more than 18,000 ceramic tiles insulating the ship’s stainless steel airframe weathered the trip to space and back. The tiles withstood temperatures up to 2,600° Fahrenheit (1,430° Celsius) as Starship streaked back into the atmosphere at the end of its hour-long flight from Starbase, Texas.

>Encouraged by the picture-perfect end to Friday’s flight, SpaceX is likely to take the next leap with Starship on the next launch, according to the company’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk. That would entail hurling Starship on a longer-range trajectory, perhaps into low-Earth orbit, to bring the vehicle back to the launch site. Mechanical arms on the launch tower will attempt to capture the ship as it slows to a hover. SpaceX has already done this with the rocket’s massive Super Heavy booster, which is larger and heavier than Starship itself, but comes back at a fraction of the speed.

>“Unless we discover problems after mission data review, SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower on next flight,” Musk wrote on X Friday evening.

Did they switch to catching instead of landing, or is this just a temporary solution for testing?

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I don’t really know much about the FAA or regulation in general, but do we already know if they flight plan will be approved ?
I say this because the reentry trajectory has to be above land before reaching the landing site. I wonder how the risk is assessed.

Where is starship now? Did they sink it? I haven’t seen confirmation either way.

I’m quite curious what is causing booster v3 so many issues witb relight, when the v3 ship has be3n performing basically perfectly