Precision Landing: SpaceX's Rocket Booster Return

By Gabriel Vermut

The Lawrenceville School

The company SpaceX set another record at the forefront of space exploration when it successfully made a reusable rocket booster land with precision. On October 13th, SpaceX engineers successfully caught the returning booster from a rocket with giant mechanical arms on the launchpad. Indeed, this innovation minimizes the cost and environmental footprint of the space mission, while underscoring the company's commitment to finding creative solutions for sustainable travel in space.

Conventionally, rocket boosters were expended after launching their payloads into orbit, plunging into the ocean to become part of the accumulating waste. Space travel was expensive and enormously wasteful, with engineers needing to build entirely new boosters for every launch. But that is entirely different with SpaceX's reusable rocket technology. SpaceX aims to lower the cost per launch drastically by reflown boosters multiple times, making space exploration a lot more viable and economical. According to SpaceX, reusability can cut down launch costs as much as 30%, which could allow missions to space to be more frequent and economically viable.

Image of SpaceX Rocket Booster Returning to the launch pad in a precision maneuver

Wall, M. (2024, October 13). SpaceX catches giant Starship booster with “Chopsticks” on historic Flight 5 rocket launch and landing (video). Space.com; Space. https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-flight-5-launch-super-heavy-booster-catch-success-video

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The engineering behind the reusable rockets at SpaceX is an engineering wonder of human ingenuity. For example, the Falcon 9 rocket has very high-order grid fins and engine relight systems. These enable the vehicle to guide itself in and brake its fall as it comes in for a landing on solid ground. On October 13, the booster ran a precision maneuver with real-time data from onboard sensors leading it back to the launch pad in autonomous operation. The massive mechanical arms, named "Mechazilla," then caught the booster mid-air, intercepting any need for it to touch down to enable safer recovery. This unconventional way of "catching" rockets precludes wear and tear, as landing on solid surfaces does. Further, this helps in elongating the life of reusable boosters even further.

The ramifications of this development are far-reaching. So, the possibilities for lowering launch costs open up a whole new range of space missions: research, launching satellites, and even commercial space tourism. Projects once out of reach-creating a permanent human presence on Mars or constructing space habitats-might now be within reach as mission costs go down. It can also help scientific research while making access to space affordable by increasing significantly the number of experiments in microgravity and launching telescopes, among other observational equipment.

Image from onboard SpaceX Flight 5 Starship as it reenters Earth's atmosphere, with red glowing plasma around it.

Wall, M. (2024, October 13). SpaceX catches giant Starship booster with “Chopsticks” on historic Flight 5 rocket launch and landing (video). Space.com; Space. https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-flight-5-launch-super-heavy-booster-catch-success-video

Looking ahead, the possible impact on space travel is revolutionary: the more refined the technology of reusable rockets, the more frequent missions could be with unprecedented frequencies that will further accelerate the exploration of our solar system and beyond. Furthermore, the leaps taken by SpaceX may well encourage some degree of competition from other aerospace companies-a competition that drives further innovation, propelling humanity toward a future where space travel is not only a scientific endeavor but also a commercial reality.