SpaceX wonder; Musk hugs 'Starship Rocket' before it touches ground

NEW YORK: SpaceX's launch tower's mechanised hands have scripted history in space technology by capturing the landed rocket booster before it touched the ground. The amazing achievement in space engineering came in the test launch of the 'Super Heavy' booster, the first stage of the Starship mega rocket. The booster was captured as if the machine hands on the launch pad were embracing it with the precision of threading the needle. This is a huge advantage for billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is testing reusable rockets. Musk himself named these machines 'Mechazilla'. The technical process of capturing the booster was also named chopstick maneuvering. It was the fifth test of the Starship, the world's most powerful rocket.

The launch took place at 5.55 pm (IST) at Star Base in Boca Chica, Texas. The Starship rocket has a height of 397 feet with both stages combined. The super heavy booster is 233 feet. Following the launch, the super-heavy booster separated at an altitude of 70 km and fell into the launch pad and the upper stage splashed into the Indian Ocean.

The landing of the booster took place 7 minutes after the launch. Three of the 33 Raptor engines were re-ignited to slow down the descent. The booster was hugged by two giant metal hands on top of the launchpad tower, which is more than 400 meters high. The booster had exploded in the first three experiments. In the fourth test, the booster separated from the Starship and landed in the Gulf of Mexico.

Super Starship

• The goal is to bring humans to the Moon and Mars in the future, and, if possible, beyond
• Travel to different corners of the earth may also be possible
• Introduced by Elon Musk in 2017
• The world's first fully reusable rocket
• Starship could be used in NASA's Artemis-3 mission to take humans to the moon after half a century
• The tallest launch vehicle ever built
• Total height - 397 ft
• Weight - 5,000 tons
• Can carry a maximum of 100 people.