Starship Booster’s Historic Capture Came Just Seconds from Fiery Disaster

The world watched in awe as SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster made a historic achievement with the first-ever tower capture landing following the Starship 5 mission launch. However, few realized just how close the event came to disaster—within just one second.

This capture of Super Heavy, the massive first stage of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, was a milestone moment that many will remember for years. Regardless of the Starship program’s challenges or potential, this controlled and powered landing on the Mechzilla tower marked a historic achievement. The enormous booster, even larger than the Saturn V rocket’s first stage, gracefully approached and settled into the gigantic steel arms of the launch tower that had sent it on its mission.

Only later did it emerge that the landing nearly ended in a crash. In an unexpectedly casual revelation on X (formerly Twitter), SpaceX founder Elon Musk posted a video of himself playing a computer game while discussing the recent launch with a staff member. The conversation revealed previously unknown details about the tense moments of Starship 5’s return.

We Were One Second Away from a Misconfigured Abort Causing a Crash Near the Tower

The unnamed team member disclosed, “I want to be upfront about the scary sh** that happened and our focus moving forward to Flight Six.” He continued, “We were one second away from a misconfigured spin gas abort, which would have told the rocket to abort and attempt a crash next to the tower rather than landing on the tundra.”

The video highlighted that a go/no-go abort error nearly triggered a command for the rocket’s flight control system to halt the landing, mistaking the healthy rocket for an issue and initiating an abort protocol. Had this occurred, Super Heavy would likely have crashed at the Boca Chica, Texas, spaceport rather than diverting to sea or desert.

Such last-minute aborts are common in the high-stakes world of space missions. The team member noted that they’d faced over “100 aborts that were not trivial” during Starship 5, which nearly delayed the flight. The team plans an extensive review before the already FAA-approved Flight 6. With this approval, SpaceX gains the flexibility to proceed with preparations independently, rather than coordinating with U.S. government schedules.

Read Original Article: New Atlas

Read More: Scitke