Why SpaceX Will Catch Super Heavy

Video from the channel Primal Space about Super Heavy, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 10:07. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

A 2021 explainer on why and how SpaceX wants to catch the Super Heavy booster with arms mounted on the launch tower instead of landing it on legs.

In 2013 SpaceX announced it would try to recover the Falcon 9's first stage, including on barges at sea. After years of testing, landing became routine and, according to the video, saved more than $1.4 billion over five years. With the SN8 flight still recent, Elon Musk announced on Twitter the idea of catching the Super Heavy at the end of its approach. It isn't the first catch proposal: Rocket Lab plans to recover the Electron with a helicopter, and in the 1960s NASA studied doing the same with the Saturn V's first stage.

The initial plan was to land on the launch mount itself. A platform with at least six legs was then considered, which would have accounted for around 10% of the booster's mass on landing and required inspections like those on the Falcon 9. Without legs, weight and turnaround time between flights are saved. With more engines, the Super Heavy can lower its thrust-to-weight ratio to 1 and hover, something the Falcon 9 cannot do. The arms would hold the booster by its grid fins, already very strong in that direction, shifting the cushioning to the catch system. After the catch, the booster would be lowered onto the mount to secure, empty and inspect it, with the leftover methane returned to the ground tanks.