Elon Musk unveils catch and quick release plan for SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster

Elon Musk is known for revealing ambitious plans, and the latter suggests that the Startship’s Super Heavy booster will not land, but will be caught when it returns to Earth.

The SpaceX CEO shared on Twitter that the heavy booster, which is still under development, will be retrieved by the launch tower arm used to stabilize the vehicle during take-off preparations.

The proposed method would immediately place the booster on the launch mount so that it can fly again ‘within an hour’.

SpaceX is working on the Super Heavy rocket at its testing facility in Boca Chica, Texas, but plans to conduct more test flights of its Starship prototypes that are without the massive booster.

Starship consists of two: the Super Heavy booster and the rocket ship that Musk designed to transport up to 100 people to Mars at once.

Scroll down for video

Now that SpaceX has launched three of the Starship prototypes into the air, it looks like the company is starting to plan how the process will work when the booster is added.

Musk’s ambitious plan would be a way to cut costs and mass by eliminating the need for the booster to have legs to land.

However, if the CEO wants to achieve his goal of sending a million people to Mars by 2025, SpaceX will have to launch multiple Starships in one day.

When the tower arm catches the booster, it immediately goes back into ‘ready’ mode, allowing it to take off again within an hour.

The last spaceship to test flight, serial number 8 (SN8), was considered the most successful launch, but it was also the most destructive.

The world turned to Dec. 10 to watch the massive rocket take off from Boca Chica with the goal of reaching 41,000 feet into the sky – the highest ‘hop’ of any spaceship.

The takeoff of the spacecraft prototype took about six minutes before the engines shut down and the SN8 began its journey back to the launch pad.

The world was on the edge of their seats as the rocket approached the ground – wondering if Musk’s prediction of a bumpy landing would turn out to be correct.

When Starship finally landed, it ignited in flames – and once the fire and smoke cleared, all that was left was a lot of debris and on top of it what was left of the craft’s nose cone.

Musk shared his enthusiasm for the launch on Twitter, writing, “Successful takeoff, switch to head tanks, and accurate flap control to touchdown!”

‘The fuel head pressure was low on landing, making the landing speed high and RUD, but we have all the data we needed! Congratulations SpaceX team damn !! ‘

The CEO later thanked South Texas for their support in a separate tweet, followed by another saying, ‘Mars, here we come !!’

In the past year alone, SpaceX has completed two low-altitude flight tests with SN5 and SN6 and more than 16,000 seconds of run time while starting the ground engine.

Plus, as production accelerates and reliability increases, SpaceX has built 10 Starship prototypes. SN9 is almost ready to hit the pad, which now has two active standards for rapid development testing, ”the company said.

The landing is one of the most important aspects – as it must be fully reusable to achieve the goals and price per flight set by the SpaceX team.

There are a number of potential uses for Starship – including deploying hundreds of satellites in orbit at the same time and landing astronauts on the Moon and Mars.