WLJ: I've been following the Starship campaign in Boca very closely, and I'm at odds with some other fans regarding one point of development. Was curious if you have any concrete information one way or another on this.
The Tower that was built at Boca is referred to by SpaceX as "Stage 0." Its intention is to facilitate rapid and repeatable integration of Booster to Starship, provide fueling fixtures, get out of the way for launch, then prepare to catch the Booster about 5 minutes after launch and redeposit it on the launch mount again. It can pick up another Starship that is delivered to it by a crane or SPMT and integrate that new Starship into the Booster for a new launch.
The point of disagreement we have is that I argue that the Tower as-is is incapable of catching a Starship, and so Starship will have landing legs until Tower and Starship integration/recovery development is completed to allow for deletion of legs from the second stage vehicle. In support of this, I have found many quotes from SpaceX talking about how the Tower integrates both separate vehicles but when talking about recovery they very specifically say that the Booster is caught by the Tower, neglecting to say anything about the Starship. These are from 2022, very recent.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1491964480581898241The launch tower at Starbase will help stack Starship and catch the Super Heavy rocket booster
The opposing argument I face declares that Starship will be caught by the Tower, from the get-go. They cite quotes from Musk from April of 2021, way before the Tower was built, as their evidence. But it's an aspirational quote, where he says he'd prefer to just snatch the ship out of the air in free-fall if he could in the same sentence.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1379876450744995843?t=sXcMt1RZX7spWlnyi8P-fAIdeal scenario imo is catching Starship in horizontal “glide” with no landing burn, although that is quite a challenge for the tower! Next best is catching with tower, with emergency pad landing mode on skirt (no legs).
There's a very talented visual artist who has been following Starship closely, Ryan Hansen, who has a youtube channel where he renders things from Boca Chica as observed by NSF and other freelance reporters. He has a fantastic video on the interfaces between the Tower, the Booster, and Starship. And there's absolutely no way that the current Tower/Chopstick design can catch the current Starship design. It's a ball and socket connection that requires IMMENSE precision to engage. It's just not going to happen in propulsive descent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqCDgjaDWLsDo you have any source regarding Starship's immediate operational recovery plans? Obviously B4/S20 are both going to be expended into the Gulf and the Pacific, but the next flights should test the Tower for recovery of the booster, and the Starship for reentry integrity and landing approach authority.
