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The Starship Booster Catch Overview - From Launch Sequence to Mechazilla Arms

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Author: The Principle Lab The Starship Booster Catch Overview - From Launch Sequence to Mechazilla Arms If you have ever typed "how does SpaceX catch the Starship booster" into a search bar, you are not alone. The idea of a skyscraper sized rocket dropping back toward the launch pad and ending up in a pair of steel arms sounds closer to animation than routine engineering. This overview walks through what actually happens from liftoff to the moment those arms close, using official information and what SpaceX has openly demonstrated so far. In the Starship system, the Super Heavy booster acts as a reusable first stage , while the Starship upper stage carries payloads and eventually people. The booster is roughly 71 meters (232 feet) tall with a 9 meter diameter and 33 Raptor engines, and the full stack reaches about 123 meters (403 feet), so the catch system is dealing with hardware that is closer to a building than a car. Keeping that in mind helps the rest o...
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From Ocean Recovery to Tower Catch — How SpaceX Brings Boosters Back

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Author: The Principle Lab From Ocean Recovery to Tower Catch — How SpaceX Brings Boosters Back If you only see quick clips on social media, booster recovery can look like magic. One video shows spray kicking up in the ocean, another shows a rocket standing on a ship, and newer tests show a giant tower trying to grab a stage out of the air. It is easy to wonder whether someone is literally fishing Starship out of the sea. This piece walks through how SpaceX actually handles its boosters today: early ocean splashdowns, Falcon 9-style reusability with pads and drone ships, and the new tower catch experiments for Super Heavy. Along the way we will clear up the most common confusion point: what you are really looking at when a clip seems to show a booster being dragged out of the water. Quick summary if you just want the gist Here is the short version in one screen: early Starship ...
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How Big the Starship Booster Really Is and How Long Refurbishing Takes

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Author: The Principle Lab How Big the Starship Booster Really Is and How Long Refurbishing Takes If you watched the recent test where SpaceX's tower arms caught the returning stage, it probably did not feel like a small booster at all. You were looking at a first stage that is closer to a skyscraper than to a model rocket, and that scale is exactly why people keep asking how on Earth it can ever be reused. This piece sticks to the engineering side: how big the Super Heavy booster actually is in numbers, how it fits into the full Starship stack, and what refurbishment means in practice for a reusable booster. No launch prices, no business forecasts — just hardware, physics, and operations. Quick summary if you only have a minute Here is the short version before we zoom in on the details. If you just want to know what you are looking at when that booster swings back into the l...
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Why SpaceX Catches the Starship Booster Instead of Just Landing It

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Author: The Principle Lab Why SpaceX Catches the Starship Booster Instead of Just Landing It If you have watched Falcon 9 stick those pinpoint landings, it is natural to think, “So why not just do the same thing with Starship?” You see a tall stainless-steel booster coming back toward the pad and your brain fills in the rest: add bigger legs, reuse it, done. The reality is a bit stranger and a lot more engineering-driven. Starship’s Super Heavy booster is built for full and rapid reusability , not just survival, and SpaceX’s own description of the system explicitly talks about returning both stages to the launch site to be caught by the ground infrastructure instead of resting on their own legs. That design choice ripples through mass, cost, turnaround time, and even how NASA plans to use Starship for Artemis missions. Quick summary if you are scrolling on the bus Here is the s...
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