In engineering feat, mechanical SpaceX arms catch Starship rocket booster back at launch pad
Washington, Oct 13: SpaceX pulled off the boldest test flight yet of its enormous Starship rocket on Sunday, catching the returning booster back at the launch pad with mechanical arms.
A jubilant Elon Musk called it “science fiction without the fiction part”.
Towering almost 400 feet (121 metres), the empty Starship blasted off at sunrise from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border. It arced over the Gulf of Mexico like the four Starships before it that ended up being destroyed, either soon after liftoff or while ditching into the sea. The previous one in June had been the most successful until Sunday's demo, completing its flight without exploding.
This time, Musk, SpaceX's CEO and founder, upped the challenge for the rocket that he plans to use to send people back to the moon and on to Mars.
At the flight director's command, the first-stage booster flew back to the launch pad where it had blasted off seven minutes earlier. The launch tower's monstrous metal arms, dubbed chopsticks, caught the descending 232-foot (71-metre) booster and gripped it tightly, dangling it well above the ground.
“The tower has caught the rocket!!” Musk announced via X. “Big step towards making life multiplanetary was made today.”
Company employees screamed in joy, jumping and pumping their fists into the air as the stainless steel booster slowly lowered itself into the launch tower's arms. NASA joined in the celebration, with Administrator Bill Nelson sending congratulations.
“Even in this day and age, what we just saw is magic,” SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot observed from near the launch site. “I am shaking right now.”
“Folks, this is a day for the engineering history books,” added engineering manager Kate Tice from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
An hour later, the empty spacecraft that was launched atop the booster made a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean as planned, adding to the day's achievement.
It was up to the flight director to decide, in real time with a manual control, whether to attempt the landing. SpaceX said both the booster and launch tower had to be in good, stable condition. Otherwise, it was going to end up in the gulf like the previous ones. Everything was judged to be ready for the catch.
The retro-looking stainless steel spacecraft on top continued around the world once it was free of the booster. Cameras on a buoy in the Indian Ocean showed flames shooting up from the water as the booster impacted precisely at the targeted spot and sank, as planned.
“What a day,” Huot said. “Let's get ready for the next one.”
The June flight came up short at the end after pieces came off. SpaceX upgraded the software and reworked the heat shield, improving the thermal tiles.
SpaceX has been recovering the first-stage boosters of its smaller Falcon 9 rockets for nine years, after delivering satellites and crews to orbit from Florida or California. But they land on floating ocean platforms or on concrete slabs several miles from their launch pads — not on them.
Recycling Falcon boosters has sped up the launch rate and saved SpaceX millions. Musk intends to do the same for Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built with 33 methane-fuel engines on the booster alone. NASA has ordered two Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade. SpaceX intends to use Starship to send people and supplies to the moon and, eventually Mars.
Booster starts in top right corner. Watch to the end. Sound on pic.twitter.com/jS70tHLNcr
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EC must clarify on questions raised by Congress about EVMs: Kapil Sibal
New Delhi, Oct 13: Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday said the Election Commission must clarify on the questions raised by the Congress about EVMs in the recently-concluded Haryana Assembly polls.
Sibal asserted he is of the opinion that misuse of EVMs does take place in the elections.
The Congress had on Friday submitted more complaints to the Election Commission alleging discrepancies in the electronic voting machines during counting of votes for the Haryana Assembly elections.
The Congress candidates from 20 assembly constituencies, in their written complaints to the Election Commission (EC), have alleged that the batteries in some of the EVMs were charged at 99 per cent during counting on October 8.
The complaints follow the Congress' shock defeat in the assembly elections after the party failed to win a simple majority even after 10 years of the BJP rule in Haryana.
Asked about the allegations, Sibal said, "The questions that the Congress has raised about EVMs, it is providing proof to the Election Commission on it. So, I do not know much about it but the EC must give a clarification on it. I think misuse of EVMs does happen, to what extent it happens, I cannot say."
"From the beginning I am against this. I have given many statements in the past. What is opaque must not be accepted," the former Congress leader and Independent Rajya Sabha MP added.
The Congress has said the assembly polls results were "unexpected" and have alleged discrepancies in the EVMs in some seats.
"In furtherance of the issues raised and the representation submitted to the Election Commission of India on 9th October, we have now submitted an updated memo highlighting serious and glaring irregularities in the election process in 20 assembly constituencies in Haryana. We hope that the Election Commission will take notice and issue the appropriate directives," AICC general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh, had said in a post on X on Friday.
"We request you to urgently take action on the enclosed complaints and ensure that all the EVMs from these constituencies are immediately sealed. It is further requested that a detailed inquiry is initiated on our complaints and the same is completed in a time bound manner," the party memorandum to the EC has said.
Some of the Congress candidates in their written complaints, now forwarded to the EC, have alleged that while most EVMs were charged at below 80 per cent during counting, some had a charge of 99 per cent.
"It is to be noted that EVM battery percentage raises serious doubt regarding election results, as the Congress candidates are winning in most EVM machines counting where battery percentage was below 80 per cent," a Congress candidate said.
Senior Congress leaders had met the EC officials last Wednesday and handed over seven complaints in writing. They had said that they would submit more such complaints in detail from some of its other candidates.
In the memorandum to the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners, the Congress has said, "One of the issues faced by a significant number of our candidates was in relation to EVMs and their Battery Capacity."
It said these EVMs were used for counting of votes polled during the assembly elections conducted on October 5.
