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Watch SpaceX catch Starship Super Heavy booster with ‘chopsticks’ in this animation

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Watch SpaceX catch Starship Super Heavy booster with ‘chopsticks’ in this animation

A new SpaceX video gives us a glimpse of the future — the very near future, perhaps.

Late last week, Elon Musk‘s company posted on X a 60-second animation showing Super Heavy — the first stage of SpaceX’s giant new Starship rocket — coming back down to Earth after a liftoff. 

SpaceX has made rocket landings relatively routine, commonly bringing back the first stages of its workhorse Falcon 9 and powerful Falcon Heavy vehicles. But the touchdown in the animation is different: It’s a midair catch performed by the “chopstick” arms of the huge launch tower at Starbase, SpaceX’s site in South Texas.

Still from an animation showing a SpaceX Starship Super Heavy booster being caught by the “chopstick” arms of its launch tower after a liftoff. (Image credit: SpaceX)

And that is indeed what SpaceX plans to do on launches of the 400-foot-tall (122 meters) Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. Bringing Super Heavy back down directly on the launch mount will allow SpaceX to refurbish and relaunch the vehicle much more efficiently, Musk has said.

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