SpaceX has a fail-safe plan for Starship 5 booster recovery

SpaceX is ready to catch the Starship Flight 5 Super Heavy booster with the launch tower and has a fail-safe plan if anything goes wrong.

The primary objective for this flight is to recover the first stage and catch it with tower arms after landing burn. The rocket maker has been testing these arms AKA chopsticks since June and improved the test frequency after announcing the flight readiness in August.

During flight 4, SpaceX completed all milestones with the booster stage and splashed it down in the Gulf of Mexico. The data captured from that flight has helped the company to attempt a recovery with Flight 5.

SpaceX has confirmed that many new upgrades are made to the launch vehicle’s hardware and software. Similar advancements were also made to the launch tower.

Engineers and the launch team on the ground have performed numerous sessions of catch practice and opening and closing sequences of the tower arms.

These tests could eventually contribute to the success but what are the chances? Based on previous catch practices, SpaceX has a high chance of recovering the first stage but we can’t refuse a chance of failure in the initial attempt.

Launch Tower lifting off Starship booster for catch practice (Source – SpaceX)

Fail-Safe

SpaceX has laid out safety criteria around the launch pad, which should be fulfilled to process the catch attempt. It will require healthy systems on the booster and the tower and a manual command from the mission’s flight director.

If this command is not sent prior to the completion of the boostback burn, or if automated health checks show unacceptable conditions with the booster or the tower, the first stage will default to a trajectory that takes it to a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

That is quite a fail-safe plan SpaceX has for Starship Flight 5 but the company awaits FAA approval to see this test in action.