Elon Musk thinks that Space Exploration Technologies Corp.‘s (NASDAQ:SPCX) Starship rocket could be caught by the company’s “Mechazilla” launch and catch tower in the coming months.
A Fork in the Road For Space Travel
On Wednesday, the billionaire quoted a post by user @r0ck3t23 on the social media platform X, which outlined Musk’s concerns about achieving full rocket reusability; a milestone that has been touted as difficult to achieve. “Looks like we will probably catch the ship [Starship] with the tower in a few months,” Musk said.
Musk added that if there were a tower at sea where SpaceX had practiced landing the ship, “it would have been caught.” He then said that the Starship’s first reflight, that is, flying the same ship again, will “be either end of this year or early next.” Musk touted the attempt as “a fork in the road of history for consciousness reaching the stars.”
Musk had earlier said that SpaceX would attempt to catch the Starship rocket’s upper stage in the next flight test in a post on X in late July. “Unless we discover problems after mission data review, SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower on next flight,” he said.
