Published:
10 one 2022 19:50 GMT
The robotic system aims to make all elements of the company’s future missions fully recoverable.
The executive director of SpaceX, Elon Musk, shared last Sunday through his Twitter account a video that shows the progress in the tests of the robotic mechanism designed to capture the shuttles and spacecraft on their return to Earth, which is building at the company’s facilities in Boca Chica, South Texas, USA.
The purpose of the system is to reduce the costs of transporting crews and cargo in future SpaceX missions to destinations such as the Moon and Mars, allowing use fully recoverable items.
Unlike the marine platforms currently used by SpaceX to land rockets at sea, the new mechanism named by Musk himself as ‘Mechazilla’ – an apparent combination of ‘mechanic’ and ‘Godzilla’ – foresees trap rockets and spacecraft in the air with the help of movable arms of the tower.
At the beginning of this year, the company’s engineers started to put the equipment of this project.
The first launch with the help of this system was planned for January or February of this year, but it has been postponed until at least March due to the ongoing evaluation process of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
However, in that first opportunity the recovery of the Super Heavy B4 shuttle and the Starship S20 spacecraft is not included, which following completing their mission will return to Earth in the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, respectively.
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