SpaceX installs rocket-catching arms on Starship’s Florida launch tower

Wednesday, February 1, 2023 | Chimniii Desk

The company has been building the second of several planned Starship launch sites for more than three years. Work on that pad began before the company started building the pad that will support Starship's first orbital launch attempts. A stone's throw from the Gulf of Mexico in Boca Chica, Texas, the first iteration of SpaceX's Starbase orbital launch site is nearly complete and could host Starship's launch debut in a matter of months.

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Starship LC-39A! CHOPSTICKSS pic.twitter.com/BU1wCkfqSx

— SpaceX, ULA, Rocket Lab and SLS Are all cool (@McOfficialPlays) January 26, 2023

The first Florida OLS broke ground in late 2019. The company had to abandon about a year of work by the end of 2020 due to the redesign of the rocket and ground systems. The second iteration of the first Florida pad was built by SpaceX. OLS #2 is located at Kennedy Space Center's LC-39A pad, which is leased from NASA.

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Pad 39A is the only site currently capable of launching the Crew Dragon and Falcon Heavy rockets, which has complicated its plans to use the same pad for the LC-39A. Significant progress has been made by the company. In 13 months, SpaceX has created foundations, modified one of Pad 39A's giant spherical tanks to store cryogenic methane, installed miles of plumbing, built and assembled a second skyscraper-sized Starship launch tower, and installed the legs of the pad'sorbital launch mount. The arms are affectionately referred to as "chopsticks" by the employees of the company.

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The simplest part of the combined launch tower and arms is a third arm that can swing left and right. The swing arm has plumbing and a device that connects to the upper stage. The tower'schopsticks are much more complex. Three of the tower's four legs are grabbed onto by a carriage with a dozen skate-like appendages.

Those skates are equipped with wheels, which allow the carriage to roll up and down tracks built into the tower's legs. Starship 24 is lifted onto Super Heavy Booster 7 by the first Mechazilla. The swing arm connects to Starship. Before and after testing, the catch arms are used.

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The carriage is connected by steel cable to a heavy-duty draw works that are capable of hoisting the multi-hundred-ton assembly up and down the tower. Even in windy conditions, the Florida tower's arms will be able to precisely lift, maneuver, stack, and de-stack Super Heavy. At some point in the future, SpaceX may attempt to use its towers and chopsticks to catch Super Heavies out of mid-air and speed up reuse. It will take a long time for the company to demonstrate that the rocket can reach space.

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The Super Heavy booster and orbital Starship upper stage are supposed to be used for the recovery and reuse of up to 150 metric tons. Starship will be the most capable rocket in history even with the major performance penalties that full reusability entails. The most capable rocket ever flown was fully expendable and could launch up to 118 metric tons (260,000 lbs) into space. It is likely that the Pad 39A launch site will be ready and waiting as soon as NASA gives the green light..