On January 11, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, unveiled a future launch and capture tower for recovering the next generation of Starship.
▲ Starship launches and captures towers
For SpaceX, the recovery of the first stage rocket is an important part of its ability to achieve rocket reuse and reduce costs. Previously, SpaceX used two methods: land recovery and offshore unmanned ship recycling, and most of the time using marine recovery. In the future, SpaceX plans to use launch/capture towers to recover Starship.
Musk unveiled the "Starship Launch and Capture Tower" on Sunday, showing off its structure, with a robotic arm on it to escort the Starship away from the tower, but also to grab it when the Falcon Heavy booster returns. Musk refers to this robotic arm as the "Mechazilla."
The launch and capture tower is located at SpaceX's Texas Star Base and is under development. At the same time, SpaceX is also working to send the Starship prototype into orbit for the first time, but is still waiting for the FEDERAL Aviation Administration to launch permission.
![The astronauts used the mechanical arm 4 times out of the cabin 4 times, and the "Ren Dou Second Pulse" has been passed, and the final test is still left[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)