SpaceX just Declared Big Decision on Starship Flight 9 Landing Plan Changed!

SpaceX just Declared Big Decision on Starship Flight 9 Landing Plan Changed!
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SpaceX just Declared Big Decision on Starship Flight 9 Landing Plan Changed!
Catching a Super Heavy booster with the launch tower, it’s one of the boldest and most impressive moves SpaceX has ever pulled off.
And after nearly half a year since the last attempt in Flight 8, the space community has been eagerly waiting to witness that wonderful moment again in the upcoming Starship Flight 10.
However, in fact, there won’t be any catch attempt this time, because SpaceX has officially changed the plan for the mission.
So, why did SpaceX make this unexpected decision?
Let’s find out in today’s episode of Alpha Tech.
SpaceX just Declared Big Decision on Starship Flight 9 Landing Plan Changed!
Recently, an internal source revealed that SpaceX won’t be attempting a tower catch for Super Heavy Booster 16 during Starship Flight 10 later this month.
Instead, the booster will perform a soft splashdown, with a high risk of exploding on impact, in the Gulf, similar to what was originally planned for Booster 14, which flew for the second time in Flight 9.
The booster on this flight test is attempting several flight experiments to gather real-world performance data on future flight profiles and off-nominal scenarios. The Super Heavy booster will attempt these experiments while on a trajectory to an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America and will not return to the launch site for catch.
SpaceX just Declared Big Decision on Starship Flight 9 Landing Plan Changed!
Now, that might sound expensive, and it kind of goes against the company’s core philosophy of optimizing costs. Because unlike Booster 14, which was flown again to test and prove the concept of reusability, Booster 16 is a completely brand-new vehicle.
Its estimated production cost? Around $63 million. And nearly half of that comes from the 33 Raptor engines alone, by far the most valuable part of the rocket.
With a brand-new booster in hand, SpaceX could’ve easily gone for another dramatic tower catch with Mechazilla , especially since they’ve already pulled it off twice in a row during Flights 7 and 8.
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