Starship Booster Catch System Record

Starship Booster Catch System Record

The public Flight 5 record supports a phase-level explanation of the Super Heavy catch. It does not support invention of proprietary details.

After hot staging, the booster performed a boostback burn and coasted toward the return corridor. Before a catch could be attempted, vehicle and pad criteria had to pass. Super Heavy then performed its landing burn and entered the launch and catch tower interface, where the arms received the booster through its catch hardware.

System boundary

The purpose can be explained at a high level. Removing landing hardware from the returning booster can shift hardware and recovery functions to the ground system. A successful catch can also place the booster at the launch site.

Public copy should not claim a specific payload gain, turnaround time, landing-leg mass, abort trajectory, arm-closing algorithm, tolerance, or structural load without a source.

One catch is an engineering milestone. Reliability requires repeated attempts across conditions, inspection evidence, anomalies, maintenance, and operational use.