SpaceX has made incredible strides in rocket technology, especially with its Starship and Super Heavy booster. While landing the Super Heavy on the launch tower with the robotic Mechazilla catcher has become almost routine, SpaceX is now pushing the envelope by developing reliable drone ship landings for the Super Heavy booster. This ambitious goal is set to revolutionize recovery operations, boost launch cadence, and improve overall mission reliability.

In this post, we’ll explore why SpaceX’s focus on drone ship landings is a game changer, the technical challenges they face, and how recent upgrades are bringing this vision closer to reality.

Why SpaceX Wants Super Heavy Booster Drone Ship Landings

Currently, if the Super Heavy booster cannot land on the launch tower, it must splash down in the ocean. This presents major issues:

Delayed recovery as ships must be dispatched to retrieve the booster.
Corrosion and damage caused by saltwater exposure to sensitive components.
Disrupted launch schedules because the booster can’t be quickly refurbished.

SpaceX’s mission to create a fully reusable rocket system depends on efficient booster recovery. Landing on drone ships — a technique perfected with Falcon 9 — offers a safer, faster, and more flexible solution.

SpaceX’s Bold Test: High Angle of Attack Landing Experiment

What Happened During Flight 9?

On May 27th, 2025, SpaceX assigned Booster 14 a risky mission to land on a drone ship using a steep angle of attack during re-entry. This method:

Increases aerodynamic drag to slow descent.
Saves valuable fuel for the critical landing burn.
Tests booster stability under extreme conditions.

At about 1,000 meters above the drone ship, the booster falls at roughly 100 m/s (360 km/h). To land safely, SpaceX reignites three Raptor engines, throttling down to two during the final burn, consuming thousands of liters of methalox per second. Precision control is crucial on a small 50×50 meter landing pad.

Simulating Engine Failures

During this flight, SpaceX also deliberately simulated an engine-out scenario by disabling one of the center engines. This was a crucial test of Super Heavy’s ability to survive real-world engine failures during landing. Unfortunately, the booster lost contact during landing and experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly — an explosive failure.

How SpaceX Fixed Fuel Flow Issues with the Fuel Transfer Tube

The failure revealed a critical issue: the steep angle disrupted propellant flow to the Raptor engines, starving them of fuel mid-burn.

What is the Fuel Transfer Tube?

To solve this, SpaceX introduced a major redesign in Super Heavy Block 3, adding an internal fuel transfer tube:

A massive, insulated pipe nearly 3 meters in diameter and 20-25 meters long.
Functions like a secondary fuel tank, evenly distributing liquid oxygen and methane to all 33 Raptor engines.
Maintains stable fuel flow even during rapid flips and high-G maneuvers.
Prevents dangerous pressure drops that could cause engine flameouts.

This upgrade is essential for enabling reliable drone ship landings by ensuring the booster’s engines have continuous propellant supply despite violent motions during descent.

Benefits of Drone Ship Landings for Super Heavy Boosters

Landing Super Heavy on drone ships offers numerous advantages:

Safety First

Keeps risky landings away from populated areas.
The ocean naturally absorbs noise, vibrations, and heat.
Minimizes community impact, reducing legal and environmental hurdles.

Operational Flexibility

Drone ships can be moved anywhere along the flight path.
Optimizes trajectories and reduces fuel usage.
Supports complex missions and faster launch cadences.

Vast Ocean Space

Provides a large, flexible area for landings.
Avoids the limitations of fixed ground infrastructure.
Enhances mission safety by reducing collision risks.

Challenges with Drone Ship Landings

Despite these benefits, drone ship landings also pose challenges:

Recovery Logistics

Returning a drone ship with Super Heavy onboard takes days.
Slower refurbishment compared to land recovery.

Transport and Protection

SpaceX is exploring horizontal delivery methods to transport Starship safely on the ocean.
This reduces structural stress and weather exposure during transit.

Landing Gear and Platform Design

Mechazilla towers cannot currently be mounted on floating platforms.
Deployable landing legs for sea landings are under consideration.
A new, larger, and reinforced drone ship is needed to support the size and weight of Starship and Super Heavy together.

The History and Future of SpaceX Floating Landing Platforms

SpaceX initially planned to convert two oil rigs, Phobos and Deimos, into floating landing pads but later scrapped the project to focus on Mechazilla towers. However, with recent advances, SpaceX might revisit the idea or build new drone ships capable of supporting the massive Starship system.

Looking Ahead: What’s Next for Super Heavy Booster Landings?

SpaceX will likely continue high angle re-entry tests with upcoming boosters.
Further engine-out failure simulations will improve safety.
New drone ship designs will be introduced to handle the enormous booster mass.
The ultimate goal: routine, safe, and rapid drone ship landings for Super Heavy boosters to enable more frequent space missions.

Conclusion: SpaceX’s Revolutionary Approach to Starship Booster Landings

SpaceX’s efforts to perfect Super Heavy drone ship landings represent one of the most ambitious engineering challenges in rocketry. With innovations like the fuel transfer tube, daring flight tests, and advanced landing infrastructure, SpaceX is on the cusp of transforming how rockets return to Earth.

This breakthrough will speed up recovery, reduce costs, and support the company’s vision of making space travel affordable and sustainable.

Stay tuned as 2025 unfolds — SpaceX’s insane Starship booster landing experiments are set to change spaceflight forever.

Did you enjoy this deep dive into SpaceX’s landing technology? Share your thoughts or questions in the comments below!

FAQs

1. What is the Super Heavy booster?

The Super Heavy booster is the powerful first stage of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, equipped with 33 Raptor engines, designed to lift the Starship spacecraft into orbit.

2. Why is SpaceX developing drone ship landings for Super Heavy?

Drone ship landings provide a safer, faster, and more flexible recovery method than ocean splashdowns, improving launch cadence and reducing damage from saltwater exposure.

3. What is Mechazilla?

Mechazilla is SpaceX’s giant launch tower with robotic arms designed to catch the Super Heavy booster right on the launch pad, enabling rapid reuse.

4. How does the fuel transfer tube help in booster landings?

The fuel transfer tube is a large internal pipe that stabilizes and evenly distributes propellant to all 33 engines, preventing flow disruptions during rapid maneuvers and flips.

5. What happened during Super Heavy Booster 14’s drone ship landing test?

During Booster 14’s test, a steep angle re-entry caused propellant flow problems, resulting in engine failure mid-landing burn and a rapid disassembly of the booster.

6. Why is landing on a drone ship safer than landing on land?

Landing at sea keeps risk away from people and infrastructure, with the ocean absorbing noise, vibrations, and impact forces.

7. What are the challenges of drone ship landings?

Challenges include slower recovery times, transporting the rocket safely, designing deployable landing legs, and building a drone ship strong enough to handle the massive booster.

8. How does SpaceX control the landing burn of the Super Heavy booster?

SpaceX reignites multiple Raptor engines and finely adjusts thrust between 50-100% to slow the booster’s speed from around 100 m/s to near zero at touchdown.

9. Why is the high angle of attack important during re-entry?

The high angle of attack increases aerodynamic drag to slow the booster and helps maintain stability during descent, saving fuel for landing.

10. What is horizontal delivery, and why is it important?

Horizontal delivery involves tipping the landed Starship from vertical to horizontal on the drone ship, easing transport and protecting it from waves and wind.

11. Why can’t Mechazilla be used on drone ships yet?

The massive and complex Mechazilla tower is currently designed for fixed ground infrastructure and is not practical to install on floating platforms.

12. What was the purpose of SpaceX buying old oil rigs Phobos and Deimos?

SpaceX planned to convert these rigs into floating landing pads for Super Heavy to keep landings away from populated areas but later scrapped the project.

13. How does propellant sloshing affect drone ship landings?

Sloshing can cause uneven fuel distribution and pressure drops, risking engine flameouts; the fuel transfer tube helps mitigate this.

14. How much fuel do Raptor engines consume during landing burns?

Each engine burns between 300 and 500 liters of methalox per second during landing, consuming thousands of liters in mere seconds.

15. What upgrades are included in Starship Block 3 and Super Heavy Block 3?

Upgrades include redesigned internal fuel tank architecture, the fuel transfer tube, and systems to improve drone ship landing stability and reliability.

16. Why does SpaceX prefer drone ship landings over ocean splashdowns?

Drone ship landings reduce corrosion risk, speed up recovery, and allow for rapid reuse, aligning with SpaceX’s goal of efficient rocket operations.

17. When can we expect Super Heavy to land successfully on a drone ship?

SpaceX is actively testing and refining the process in 2025, with hopes of achieving successful routine drone ship landings soon.

SpaceX is Doing Something Insane with Starship Booster Landing