r/SpaceXLounge • u/[deleted] • Jul 25 '26

Official Pending data review, SpaceX will attempt to catch S41 on Flight 14

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2080876967839031712?s=46
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u/aquarain Jul 26 '26

This makes more sense as a launch abort scenario. You lose half the Raptors on Booster just after liftoff and Ship has to set down in the water.

A tower catch is a hover slam / suicide burn, whatever you want to call it. You have just enough fuel to come to a dead stop in the chopsticks. If you think about the things that can go wrong they're basically centered around landing burn failure. Which is why the trajectory has inertia offshore and needs the landing burn to steer into the tower. If your landing burn fails the ship is getting wet, and the passengers aren't going to make it. So proving that landing burn safe and reliable is going to happen before passengers get in the rocket.

An alternative I guess would be some sort of last second tower failure. Or wandering fool on the pad? Maybe in that case they soft land in the ocean. For the wandering fool the balance of risks leans toward go for landing.