For the second time, SpaceX assembled their two-stage Starship rocket in Texas.
However, this time SpaceX used building-sized arms installed on the Starbase launch tower to lift the massive upper stage onto the Super Heavy booster.
This is the first time that SpaceX used the “chopsticks” to install the second stage.
The giant robot did well and only paused once during the ascent.
The arms held the Starship S20 for about an hour before starting the ascent for testing purposes.
The total operation including the lifting the Starship S20 to stacking it on top of the Super Heavy booster only took three hours.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2022
Further to this, hardly any uncontrollable movement was visible from videos on the web. There was virtually no swaying, even with the minimal wind.
The company was working towards this moment for several weeks. However, it was not always clear sailing as SpaceX had to deal with multiple days of troubleshooting and false-starts.
SpaceX did weeks of proof-testing with waterbags to ensure that the chopsticks could do their job perfectly.
Although we are unsure how much use the chopsticks will get, the technical achievement is impressive.
You can check out some of the videos of the event down below.
