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Comment by modeless | original | SpaceX catches the Starship to end Flight 15
[−]modeless · 2026-11-14 Sat 22:30 UTC · link
Starship HLS has landing gear. For Earth landings everything is so marginal that the weight penalty of landing gear is too high.
[−]pfdietz · 2026-11-14 Sat 23:39 UTC · link
Also, landing it on the chopsticks makes rapid turnaround easier.
[−]m4rtink · 2026-11-15 Sun 00:08 UTC · link
Yeah, the chopstics mechanism is just so elegant in the end!

It can catch both stages & be used to stack the thing as well, simple and genius!

[−]hinkley · 2026-11-15 Sun 00:59 UTC · link
It’s probably better to think of it on the spectrum of “atmosphere-rated” vessels. Ships landing in zero-g don’t need feet, they need clamping surfaces. Atmosphere rated might need both, depending on usage. The is just an almost atmosphere rated craft. If the moon and mars weren’t covered with horrible dust we could have it land on feet. But it is instead some of the worst dust in the solar system so we would have to catch it even there wasn’t a big weight pensly for carrying it around.