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IT Home reported on August 18 that while waiting for the FAA to approve the fifth Starship test flight plan, SpaceX is busy testing its launch pad and tower arm to try to capture the super heavy rocket booster after the fifth test flight. The upcoming Starship test will attempt the extremely risky tower arm capture for the first time. The latest Starship update released by SpaceX earlier this month stated that it will continue to fine-tune this procedure while waiting for the FAA to evaluate its Starship fifth test flight application.

IT Home noted that SpaceX first began testing the booster capture function of the launch tower arm in June, when they delivered a portion of the rocket booster to the launch pad for testing. In these tests, the tower arm, known as the "chopstick," repeatedly hit the side of the cylinder in an attempt to simulate a successful capture. According to local media reports, one of the tower arms was replaced after this test.

Now, as it awaits FAA approval for Starship's fifth test flight, SpaceX has resumed risk capture testing of the tower arm. Earlier this week, they delivered the booster section to the launch pad and tested it with the tower arm before removing it from the tower and returning it to the production and assembly facility earlier today.

Video footage from local media showed the tower arm undergoing at least six tests during the latest run, including several simulated tests over booster sections and others trying to get as close to the cylinder as possible without colliding.

The upcoming fifth Starship test, which could take place later this month or early September, has already seen multiple static fires of the rocket's second stage. Despite having flown four full flights, SpaceX has yet to demonstrate an orbital engine ignition of the second stage. The fifth Starship test flight could see this key test,If both the tower capture and the engine ignition are successful, SpaceX will have made progress at several key points in rocket development.

In recent tower capture tests, SpaceX also tested the tower's vertical movement, simulating a booster component moving up and down between the two towers. In some tests, both towers moved simultaneously, while in other tests, only one tower was close to the cylinder.

It is worth noting that the Super Heavy booster and the second stage successfully achieved a soft landing for the first time during the fourth flight of the Starship. If this process is repeated during the fifth flight, SpaceX may bring the second stage back to the launch site after the sixth flight. The second stage is the world's first rocket designed to be fully reusable, aiming to significantly reduce launch costs and speed up continuous launches to achieve the plan of eventually colonizing Mars.